Boot Hill (1969) starring Terence Hill, Woody Strode, Bud Spencer, Eduardo Ciannelli directed by Giuseppe Colizzi Movie Review

Boot Hill (1969)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Terence Hill in Boot Hill (1969)

A Man Named Cat Stevens

Cat Stevens (Terence Hill) wasn't looking for trouble but it found him and he ended up being shot by some outlaws. Fortunately a circus troupe helps him to recover as they move from one town to another. When he has recovered and after one of the performers ends up getting killed Cat tracks down his half brother Arch Hutch Bessy (Bud Spencer) to help him get revenge for all the wrong doing.

I have watched "Boot Hill" twice now although it took some convincing by a friend to sacrifice another 100 minutes on this movie. You see when I first watched it I really disliked it for various reasons. One of those is that there are some familiar names here such as Woody Strode and Lionel Stander yet I am pretty sure that they have been dubbed by different actors and it sounds wrong. Another is that at times the editing is all over the place and I was beginning to imagine those in the editing room surrounded by a haze of smoke putting the movie together in an intoxicated state. I literally bordered on hating "Boot Hill" because it was not what I thought it would be and found it incredibly hard going.

But as I said when I watched "Boot Hill" again and was more prepared for the nuttiness of the editing it got a little better. This is still not a good western with lots of things making it hard work but when you look beneath these issues there are some good scenes and ideas which come from this curious set up of Cat being supported by some circus performers. And in truth the action has its moments to; you just need to look beyond the eclectic nature of its styling to see what is there.

What this all boils down to is that "Boot Hill" you could say is a product of its times and has a visual style which is a huge negative as it makes it incredibly hard work to watch. But it is one of those movies where you need to watch it at least twice so that you are more prepared for the editing and styling the second time around and can pay more attention to the story which lurks deep beneath it.


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