Bounty hunter John Corbett (Lee Van Cleef) tracks a Mexican man named Cuchillo (Tomas Milian) who's accused of raping and murdering a 12 year-old girl. He finds Cuchillo to be much more difficult to capture than he anticipated and eventually realizes he may be innocent of the crime.Probably the greatest spaghetti western not made by Sergio Leone. Lee Van Cleef is as charismatic and tough as ever. Tomas Milian is fun and charming, managing to hold his own against Van Cleef's strong screen presence. The action is exciting, the cinematography beautiful, and the script is smart and gritty. The great Ennio Morricone contributes the score and it's among his best work, which is saying a lot. It's an excellent film that's not without some flaws but has enough style and a better than average amount of substance for a spaghetti western to make it worth recommending to anybody.

One of the best and possibly the greatest Spaghetti Western ever made. The Big Gundown (or La Resa Dei Conti) is a marvelous example of how not every Spaghetti Western without Sergio Leone was bad. The film has a superb cast with two great stars for westerns, and a great script. The film is a powerhouse to other films, but no one sees it.Sergio Sollima's film is a film that has been forgotten throughout the years. People only remember Spaghetti Westerns due to The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly and Once Upon A Time In The West. This film though, does mix the two's most infamous part's of each film. Leone's Good, Bad, And ugly has an epic showdown that everyone will remember even if you have seen it once, and Leone's Once Upon a Time one has politics and social issues. The Big Gundown mixes an epic showdown towards the end of the film with and uses politics and social issues to bring toward the climax. One thing though stands out to this film, the music. Ennio Morricone's Spaghetti Western music is probably the most iconic (especially The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly). But, Morricone's music is more of his finer work. His work for Leone is considered gold, but this is a piece of lost gold. Just the opening titles really get you pumped up, and the showdown music towards the end with the Butler and Cuchillo is marvelous. But, then there is the other showdown music with the Baron from Austria and Corbert. The music for that scene mixes Beethoven with Western showdown.If you're looking for a film to watch, especially a somewhat of a Cult Film, I recommend this with open hands. It is a great film, it isn't as long as Leone's pictures, but it is intense. There is probably no other Non-Leone Spaghetti Western out there that comes close. I hope you enjoy this film.

Director Sergio Sollima's Tex/Mex manhunt horse opera "The Big Gundown" qualifies as an above-average Spaghetti western with more elements of irony and social conscienceness than most Italian oaters rustle up. Scenarist Sergio Donati, who contributed to the Sergio Leone epics "For A Few Dollars More" and "Once Upon A Time in the West" intertwines the themes of intolerance, racism, and greed in his literate screenplay bristling with surprises and reversals. Furthermore, Donati and Sollima give the protagonist and the antagonist several engrossing dialogue exchanges that heighten the conflict between them. Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian are evenly matched as hero versus villain. Ennio Morricone provides another classic orchestral score with a compellingly philosophical title tune warbled by Christy. As usual, the Spanish terrain substitutes splendidly for the parched southwest frontier setting.Basically, the story depicts the search for a footloose Mexican drifter who has been accused of raping and murdering a 12-year old girl. This happens while the hero, Jonathan Corbett (Lee Van Cleef of "Sabata"), is visiting the home of a wealthy, influential Texas power broker. Brokston (Walter Barnes of "Rio Bravo") admires Corbett, his tenacity and compares him with Davy Crockett. Brokston wants to run Corbett for the Texas senate so that he can obtain his support for a railroad that he dreams of building between Texas and Mexico. Brokston learns from his ranch hands about a penniless Mexican, Manuel 'Cuchillo' Sanchez (Tomas Milian of "The Mercenary") and his heinous crime. Corbett promises Brokston that he will bring the rapist back to stand trial. "The Big Gundown" amounts to a hare and the hound western with Corbett catching and then losing Cuchillo in a series of misadventures that take Cuchillo back to his native country.The best movies boast heroes and villains that evolve during the running time of the film. The Lee Van Cleef hero changes over the course of the action. He suspects that something about the crime and the criminal may not add up. Sergio Sollima and Sergio Donati pay tribute to "For A Few Dollars More" by dressing their hero so that he resembles Colonel Mortimer. Later, the showdown at the end of "The Big Gundown" when the son-in-law shoots it out with Cuchillo imitates the finale in "For A Few Dollars More" when the Man with No Name intervened and make a duel more fair.The slippery Mexican thief Cuchillo is rather thoughtful for a character of his kind. He lives by his wits and has a knack for improvisation. This trait is exemplified when he uses his feet to get a cactus thorn and scrape Corbett in the back and fooling him into believing that a snake bit him. The last shot looks like a variation on the Ricky Nelson & John Wayne scene from RIO BRAVO when Nelson pitched Wayne his Winchester repeating rifle. Here, Brokston fires away at Corbett from the top of a mountain knowing full well that no hand gun can reach him. Cuchillo notices this and kicks a Winchester up into the arms of Corbett. He knocks Brokston out of the saddle with one shot. Before they ride away to their different destinations, Cuchillo reminds Corbett that he never caught him.

Retired sheriff is persuaded by a politician to come back and hunt down a Mexican who has raped and murdered a twelve year old girl but he slowly realises the Mexican has been framed to cover up the real murderer. Good, stylish spaghetti western,this is the longer uncut version of the film and not the hacked up Amercian version that lost nearly twenty minutes of footage.This has a rather slow start and develops into a chase movie in a kind of western version of "the fugitive".Lee Van Cleef is his usual dependable self and the Ennio Morricone soundtrack is good although i'm not sure about the screeching title song!Film is good and satisfies overall.