Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2004-2025)

You're in for a Treat !

The complete version of Kill Bill (s), aka The Whole Bloody Affair, is in Selected Romanian cinemas, for a Very Limited period of time ! With an Intermission too, just overlong, who needs 15 mins??  and in Glorious Shawscope !!!

Let's be Crystal Clear on this, Kill Bill was supposed to be just one film, not two, it was separated due to duration by the infamous youknowho producer and distributor. Tarantino was a bit upset but he conformed. Then he did his own cut. Now he even extended it.  Results: a new film, better than any other version, superior in storytelling, rhythm, timing and flow. 

IMO don't stay after the overlong credits, you'll get a boneheadish animation entitled The LOST CHAPTER which makes no sesne and it;s actually a Tie-in of a video game. Go home with the 

Resume:

Kill Bill vol. 1 -2023 -1h51 = 69 % metascore nr 153 top imdb

Kill Bill vol. 2 -2004 -2h17- metascore: 83%, not in top imdb

Kill Bill; The Whole Bloody Affair -2004/2025 4h 13.-95 % metascore

Top 32 in top imdb !!!

Features the films:
The Golden Stallion -Paramont 1949
Shogun Assassin -1980

Soundtrack:
'Music a silouthette at doom' by Morricone -from Un dollaro a testa
Sunny road to Salina -Christophe 1970
The Chase -Alan Reeves
About Here with samples from Rod Argent Zombies' "She's Not There"
Goodnight Moon-Shivaree

The whole soundtrack here:
https://download-soundtracks.com/movie_soundtracks/kill-bill-whole-bloody-affair-soundtrack/

Credits:

2004 -2025 restored, Visiona Romantica

Now the differences (atken from various sources on the net):

The first change you'll notice is an extra 10 minute animated sequence that shows O-Ren Ishii getting revenge on the man that killed her parents. It's animated beautifully and gives O-Ren's character even more depth than she already had. Secondly you'll notice that the legendary fight scene at the House of Blue Leaves is now in full color. With this scene in full color you get to really see the carnage that The Bride creates. You see guys heads being chopped off and geysers of red blood bursting from their neck. You see limbs chopped off with bursts of red blood. You fully see the red blood soaked floor of the building and the red bloody water of the pond. It makes the scene so much more impactful. The third change you see, albeit a minor one, is you actually see how The Bride interrogates Sofia for information. Which of course includes her asking her questions and in turn chopping her arm off for not answering. But the last change and by far most important is at the end of Volume 1, Bill makes no mention of The Brides child still being alive. That small change not only improves Volume 1 but drastically improves Volume 2. Originally you go into Volume 2 technically ahead of The Bride as you know about her kid and she doesn't. But that small change puts us on equal footing with The Bride. It makes the scene of her coming through the door to her child not just shocking and impactful to her but to us, the audience. 
+++

The old Klingon proverb  "Revenge is a dish best served cold." shown at the beginning of the standard theatrical version of Kill Bill Vol. 1 is not present. A dedication to filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku is in its place, as was also the case in the opening of the Japanese theatrical release of Kill Bill Vol. 1.
+++

While the 2004 Cannes cut of this film has had various special screenings throughout the past two decades, Lionsgate's 2025 theatrical release is the first time this unified version of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) has become accessible to a wider audience. 

There may have been minor alterations made from the Cannes cut to Lionsgate's cut, but here are some notable differences that separate THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR from VOLUME 1 and VOLUME 2.Modern Lionsgate logo plays before VOLUME 1's original Miramax logo. [*2025 only]
The "Kill Bill" title card during the opening credits contains the subtitle "The Whole Bloody Affair".
The uncensored Japanese version of VOLUME 1 is used for the first five chapters.
In Chapter 3, an additional 7.5 minutes of content is added to VOLUME 1's anime sequence in which a 13-year-old O-Ren attempts to kill Pretty Riki in an elevator.
At the end of Chapter 5, every shot after the Bride's final exchange with Sofie from VOLUME 1 is omitted (from airplane to end credits).
Between Chapters 5 and 6, a static "INTERMISSION" title card (white text, black background) stays on screen for 15 minutes. "Lonely Shepard" plays over the first few minutes of the intermission with the remainder being silent.
Everything from the opening of VOLUME 2 that precedes Chapter 6 is omitted (from Miramax logo to "Vol. 2" title card).
In Chapter 6, the Bride's opening narration at the Two Pines chapel from VOLUME 2 is omitted.
Entire cast, crew and song list from VOLUME 1 is integrated into VOLUME 2's end credits.
The uncensored version of Yuki's Revenge (2025) plays after the credits, front-loaded with an animated lobby jingle. [*2025 only]


9 out of 10 !!! 4 1/2 out of 5 !!!


Mega-trivia:
In Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Beatrix Kiddo (The Bride) is buried alive in the grave of Paula Schultz. This is a famous Quentin Tarantino "Easter Egg" connecting the film to Django Unchained (2012), as Paula Schultz is believed to be the deceased wife of Dr. King Schultz.
This video explains the connection between the grave of Paula Schultz in Kill Bill and Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained.

RIP Mario Adorf

Mario Adorf, the Swiss cult actor that died on April 8th 2026 was 95. His father was an Italian surgeon, his mother a German nurse.

He acted in over 200 films, played grand theatre, wrote bestsellers. La Piovra's Acidduzzu (for the Romanians), spaghetti westerns (Gli Specialisti/The Specialists), giallos  (L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo), polizioteschi (Milano Calibro 9), but also Alfred Matzerath in Die Blechtrommel for the arthouse and posterity. Winner of the Leopard Career Award in 2016.

Cultiest movie: Deadlock (1970)

met him briefly in Cannes in 2013 after the screening of Billy Wilder's Fedora. 

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2013/05/c66-mario.html

RIP Drew Struzan

Drew Struzan, the man who designed some of the most iconic posters in the history of Movieland, for over 150 films. From the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series to Blade Runner, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China and Back to the Future in the 80's, then over a new generation of filmmakers-Tim Burton-Planet of the Apes, Mars Attacks, Frank Darabont-The Shawnshank Redemption, The Mist (David's paintings), The Green Mile, Guillermo Del Toro-Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth- has passed away on Oct. 13th. He was 78...

Note (grazie, LD): Legendary Italian poster art maestro Renato Casaro died on Sept. 30 at 89...He did the posters for the Leone spaghetti westerns, up to Flash Gordon and Conan the Barbarian (as they were Dino de Laurentiis productions). He retired in 1998 but came back in 2019, called by Quentin Tarantino to realize some "old school illustrated Western posters" ("Uccidimi Subito Ringo, disse il Gringo" aka "Kill Me Now Ringo, Said The Gringo", and "Nebraska Jim") for Italian films starring Rick Dalton, the character Leonardo DiCaprio plays in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 

Struzan and Casaro have even a poster in common, for The Name of the Rose in 1986, for whom they did both posters. 

     
Struzan                                                   Casaro

Struzan also designed LP covers before film posters, including the legendary Alice Cooper's 1975 `Welcome to My Nightmare`.

In 2013, he was the subject of Erik Sharkey’s feature documentary “Drew: The Man Behind The Poster,” with interviews with collaborators like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Frank Darabont, Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro. 

exhaustive obit in Variety here 

 “Drew made event art. His posters made many of our movies into destinations…and the memory of those movies and the age we were when we saw them always comes flashing back just by glancing at his iconic photorealistic imagery. In his own invented style, nobody drew like Drew.”

Steven Spielberg 

RIP Claudia Cardinale

 Claudia Cardinale...born in Tunis, died in France...Icon of Italian and International Cinema, beauty and elegance. 

The princess from The Pink Panther. a princess in Il Gatopardo, 

8 1/2, Rocco e sui fratelli, Fitzcarraldo. Fellini, Visconti, Herzog.

