Blu-Ray Review – Requiescant (1967)

Arrow has really upped their game this year with releasing Spaghetti westerns. The latest is Requiescant which was directed by Carlo Lizzani whose Wake Up and Kill is coming out from Arrow in the next 2 weeks as well but that’s a crime film. Requiescant is probably best known for the fact Italian directing maestro Pier Paolo Pasolini has a rare acting role as a priest, ironic given he was a gay marxist atheist.

The film is a relatively normal Spaghetti Western plot, a young Mexican boy sees his entire family massacred by confederates. He is raised by a preacher and seems to have some magical gun slinging abilities. He eventually runs into the men who slaughtered his family after he tries to find his step sister Princy who ran away.  He starts his plan to get his revenge with includes teaming up with Pasolini’s priest who is the leader of some revolutionaries. Mark Damon (no relation to Matt) plays the head honcho of the bad guys and is clearly having a blast chewing the scenery.

Requiescant certainly has a political edge like most of the better Spaghetti Westerns do but this came out the year after Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Sergio Corbucci’s Django. The more political Westerns were dubbed Zapata Westerns after the Mexican revolutionary not my cat of the same name and in the next 5 years both Leone and Corbucci’s westerns would be considerably more political in nature especially Duck You Sucker and Compañeros. The presence of Pasolini in Requiescant that certainly adds to the Marxist overtones of the film even if the film also has a religious bent that kind of counterbalances the politics.

Spaghetti Westerns very rarely are perfect just due to the down and dirty nature they were made even though there are some obvious exceptions like Leone’s work, Django and The Great Silence. Many Spaghetti Westerns need the viewer to suspend their disbelieve and often not worry about the story completely coming together a really obvious example is Django Kill which is completely insane but is one hell of a fun ride. Requiescant certainly suffers from this trait but the shoot-outs are some of the most crazed of any Spaghetti western I’ve seen, the score Riz Ortolani is wonderful and adds loads of atmosphere like the best scores do and the film comes at the start of when more politically oriented Westerns were being made.

Arrow’s release includes both the Italian and English dubs but if you start the film it plays the Italian Dub. The features are relatively but they include interviews Carlo Lizzani and Lou Castel who plays the title character Requiescant along with the trailer. The release also includes a booklet with writing on the film by Pasquale Iannone.

[rating=4]
Ian Schultz

Western | Italy, 1967 | 15 | Arrow Video | Dir.Carlo Lizzani | Lou Castel, Mark Damon, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Lucio Battistrada | Buy:Requiescant [Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD]