Really Surprised!

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It's the JFK assassination - The Western! The plot of this film would easily still be playable in cinemas in 2017. No stolen gold here, no Mexicans, relevant social commentary, and actual politics! The President killed in this one is President Garfield, but here Garfield is killed in Dallas in an open top carriage beside his glamorous wife and shot in the neck and head whereas the real Garfield was killed in Baltimore (I think) and died eight months later of his wounds. This one is JFK all the way.Gemma plays the son of a man who is murdered when he gets wind of the initial assassination plot to blow up the president's train. Gemma manages to stop that attempt but fails to stop people shooting the president in Dallas and pinning the murder on Gemma's black mate, who was merely trying to stop the actual assassins! Conspiracy theories arise right away as the actual killers track down and kill the accused, whereas most folk don't believe he did it anyway. This leads to several characters (one of which is disabled and goes around in a wheelchair) to figure out where the actual shots came from and track down the killers.To complicate things further there is an upper layer of bad guys who have been orchestrating the whole lot and are trying to start a second Civil War! These guy have to try and control the barely sane Confederate guys who are still smarting from the result of the civil war, and also contend with a mysterious government guy who is trying to cover up the crime but also bring those responsible to justice.There's an awful lot of plot in this one, but Tonino Valeri manages to squeeze in a lot of action too, thankfully. Gemma was an acrobat in a previous life and although he does his thing here, he plays it all deadly serious and has many gun fights with the numerous bad guys, including a gunfight in pitch darkness! Fernando Ray is especially good as the refined bad guy trying to conduct all this bad business without getting his hands dirty, but the main star here for me is Stelvio Massi's camera-work. There's just something about the way he handles every shot that enlivens everything you see here.Not a film to watch when tired, but really rewarding in that it is a Spaghetti Western that contains very few clichés and oodles of plot.

I like the popular review titled, "A better film that I think it is". Spot on. It is truly unique, and if you collect and like the "Zapata Spaghetti Westerns", and the political undercurrent, then this is a must see. I'll leave it at that. Austin Fisher has done a great job analyzing it in his book on the subject. Good review of it here. He does better than I can, but, suffice to say, still waters run deep."http://tinyurl.com/oaqmdr7"One problem may be the release. I didn't like watching it in Italian with English subs, since one imagines the action being in English, and the English dubs are really bad. The most important line, the last one in the movie is completely left out! So, perhaps I liked it because I did my own edit with the English track, the Italian subtitles, English subtitles and the HD Italian vid track, so you can mix and match to your heart's content. Yeah, I don't know I'd give it over a 6 if I had to watch the dubbed English version.

What is the price of power? Not much, since I got this movie at a dollar bin at Wal-Mart. The movie isn't the worst Spaghetti western movie I ever saw, but it's no way, has the power to become well-known. You have to suffer from a head blow to think this match up with Sergio Leone's films. In my opinion, it's alright. Directed by Tonino Valerii, this 113 minutes is pretty hard to find, that's if, you can figure out what the title of the film is called. The movie comes with different titles depending on where you lived. The movie been known as the Price of Power, Texas, a Bullet for The President or Dallas. This is often confusing when trying to seek this movie out. Tonino Valerri's western movie is very much serve as an allegory to the assassination of President Kennedy and racial politics in 1960s America. It's seems like the director and writers wanted to put fistful of JFK conspiracy theories in Western settings for some odd reason that end up being good, bad and ugly results. The good thing about the film is how well-made it is. The acting is so-so, but the English dubbing is a little off kilter. Surprising, Giuliano Gemma is pretty good lead in this film. Benito Stefanelli is great as the villainous and corrupt Sheriff Jefferson. Some pretty good excellently staged action. The whole train bridge shootout was pretty intense. I love the whole gun fight in the dark idea in another scene from the movie. I have to say, this movie has one of the oddest trial scenes in the history of film. The music score by Luis Bacalov was pretty daring. The movie has a good music score, though it relies on repeating the title theme a little too much to the point, it got annoying. 'Catch a star in the sky' was a pretty catchy number by singer Norma Jordan AKA Annie in the film. The English audio is perfectly audible but has some pops and hiss in the background. The movie moves in a steady pace, and I didn't find myself bored at times. The film plot reads like this, in 1881 Texas is still divided from the ashes of the Civil War. A American President, President James Garfield (Van Johnson) despite warnings of assassination, comes to Dallas to help establish a new police of equality. Bill Willer (Giuliano Gemma) and two of his friends, a black man named Jack Donovan (Ray Shaunders), and a crippled guy named Nick (Manuel Zarzo) are determined to prevent the President's murder, at any cost. While, the movie doesn't claim to be historical accuracy, I have to say the movie takes great liberty to the historical event leading to Garfield's murder. James Garfield was not assassinated by racists, who wanted to reinstall the confederacy in Texas, but in Washington DC train station by mentally unstable Charles Guiteau who was reject by Garfield's staff after trying to seek a job. The way, the movie version of President Garfield ends up dying isn't even close to what happen to him in real life. It wasn't only the bullet that killed him, according to most experts, what actually killed Garfield over two months later were incompetent doctors who probed and probed to retrieve a bullet to no avail. They never bothered cleaning their hands or implements in the process. Garfield most likely died due to malpractice. I like how Van Johnson also doesn't even look like Garfield in the film. He's missing the beard, has the wrong hair color and style and is just not even close in any way! He is as close as looking like Garfield as Garfield the cat is of looking like the president. I also feel bad for President Chester Arthur. In the film, Garfield's Vice President Chester A. Arthur was being blackmail by Neo-Confederate conspirator banker Allen Pinkerton (Fernando Rey). While, Chester A. Arthur did had a corrupt past, he was no way one of the people conspiring to kill Garfield in real history. Also, in real history, Allan Pinkerton worked with Union intelligence in the Civil War and established the U.S. Intelligence Service, the forerunner of the Secret Service. In the movie they got nothing of history right whatsoever. Still, the film doesn't mention the name Garfield on the film, as the President character is mostly nameless in the film. It's the producers that says that he is supposed to be President Garfield. If he was, or wasn't playing Garfield. The story is fictitious. The whole 1960's feel to the film seems to shine through the dirty 19th century settling, anyways. Even Warren Vanders's character, Arthur McDonald looks sometime out of a Dirty Harry movie and Annie AKA Norma Jordan out of a James Bond film. The film automatically raises the question of whether it reflects Valerii or screenwriter Massimo Patrizi's actual beliefs about the Kennedy assassination. The film makes it look like JFK's assassin, Lee Oswald was innocent who was set up by rightists to take the blame, due to the character of Jack Donavan. If this was the filmmaker's attempt to show, I have to disagree with them. Lee Oswald clearly kill JFK. If anybody help him, is up to question. Oddly, The Price of Power ends up endorsing the idea of a cover-up for the good of the nation. Take it at as it is. It's a good Spaghetti movie that stand out due to its JFK juxtaposition. This is a Spaghetti Western that deserves a much wider reputation that the one it currently holds.