Great part in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, the only woman persona in his westerns.

She was honored at TIFF Cluj in 2009...

                                                              (15.04.2025-23.10.2023)

Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

Starting this year with a question ;):

Why is the poster of Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia on the wall in True Detective season 2, episode 8, Omega Station, in still photographer Leonard/Lenny's room? Are there supposed to be influences on Nic Pizziolatto's work from the (then) infamous one-of-a-kind Peckinpah master work? At least is noticed on the wikipedia page of the film. 

                                                                          "Do I get paid?" 

Weird occurences made me to get to finally rewatch and revisit what is considered to be Sam Peckinpah's most personal film (and I agree with 'em). Oh, how I was looking for this in the 90's and it finally broadcasted on a shittiest copy on Acasa TV (!!!!), and we copied it on vhs. Then some muddy DVD came out. Now it's all restored beautifully in 4K. And available!!! Also on Critterion Collection. You can even watch the whole film on youtube here.

"NOBODY LOSES ALL THE TIME"

Warren Oates as washed-up piano player Bennie plays basically Bloody Sam, sunglasses included.

Also it's a great film about "that " Mexico, with shades of Los Olvidados, The Treasure of Sierra Madre and Under the Volcano.

******

During a career that was blighted by studio interference, Peckinpah would later say that Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia was the only which ended up exactly as he wanted: “I did it exactly the way I wanted to. Good or bad, like it or not, that was my film.” And it was. This is as close to ‘Pure Peckinpah’ as it gets – beautiful, violent, troubling, heartbreaking, astonishing.

(Arrow Video on their restored DVD)

Sisu (2022)

Finnish director (& writer) Jalmari Helander did Rare Exports (2010, on my top of 2011 & here), based on his 2003 short film and the high-concept action Big Game (2014). Took him a while to do his third feature, Sisu (2022), his best to date. Sisu means in Finnish a form of crazy courage & determination against all odds. 

The main character is inspired by a real sniper from the "Winter War" in WW2, Simo Häyhä, aka The White Death. It's set in Lapland in 1944, and what better villains than the Nazis? It starts with a lonely man discovering the mother lode into the wilderness (the Ecstasy of Gold), like in the vignette of Coen's bros. 2018's The Ballad of Buster Scruggs with the Gold prospector played by a scrubby Tom Waits. Then he starts a journey western style until he meets the Nazis, here a convoy of bad, bad Nazis retreating (Sven Hassel's style). Nazis in Nordic cultish films were seen in Dead Snow and its sequel by Tommy Wirkola, but those were (Norwegian) Nazi zombies, and in Anders Banke's Frostbitten (Sweedish vampires nazis). 

Sisu premiered in Toronto Film Festival last Fall on Midnight Madness and picked by Lionsgate -US/ Sony (intl.) for distribution (Intercomfilm in Romania). Even though the film can now be found on the torrent sites I strongly advice those in for the ride to go and watch it on the BIG screen, it's absolutely worthy, due to the great cinematic compositions in widescreen by Kjell Lagerroos (2.39.1), glorious colors, the sound design, music (could've gone with a song on the End Credits-a bit of Morricone/Leone homage done a la Hans Zimmer in Broken Arrow) and spellbinding landscapes. 

Finn Jorma Tomilla is Aatami Korpi, surnamed by the Russians Koschei-"the immortal" . Tomilla was in Rare Exports the father hunter alongside his son, Onni Tomilla, who was in Big Game and here is the tank driver, Schutze. Norwegian actor Aksel Hennie (Headhunters, Max Manus, The Trip) is the very bad baddie, SS officer Bruno Helldorf, he reminded me of a cool younger Mads Mikkelsen, but he probably fares better than MM in the upcoming Indiana Jones V-th chapter. 

Korpi is like Rambo in the 1st film, First Blood, and like Mad Max ( a subplot is similar to Mad Max: Fury Road) and The Man with No Name. Surely a lot of spaghetti westerns went into the mix. Helander brings also John Woo into the inspiration for the film. 

