Face to Face . Weekly Alibi . 06-06-97

Face to Face

DIRECTED BY: Sergio Sollima

REVIEWED: 06-06-97

Here's a funky one--a sort of "thinking man's" Spaghetti Western. Gian Maria Volante (For a Few Dollars More) plays Brad Fletcher, a history professor who, in poor health and depressed by the ongoing Civil War, heads West where he comes face-to-face (!) with filthy, vicious outlaw Beauregard Bennet (Tomas Milian). While escaping the law, the wounded Bennet takes Fletcher hostage but soon finds himself under the gentle professor's care. The two develop a bond, and the professor makes his first kill in order to save the outlaw's life. Fletcher leads Bennet to question his violent lifestyle just as Fletcher becomes more and more fascinated by the outlaw world, finally becoming an even more vicious criminal than Bennet. After a bank robbery goes awry, the two find themselves headed for a confrontation, with a Pinkerton agent in the middle. Directed by Sergio Sollima and featuring music by the one-and-only Ennio Morricone, Face is a must-see for fans of Italian Oaters. The quality of the tape was a bit rough, and the sound goes horribly out of sync during the last reel, but this flick is so damnably hard to find, it just doesn't matter. As unusual as the movie is, however, it's nothing compared to the story of actor Tomas Milian--in actuality a living Cro-Magnon found by a group of Brazilian scientists. Milian became quite the talk-show celebrity in the early '60s, finally ending up in Italy where he made a number of films. (Video Search of Miami, P.O. Box 16-1917, Miami, FL 33116 (888) 279-9773)

--Scott Phillips

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