Past and Present

Rating: Null/10 (25 September 2000)

I first saw this film in 1990 at 25, and I didn't keep it because I didn't understand it then (it was part of the Viva Leone season at Christmas 1989). Having spent 3 years of my life subsequently in a foreign country I can understand the cynicism and imagery of it. Like the beating up scene in 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly', the mass shooting scene in this film is reminiscent of Nazism in WW2. Up to the time where Rod Steiger discovers what's in the bank the film seems fairly light-hearted but afterwards is anything but.
The beauty of this film for me lies in having no clear good guys or bad guys, just different points of view and the tragedy of people killing and being killed, often not really knowing what they were killing or dying for.
Having it on video allows me to examine some minor details, like whether the men being executed at one point have been seen earlier in the film - I can't clearly match all the faces involved!