The action sequences could be from Raiders and Indy 3 (the tank and under the car stunts) up to James Bond-esqe exploits (mostly the plane sequence).

People compare this with John Wick but there is no resemblances, the dog thing was part of Mad Max 2 and so many films way before the Keanu franchise. First Blood is the main ingredient here. Also Inglorious Basterds comes to mind, especially for the structure and lettering of the Seven Chapters (which are in fact classic 60's-70's film lettering).

But most of all the coolness comes from the fact it's Finnish (though I would've loved the nazis to speak German and not English...:( and to cut to the last scene before any lines...much better than any recent fare of this type. I hope Helander will keep on making his films and not become some gun-for-hire in the Hollywood up-and-down hills...So far it looks like it might be another Sisu film or maybe announced and postponed Jerry and Ms. Universe.

                                                                   The Red band trailer!

Check it out and see first if it's your kind of film ride, cos it's hyperviolent and kinda doomy/gloomy in its whole pulpy construction. With a lot of Finnish black humor. Perkele!

3 1/2 out of 5, 7 out of 10!

4 awards at Sitges Film Festival 2022, best film, best actor, cinematography and music !

RIP Rick Dalton

Tarantino posted on his Video Archives twitter account that Rick Dalton, his fictional actor, (anti) hero from Once Upon A Time in Hollywood had died. He would've been 90. 

He wrote a biography of the actor, entitled The Films of Rick Dalton. One of them, featuring Cliff Booth in the 80's is The Fireman (a trilogy, no less!!, produced of course by Cannon!), which sounds like a rip-off (homage?) of The Exterminator (1980) and its sequel, Exterminator 2 (1984), both with Robert Ginty,  ;). Is that where the flamethrower of McClusky came by, or was it from Le Vieux Fusil;) ?

Rest in peace, Rick...;)

more here

https://deadline.com/2023/05/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-star-rick-dalton-dead-quentin-tarantino-declares-1235373860/

Rick passed away peacefully in his home in Hawaii and is survived by his wife Francesca.

(so, that one was a keeper ;)

https://the-video-archives-podcast-with-quentin-tarantino-and-roger.simplecast.com/episodes/day-of-the-dalton-pt-1-the-marshal-of-madrid-manhunter-NJWVhg9w

RIP Jim Brown

First time I saw him on The Dirty Dozen (1966), part of that band of misfit bastards that 

Last time I saw him on 100 Rifles (1969), together with Raquel Welch in what was then a very risquee affair. 

100 Rifles can be seen on youtube here.

Now I caught-up with the heist film from 1968 The Split, one of his first leading roles. 

Jim Brown was a great NFL player, the first one to swap the field for Hollywood. He died on May 18th (same day as Helmut Berger) of natural causes. Jim Brown was 87. 

Acting highlights:

Dark of the Sun (1968) aka The Mercenaries

Ice Station Zebra (1968)

El Condor (1970) can be watched on youtube here. with Lee Van Cleef

Slaughter (1972) and its sequel Slaughter's Big Rip-off (1973)-blaxploitation

blaxploitation classic: Three the Hard Way (1974) with Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly

Take a Hard Ride (1975) one more time with Lee Van Cleef, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly

Fingers (1978), James Toback's maligned underrated and still unknown masterpiece.

The Running Man, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Mars Attacks!, Any Given Sunday, Small Soldiers (voice).

RIP Raquel Welch

Also this day has come...(15 Feb. 2023) one of the most beautiful women that walked the planet into the screen is gone. A real Goddess! Unbelievable, Raquel Welch was 82 now...She as born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago on September 5th 1940, her father Bolivian, her mother Irish-American. Her first job was on TV as a weatherwoman! She had four husbands and two daughters. 

