Il lungo giorno della violenza

If you're a fan of the Zapatista sub-genre of Spaghetti Westerns, you will not want to miss this one. Chock full o' all the good Italian Marxist/Zapatista staples, it is not preachy but highly contemplative, ultimately leaving the viewer to choose their stance. Nice pacing, it never drags. A very considered and well executed Zapatista SW.

If you're simply a fan of Spaghetti Westerns I think you'd give it between 6-7, rather than the 8-9 that I'm giving it since I really love that sub-genre. I can't see how a straight SW fan would be disappointed though.

The only audience that I think might be put off by it is the "pat answers", "everything tied up with a bow on it" crowd. Throughout, it just refused to do that. That's tasty from where I sit, though.

This movie must be pretty rare. Few votes one way or the other on sites like this, and it is never mentioned in Austin Fischer's go-to reference on the genre, "Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western". I have to think he's not familiar with it, because it makes many of his points better than the examples he gives. If you like studying that sort of thing, this one will let you get away from the feeling that the best examples of the sub-genre are pretty much written in stone. Here's one that has stayed below the radar waiting for your own personal discovery. I watched an original Italian wide screen version with English subtitles. I don't know where/how it has been released, but I really liked it that way as opposed to dubbed or whatever. Actually, I'm remembering now that I did my own subtitles file for it, so I'm not sure what's actually available.

I don't think this counts as a spoiler, because you never are told this in the movie, but the bandito's name is quite tongue in cheek. He has a sort of Brillo pad kind of hair, and his name translates as "Evil Hair", or "Bad Hair".