Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Written by: Enzo G. Castellari, Nico Ducci, George Eastman, Mino Roli
Cast: Franco Nero, Woody Strode, William Berger, Donald O’Brien

Year / Country: 1976, Italy
Running Time: 97 mins.

Besides the legendary spaghetti westerns by Sergio Leone, that due to their lyricism and sense of dimension, became true cinema classics, the genre consists almost solely of B-pictures. This B-genre started in 1966 with the release of Sergio Corbucci’s Django. This classic cult movie shaped the format of the genre with its mysterious hero driven by revenge, excessive violence, a limited budget and the absence of realism.

Exactly ten years later, Keoma was made, one of the last notable films of its genre. Like in Django, spaghetti star Franco Nero stars in the title role. The movie is also known as Django Rides Again, while it has nothing to do with the Django series. The producers probably wanted to cash in on this household name, just like approximately thirty other pseudo sequels and lousy spin-offs tried to do.

But Keoma is not a lousy film, on the contrary. It’s quite the action-western with Nero once again portraying a strong character. The half-breed Indian Keoma returns from civil war only to find his hometown in chaos and controlled by an evil gang led by the sadistic Caldwell. Keoma takes on Caldwell’s scum that includes his own three half brothers. He gets help only from his father and a black man named George, an outcast like Keoma, played by genre icon Woody Strode.

Through flashbacks we learn more about Keoma’s childhood. He was never accepted because of his Indian background. The racism in the film contributes to the movie’s depressing atmosphere. Other factors contributing to this are the hellish images of plague victims and general destruction. The dark, unpleasant atmosphere is enhanced by the wailing score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis.

But Keoma isn’t that deep into deeper meaning. The action is what makes it stick. The slow-motion gunplay, a specialty of director Enzo Castellari, is done masterfully. While the film may be a little too dark and serious, and miss the irony and sarcasm of Leone’s films, it is a supreme spaghetti in terms of uncompromising action. A worthy finale to a glorious period.

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Biography: Enzo G. Castellari (1938, Rome) was born as Enzo Girolami, son of cult-director Marino Girolami (Zombi Holocaust). In the seventies and eighties he made a large number of exploitation movies. Most of them were low cost productions, but by using slow-motion and special editing techniques, Castellari differentiated his movies from the pure trash flicks. After the downfall of the Italian B-movie industry during the late eighties, Castellari turned to television like many of his colleagues did.

Filmography (a selection): Go Kill and Come Back (1967), Seven Winchesters for a Massacre (1967), That Dirty Story of the West (1968), Battle Squadron (1969), Cold Eyes of Fear (1971), Con Men (1972), High Crime (1973), Keoma (1976), The Big Racket (1976), The Heroin Busters (1977), The Inglorious Bastards (1978), Shark (1981), Bronx Warriors (1982), Bronx Warriors 2 (1993), Tuareg: The Desert Warrior (1984), Hammerhead (1987), Extralarge: Moving Target (190, TV), Extralarge: Black Magic (1991, TV), Jonathan of the Bears (1993)