During the "pandemic" in 2020 I caught up with some of her films, the excellent Hannie Caulder (1971), a revenge western that has a touch s feminism in in. Then saw again the whodunnit The Last of Sheila (1973, a model for the new Glass Onion mystery). About her his co-star James Mason said infamously, that she was "the most selfish, ill-mannered, inconsiderate actress that I have ever had the displeasure of working with."..)  Why he said that, beats me. It's the only bad thing I heard about her really.

Then saw the spaghetti interracial western 100 Rifles (1969), where she made love with/to Jim Brown. Also I saw a lot of documentary stuff and interviews on youtube. I was still mesmerized by mrs. Welch.

And I still am. She is immortal, you know? 

But the first time I saw her on the big screen as a child was not as Luana in One Million Years B.C. (1966), that ran in Romania under her name title-Luana and that I caught up at Cinema Popular in the early Eighties. No, it was as Constance de Bonacieux in Richard Lester's Three Musketeers (part one & two 1973/74). She won a Golden Globe for that part. The film played around 1976/77 in Cluj, where I was in primary school. 

And she was in the posters of Romanian Cinema magazine, the Cinemas postcard and a lot of photos in the mag. The film I mostly wanted to see with her those days was Fantastic Voyage (1966), her breakthrough role, which I finally saw on TV only in the early 90's and I taped it on VHS...til the DVD...

Also in Romanian theaters was L'animal, the Claude Zidi comedy from 1977 with her and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Which was kinda her last important part. In 1982 she was fired from the set of Cannery Row (that was meant to be her comeback and her first nudity role!) and successfully sued the studio earning a reported 15 million $!!! She went on TV movies, Fitness and yoga programs, and playing herself (in Seinfeld in 1997).  Wrote her biography, "Beyond the Cleavage" in 2000. She was on Broadway, the lead on Victor/Victoria. She even danced with a fluffy spider in The Muppets Show!

Running the Cinemateca Patria in Brasov (2014-2020) I always showed her films on her anniversary (5 September ), Fantastic Voyage, Bedazzled and 100 Rifles. One of my favorites was Fathom (1967). Great cameo in The Magic Christian (1969) as "The Princess of the whip", and the title role in Myra Breckinridge (1970, based on a novel by Gore Vidal), where she plays a transsexual and she clashed with legendary Mae West on the set. Her bit in the far-out Bluebeard (1972) as a sexy nympho nun is also a cool one.

Well, here she is to be remembered singing the aptly titled "I am a Woman", with Cher in 1975, in a very tongue-in-cheek appearance. We'll miss you all, Raquel...

The English (2022)

Best thing on TV streaming right now. Not Yellowstone, nor Tulsa King, but The English. 

And with a lot of resemblances with 1883, the Yellowstone prequel from earlier this year on Paramount+.

It's a 6 episodes mini-series, like 5 hours movie, BBC with Amazon Prime but in Romania on HBO Max. 

Created and directed by Hugo Blick with a superb Emily Blunt and a majestic Chaske Spencer. A gritty revenge western, with one of the best bad guys in recent memory, Rafe Spall. A terrific supporting performances by Cieran Hinds. And a surprisingly low-key Stephen Rea. Shot in Spain, in Castilla-La Mancha and Almeria, where the legends were made...

As a good and old friend of mine wrote me: It's like Sergio Leone would make The Last of the Mohicans :)

LMA Clint @91 !!!

Once he was The Man with No Name, but he made a name for himself, and, what a nameee...Clint Eastwood is 91 today ! Still working and done with a new film, Cry Macho, and which he also acts! A modern western no less ! His fortieth feature (40th) ! Amazing ! LMA ! Happy Birthday !!!

And some sad news, Buddy Van Horn, Clint”s buddy, stuntman, double, second unit director and best friend died at 92 on May 11th 2021. The news came up just today, uncanny. Buddy also directed Clint in three of his features,Any Which Way You Can, Dead Pool and Pink Cadillac, a simillar case of Burt Reynolds/Hal Needham, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood best buddies friendship of a time golden, silver & gold, now gone bronze...RIP...

