No Room to Die

Illegal immigrant smuggling isn't a plot line that turns up too often in Spaghetti Westerns, but it turns up here. A bad guy named Fargo is sending cheap labour over the border into Texas and treats the workers like they are worth less than cattle, as we witness when a carriage full of migrant workers is thrown over a cliff when a Yankee patrol spots them. Fargo, who has black and white flashbacks to being mistreated as a child by some white guys, is also at odds with a kind Mexican lady who wants to take care of her people.

Fargo's number might be up due to the appearance of a couple of bounty hunters; The good natured but deadly Anthony Steffen, who starts off by gunning down the bandit Sartana. The other bounty hunter is the not-so-good natured William Berger, a milk drinking preacher with a seven barrelled rifle who hunts down and kills a few wanted villians but is willing to meet up with Sartana to take down Fargo's gang, where there's a fair price on most of their heads.

There's a slight sub-plot involving the Mexican smuggling racket being exposed (where Mariangela Giordano gets a few shots in) but everything really boils down to Steffen and Berger taking on scores of Fargo's men in various situations, with a few double crosses thrown in for good measure (William Berger gets ripped off at one point and runs around screaming "C'mere! You can't steal from me - it's a sin!"). The plot might be the usual, but director Garrone throws in loads of weird camera angles and trippy visuals. It's a good companion piece to his Django The Bastard, and makes me wonder why he would go on to bore us to death with the horror films Lover of the Monster and The Hand that Feeds the Dead.

I'll watch anything with William Berger in it mind you. He's always got a cheeky look on his face, even when gunning down scores of bad guys.

The movie is entitled "A Long Line of Crosses" and I suggest watching it in Italian with subtitles to appreciate what it was supposed to be like. American release titles are often 100% marketing in the genre, and have NOTHING to do with the movie or the people that made it. This has to be the most extreme example. I don't think it counts as a spoiler to note that a) There is no Django in this, and b) there is no hanging. There's no long line of crosses for that matter, but it's an apt title.

For me, there are four major classes in the genre. First, those that are great movies outside the genre, second, those that are not as good as that but better than the average example, those that are fair to middling and those that are below par. For me, this was a solid example of the second class.

It's slightly over the top in terms of self-consciousness of the genre, but that's OK for lovers of Spaghetti Westerns. Yeah, we can see The Preacher is obviously an imitation of Klaus Kinski in The Great Silence and lots of other over the top flourishes, but they never detract from the flow. I enjoyed it.

Many of the genre were social commentaries on American's place and actions in the world and issues of concern to progressives in the 1960s. This one does that solidly, but gets so much right about US/Mexico border issues that it is still relevant as I write this in 2016. I would have given this 7/10, but that raises it a point in my estimation.

Meal pairing suggestion: Camarones a la Diabola with rice and refried beans and flour tortillas.

Experience taught me that, in case of spaghetti-westerns, it's always useful and interesting to Google-translate the original Italian titles. For some reason, the international titles in English are either irrelevant (most titles refer to in one way or another to the character of "Django" because that was the biggest commercial success) or nearly not exciting enough. Please disregard the English titles "A Noose for Django" and "No Room to Die" as the original title literally translates as "A Long Line of Crosses", which is – in my humble opinion as a western fanatic at least – a much more exhilarating and meaningful title. That being said, "A Long Line of Crosses" isn't the prototypic kind of spaghetti western that I would recommend in case you're fairly new to the genre. The film contains a number of fantastic elements, including a massively high body count and a terrific use of filming location and camera angles, but writer/director Sergio Garrone's script is too often confusing, incoherent and (unnecessarily) complex. Admittedly I often couldn't quite figure out why certain things happened, why some of the characters kept on double-crossing each other, or why the enemies didn't kill each other much earlier. The poor English dubbing obviously didn't help, neither. I'm relatively sure that the main plot focuses on the rich and supremely evil Mr. Fargo (depicted by the director's brother) who runs the highly immoral but profitable business of illegally smuggling poor Mexicans across the Texan border. Once he cashed the little amounts of money these people own, he sadistically dumps them into a ravine. The large list of notorious outlaws that he works with lures two different bounty hunters to town. Johnny Brandon and Everett "Preacherman" Murdock have two completely different personalities, but their pistols are equally fast and deadly. They close a pact to hunt down all the wanted criminals together, but Brandon is a defender of human rights whereas Preacherman is simply interested in the rewards. I honestly wouldn't ponder too much about the plot and merely enjoy the grotesque violence and delightful spaghetti western trademarks. "A Long Line of Crosses" bathes in that typical raw and filthy atmosphere, with lots of nasty-looking gunmen sweating and stinking in the burning sun, and the number of thugs falling dead from the cliffs or to the ground is practically countless. Anthony Steffen and particularly William Berger give away adequate performances, but – as usual – I personally liked the bad guy the most. Garrone is definitely the least brilliant Sergio of his generation of Italian western directors (defeated easily by Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima) but I still appreciate his movies very much.

I love this movie. It is a masterpiece of the genre. It has it's flaws no doubt. The acting is good in places and wooden in others. Overall though it is a very cool film. If you like the Italina westerns, then don't hesitate to check this one out. The cinematography is top-notch, the music and sound effects are great! I especially love the way it starts! Bom bom BOM!!!!!!

Anthony Steffen is not the best actor in the genre but he does a satisfactory job here. William Berger is great as always! It contains more of the Django style multi-barrel guns and surreal sequences and moving camera shots with cool angles and experimental shots. The movie does contain some violence towards animals (there is a cockfight sequence).

Una lunga fila di croci (AKA: No Room to Die/A Noose for Django/Hanging for Django) is directed by Sergio Garrone and features music by Vasco and Mancuso, with cinematography by Franco Villa. It stars Anthony Steffen, William Berger, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Mario Brega and Riccardo Garrone.

Mexican's are being smuggled over the border to work as cheap labour for wealthy land baron Fargo (Garrone). Fargo's gang is made up of known criminals with bounties on their heads, this greatly interests two bounty hunters, Brandon (Steffen) and Murdock (Berger), who may have to team up to achieve their goals and stay ahead of the game?

On plot terms it's simplicity 101, a couple of cool dudes are waging a war against the evil and wealthy town boss and his gang. In true Spaghetti Western style a lot of blood is shed, there's plenty of scowling from scuzzy men and pouting from the lead babe. A twist is thrown in for good measure, and on an action quota basis this never lacks in that department. In fact I think there might be more gunplay than actual dialogue!

It's what I would call a safe Spaghetti Western, a chance to make a telling political point is wasted, but there's a lot of style around to ensure that the pic is never once dull. Garrone (Django the Bastard) knows his Spaghetti and indulges in the staples of the genre, with canted angles, revolving frames, whippy pans, zooms in and out, up-tilts and fight scenes that literally come through the camera. Add in Berger's 7 barrelled shotgun with its endless supply of bullets, a schizophrenic musical score, the gorgeous Machiavelli getting a female role of some substance, and it's all good really.

Not top tier Spaghetti, and it is hardly original, but it keeps the plate warm with bullets and punches galore. 7/10