Cool Spaghetti full of fury , action, portentous shootem'up and interesting screenplay by the usual Ernesto Gastaldi. This clever and successful Spaghetti Western that owes a considerable debt to Leone (it's realized by his disciple Tonino Valeri) deals with an ex-Union soldier named William Willer(Giuliano Gemma) who finds his father (Antonio Casas) has been killed. Then arrives in Dallas an occasional visit by President John Garfield (Van Johnson and wife Maria Cuadra) . The ex-soldier discovers a scheme to assassinate President in 1881 Dallas, Texas, plotted by a powerful group (all-star Spanish cast formed by Fernando Rey , Julio Peña, Angel Del Pozo, and Jose Suarez as the Vice-President). The film, a "political" Spaghetti, is a very overt mirroring of the JFK Assassination in 1963. Meanwhile, Willer befriends two journalists (Manuel Zarzo, Francisco Sanz)and acts as protector of a humiliated African-American (Ray Saunders). The gunfighter teams up with McDonald (Warren Vanders) against the powerful band and then Willer carries out a personal vendetta versus the father's killers .The film displays psychological characters-in deep, shootouts, action Western, political suspense and being enough entertaining. The movie contains typical particularities Spaghetti, as is full of fury, sadism, bloodbaths, and portentous close-ups of encrusted faces. The film blends violence, blood, tension, high body-count along with politic deeds and it's fast moving and quite entertaining .Gulianno Gemma is good as unfortunate Union soldier, he is very fine, he ravages the screen, he steals the show as gunslinger seeking revenge , in addition investigating the events about the assassination and ultimately takes the law on his own hands. Benito Stefanelli (customary master of arms) as a cruelly baddie role as nasty sheriff is terrific , subsequently the would play similar roles in other oaters . As secondaries appear usual Spanish actors Jose Calvo(Silvanito in ' A fistful of dollars'), Angel Alvarez (Django), Antonio Casas (Once upon a time in the West) , Fernando Rey (Return of Magnificent Seven) Jose Canalejas , Frank Braña , Lorenzo Robledo and Italian players as Ricardo Pizzuti ( ordinary in Terence Hill and Spencer movies ), among others .There are many fine technicians and nice assistant direction and excellent production design by Carlo Leva with a magnificent scenario plenty of barren outdoors, dirty landscapes under a glimmer sun and a fine set filmed in Calahorra (Granada) and Tabernas (Almeria), furthermore interiors shot in Elios studios(Rome) , as usual and correctly photographed by Stelvio Massi .The picture is full of nice sound by Luis Bacalov , he composes a vibrant soundtrack in Morricone style and well conducted , he subsequently won Oscar for ¨The postman and Pablo Neruda¨ .The motion picture is well directed by Tonino Valeri who was Sergio Leone's assistant. Valeri managed to make a fluid, witty and agreeable SW. Tonino Valeri's so-so direction is well crafted, here he's less cynical and humorous and more inclined toward violence and lots of killings . He proved his experience in Western such as ¨The hired gun ¨ , ¨My name is nobody ¨ with Henry Fonda and Terence Hill , ¨The day of anger ¨with Lee van Cleef and ¨ Taste of Killing¨ with Craig Hill and George Martin .