The Hunting Party (1971)

 The Hunting Party (1971) is a curio, in the vein of exploitation and with touches of Italo Western, that violence and cynicism. Read about it for a long time but unseen til now.  I mean, Oliver Reed is the star and Gene Hackman supporting, can you believe it ? Well, in 1971 it was possible, Hackman becoming a big star the next year, with The French Connection and Reed following this after Women in love and Oliver ! Candice Bergen is rich Hackman's wife who Reed the bandit kidnaps ! One of the three films Bergen did in the 70's with Hackman !

Supporting cast with veternas of westerns, and Peckinpah cohorts, L.Q. Jones, G.D. Spradlin, Simon Oakland. One of the two theatrical films of TV director Don Medford (together with the Tibbs vehicle The Organisation-1972).  Slo-mo action a la Peckinpah. Alec Mills was the cameraman and Riz Ortolani made the music, giving the film more flavour of spaghetti, it was also shot in Almeria, Spain. 

3 stars out of 5 / 6 out of 10 !

aka Caza implacable; De jagade; Il giorno dei lunghi fucili; Leise weht der Wind des Todes; Les charognards

RIP Ennio Morricone

July 6th 2020. A sad sad day for all film and music lovers !

Ennio, il maestro Morricone is no more...

He was 91 (born November 10th 1928). He even conducted a concert in Rome this January !

I wrote a LMA piece on his carrer and influence by the time of too long awaited Oscar and the score of The Hateful Eight  in the Sunete magazine! Time to republish soon.

I saw him with my buddies Andrei & Relu in 2004, live in Budapest.  The Arena Concerto series. 

Saw him again in 2012 in Cannes, at the anniversary projection of restored Once Upon a Time in America.  The best partnership ever, Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone, unmatched even by the Prokofiev-Einsenstein collaboration, or the Bernard Herrmann-Hitchcock, or Nino Rota with Fellini. 

He did great scores for many directors, three for Brian De Palma (Untouchables, Casualties of War, Mission to Mars), three for Gillo Pontercorvo (Battle of Algiers, Burn/Chiemada, Ogro), for Polanski (Frantic), Joffe (the Mission), John Carpenter (The Thing), Warren Beatty (Bugsy), oh so many, and so many perfect brilliant ones. The giallos, starting with the first Argento films, to Spasmo and The Black Belly of Tarantula, gli polizioteschi, from Revolver to les  French -Le Clan des siciliens, to Peur sur la Ville, to Chi Mai in Le Profesionnel, Le Marginal. Last score of his I heard was in Jose Giovanni, Le Ruffian (1983), that I cought-up with last month.

Love his psychedelic score for The Exorcist II  (The Heretic) !!! Love the parodic score for Ochhio a la Pena ! (Buddy Goes West/ Atentie la pana de vultur!), which wierdly he did for Michele Lupo (ans Bud Spencer, and Amidou!). Or the original parodic My Name is Nobody/Mio nome e nessuno.  The beautiful Il Grande Silenzio for Sergio Corbucci. Pop-ish Danger Diabolik for Mario Bava ! And of course the dramatic TV series La Piovra !

Finally after forgiving him of using-remashing up -his music and themes he made some music for his fan, Quentin Tarantino in /for The Hateful Eight. That uncanilly got him his only Oscar of his career ! He got a Honorary one in 2007 after many nominations, first of which only in 1979 (!)  for Malick's Days of Heaven ! Last score for his friend, another T-as in Tornatore, for whom he was an attached composer, for La Corrispondenza, in 2016.  Unarguably he did some of his finest music for Tornatore, from Nuovo Cinama Paradiso to Malena to Legend of 1900.

The most influential film score composer of all time, over 500 films, my favourite film composer and one of the best musicians EVER ! 

***********

“If you scroll through all the movies I’ve worked on, you can understand how I was a specialist in westerns, love stories, political movies, action thrillers, horror movies and so on. So in other words, I’m no specialist, because I’ve done everything. I’m a specialist in music.” 

                                                                  Ennio Morricone

Here's a post from Film Stage which contains his best 20 scores -in their opinion -almost agreed

-and here's Rolling Stone Top Ten Morricone scores-even better !

“Ennio was an icon and icons just don’t go away, icons are forever. The first movie I ever saw was Once Upon A Time In The West. I heard the music and saw those images and I said, ‘That’s what I want to do’.”  Hans Zimmer

  

Metallica

@Metallica

·--

Metallica: R.I.P. Ennio Morricone

Your career was legendary, your compositions were timeless. Thank you for setting the mood for so many of our shows since 1983.

********

John Carpenter

@TheHorrorMaster

·

Brilliant composer Ennio Morricone has passed away. A friend and collaborator, his talent was inestimable. I will miss him

South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000)

A one-off, totally lost in the woods of movieland, and seeing it after 20 years after its release, with fear and anguish :), and wow, I've been mesmerised. An anti-western, or Revisionist western, that today is a genre of its own, and brought us the most nihilistic movies I fave but nobody gave a damn, at least box office wise, and mostly the critics spat on it. This one was called a shit sandwich and worse. Now really, have you seen Straight to Hell with The Clash and 'em acolytes, so that was fun and this is hell ? C'mon folks..

.Welcome to South of Heaven , that equals Hell.  As if the pun was not enough the day-bread title goes on- West of Hell ! Texas border, that is !
It's the only film country legend singer (and part time actor) Dwight Yoakam wrote (co-wrote), produced and directed. And he was the lead, which might be the main problem, cos he ain't neither Steve McQueen, neither Kevin Costner. So, yeh, but what, this is his madness, ok ? He put all his money into his passion project, selling his Malibu house and later on declaring total bankrupcy...
The film happens on the day before Christmas 1907  in a village next to the Mexican border, where people can watch the first western, The Great Train Robbery, (from 1903, by Edwin Porter-maybe also a nod to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's opening), and then goes into 1908 even closer to the border, in the line of it quite so (no walls  by then :). It's more like an alegory of death and living dead, in the vein of Pale Rider, High Planes Drifter anti-hero, who might or might not be alive/ dead.
Same in the genre- Dead Man, from which cult scene by the bonfire i think inspired this one ! These days a flick like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robet Ford (see here my review with more about revisionist westerns) and most recently The Sisters Brothers can get away with anything, but the roots on this are more like Peckinpah's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, more to The Missouri Breaks and Get South, Posse or The Great Norfield Minesotta Raid.  Remember it all goes down to McCabe and Mrs. Miller after all, and to the anarchy of now so-called punk western, aka the spaghetti western from late 60's (did I say nihilism, I wrote the word in the above paragraph).
*****
Now lookie here at the cast: Bo Hopkins, Luke Askew, Peter Fonda, his daughter Bridget, Billy Bob,  (yes,Thornton, with a long blonde hair wig), Vince Vaughan as his baddiest !, Mr. Pee Wee aka Paul Rubens as Arvid, Bud Cort !,Joe Ely ! Matt Clark ! Scott Wilson ! Michael Jeter (a riot!!)  and vetran Noble Willingham in a part that is totally Jack Nance's David Lynch.  Actually Lynch's name has been more than mentioned in regards of this movie !
***and if that wasn't enough, one far out cameo-Warren Zevon, as mr. Babcock !!!, he's there for ten minutes and doesn't say a word, except on his exit, two words -2- nicht drei, zwei !!!, <Good Night !> Warren was already ill at the time, you can se it on his face, and I guess he's here because of Billy Bob (yes, Thornton), keep in mind this is one single shot for Warren in a feature film !!!
BTW- Dwight looks like Tom Petty...

*
wiki page here
*
article in The Guardian about the financing of the film, and such kind of off-ones, here

****
The soundtrack- the piano on repeat reminds me of something, Zevon-like, or more like The Band

can't be rated, I've seen it from 1 to 10 on imdb, i think its a real curio an acquired taste,                     I'd give it an 8 tho, or rather a 7  that is a *** 1/2 !
***
Bravo Dwight Yoakam for trying, as I said above the man went totally bankrupt out of this and I guess he still suffers from it, maybe in between the south and west of somewhere, but hey, he did IT :D

Don't Turn the Other Cheek (1971)

¡Viva la muerte... tua! (original title) sau titlul american cu double entendeur
Don't Turn the Other Cheek (1971)
Franco Nero, Eli Wallach, Lynn Redgrave si revolutia mexicana ~~o comedie western de Duccio Tessari (Zorro), in care regalul este Eli Wallach, bandistul mexican Max Oyola, un riff direct la rolul lui Tuco dn The Good The Bad and the Ugly !

Johnny Hallyday RIP

74 de ani. Aici in L'homme du train, unde a jucat alaturi de Jen Rochefort, mort si el anul acesta. Rol super(b) !
Ultima oara l-am vazut la Cannes in Vengeance al lui Johnny To.
Johnny H. nu m-a spart ca rocker, dar tin minte ca in inceputul anilor 90 un concert cu el la Bercy dat de TVR ! m-a dat pe spate, si lookul de Mad Max, cu motocicleta si piele, Gen personajul lui din Termins (1987)
L-am vazut in :áventure c'est láventure al lui Lelouch, Detective al lui Godard, in I Specialisti al lui Corbucci,  cu Gastone Moschine, disparut tot anul asta....Conseil de famille al lui Costa Gavras...

Bad Batch, The (2016)

"All of us here, We weren't good enough, smart enough, young enough, gulpy enough, wealthy enough, SANE ENOUGH. Freaks. Parasites. This here is The Bad Batch. We ain't good. We're BAD."
The Dream

The Bad Batch is a UFO as i haven't seen in a long time. Mad Max by Jodorowski (El Topo, Santa Sangere) meets Burning Man fest in this futureal story of love and redemption by writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home at Night). A dream of survival in the desertic post-apocalyptic America.
Even shades of Lynch (The Dream character-an unbelievable Keanu Reeves, closer to the new Kyle MacLachan persona of Dale Cooper-Dougie : plus the Escobar's moustache), mixed with a weird sense of Southland Tales (Jason Momoa standing in for The Rock), cannibalism (more Hills have Eyes than Texas Chainsaw). Weird cameos -Jim Carrey !!!, Jim Carrey ? if you recognise him you'll get a prize, glorified cameos on LSD -Giovanni Ribisi, plus a very hot mangled young heroine -25 year old Londoner Suki Waterhouse -up and coming surely, here standing effortless as a BAD batch girl (those stamped as garbage/futile/punks/derelict, ex cons), WITHOUT AN ARM AND A LEG (again Mad Max: Fury Road's Furiosa). Also the pregnant brides and the little girl from Max II. Gorgeous widescreen cinematography by Lyle Vincent, who shot also Amirpour's A Girl Who Walks Home at Night.
The film took the Special Jury Prize at last year's Venice Film Festival and it's found a hard way to the theatrical distribution, as it's easy to see why. But its reputation will grow in the future, as a cult movie. Annapurna, Neon and Vice (the magazine) are co-producers.

Ultramusic (again Federale-the superb All the Colors of the Dark -a tribute to Tutti li colori del buio?), as in her previous film, Die Andwoort, Darkside -(Nicholas Jaar and guitarist, Dave Harrigton), Nicholas Jaar with his hit-Mi Mujer, White Lies), a rendition of karma Chameleon as an ironic juxtaposition on a gruesome scene...
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A somehow feeling of Dust Devil and other cult curios stands into it. Would've loved to see it on the big screen....
an interview with Ana Liliy here. She says: "The Bad Batch is how I see America."

**** / 8 out of 10.