Before the Godfather of Gore Lucio Fulci
became firmly entrenched in the horror genre, he dabbled in several
other genres including Spy thrillers, Giallos, and Spaghetti Westerns.
Throughout his long career, Fulci directed three Euro Westerns: MASSACRE
TIME (1966), FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE (1975), and SILVER SADDLE (1978). In
hindsight, FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE was the best of the three, although it
failed to turn a profit in the International market. The film is a very
gory Western film whose title has nothing to do with the feature itself.
Despite the brutality, it’s actually a very emotional film (almost to
the point of a character study) and very un-Fulci like. The violence is
this movie has been edited out of each version depending upon which
country you live in. Anchor Bay has labored long and hard to restore
their version to full running time. They accomplished their mission, but
the English speaking cut is shorter than the Italian cut, so during the
re-inserted scenes you’ll be reading English subtitles to go along
with the Italian dialog (a small price to pay for a fully restored
print). Surprisingly, Anchor Bay has also chosen to release FOUR OF THE
APOCALYPSE under their Spaghetti Western Collection rather than
their Lucio Fulci Collection.
Stubby the gambler (Fabio Testi), Bunny the
pregnant prostitute (Lynne Frederick), Clem the alcoholic (Michael
Pollard), and Bud the gravedigger (Harry Baird) are thrown together by
fate, as they travel the desert in search of a better life for all.
Along the way, they are joined by a bandit, Chaco (Tomas Milian) who
uses them to ride safley by the lawmen who are hunting him down. The
four travelers are unaware that Chaco is a cold-blooded murderer until
it’s too late. Chaco lulls them into a false sense of security then
slips them all some peyote. While they are all tripping out, Chaco
reveals his true nature by raping Bunny and then humiliating the others.
Chaco leaves them all to die and Stubby promises to hunt Chaco down and
kill him if he survives the harsh desert. Miraculously, they all
survive; even Clem who is the recipient of a shotgun wound courtesy of
Chaco. The four of them trek through the hazardous terrain trying to
avoid Chaco and his bandits. Clem eventually dies and Bud goes mad. This
leaves Stubby and Bunny to carry on and during the snowy winter they
stumble into a town inhabited by a group of former gunfighters. The
residents of this town face a challenge they have never known: giving
birth to Bunny’s bastard baby, who is destined to change this town
into something better. Sadly, after delivering the baby, Bunny passes
away. This leaves Stubby free to fulfill his one goal in life—to kill
the jackal known as Chaco!
FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE suffers from poor pacing,
and an overall lack of excitement. Except for the opening sequence,
there are no gunfights to be found. FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE transforms
into a survivalist road movie for a while, until the cast members each
meet their destinies (death, madness, revenge, etc.). Fabio Testi sets
his sights on killing Tomas Milian which he does by sneaking up on him
and shooting him while the bandit’s asleep (very unsportman-like). The
film overlooks Spaghetti Western staples like a silent bad-ass hero who
fights against an evil villain and his henchmen. To his credit, Fulci
creates one hell of a character with Tomas Milian’s Manson-esque
villain, Chaco. But FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE never follows up on the
greatness of this character. Fabio Testi’s character and performance
is interesting because he is not your typical macho hero. The beautiful
Lynne Frederick is dead on as Bunny. Michael Pollard is over the top and
provides much of the laughs as the alcoholic Clem. Even though the film
has a flawed screenplay, Lucio Fulci infuses it with his trademark
style. Fulci flirts with cruelty (rape, torture, etc.) and morbidity
(corpses, graveyards, insects crawling on people) that would later
become his signature. But we also see the softer side of the director;
the side you see in his WHITE FANG movies. FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE is
also about hope in the face of death and cruelty. As in all his films,
Fulci infuses it with religious imagery. A group of Mormon’s looking
for prosperity in America are slaughtered (offscreen) and the camera
captures their anguish. The Satanic looking character of Chaco wears a
crucifix. There are lots more subtle references to the bible that you’ll
pick up on. Hell, even the title is a blatant poke at Christianity.
Anchor Bay presents FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE uncut
in the original full frame ratio of 1.85.1, with 16x9 enhancement. The
transfer is clear and colorful and projects a good sense of depth.
Sergio Stalvati’s soft-focus cinematography is preserved with
precision never seen before. The panoramic desert shots truly make the
visuals look sumptuous. The snowy scenes likewise will make you feel
cold and you can nearly make out the detail on the snowflakes. My only
complaint is that the night scenes are not properly lit. Maybe the plot
and themes of FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE don’t make much sense, but
certainly Fulci conveys a strong sense of atmosphere (as he does in most
of his flicks). The soundtrack here is the Dolby Digital Mono 2.0.
Anchor Bay includes the original Italian soundtrack and the English
language version (dubbed by the usual folks who did hundreds of
Euro-horror and exploitation movies). Anchor Bay must have cleaned up
the audio, because both soundtracks are free of hiss, background noise,
and distortion. The mono sound exhibits a full range of frequencies with
lots of depth. The gun shots and Western-oriented sound effects are
prominent in the mix. There is an inappropriate choice of scoring here
as the themes of Franco Bixio and Fabio Frizzi are downplayed in favor
of psychedelic rock music (with a Beatles vocal influence) playing
boldly whenever our heroes find themselves traveling. This music does
differentiate FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE from the hundreds of other
Spaghetti Westerns out there. From the special features section, you can
select Talent Bios for Lucio Fulci, Tomas Milian, and Fabio Testi. There
is an amusing English language theatrical trailer for FOUR OF THE
APOCALYPSE which really sums up the movie quite well and is in mint
condition. The trailer is full frame, mono, and runs 3:45. There is also
a 17-minute documentary on Lucio Fulci called FULCI OF THE APOCALYPSE.
This excellent documentary covers the making of this film, told through
the perspective of Fabio Testi and Tomas Milian. Both actors reveal
quite a lot about the production and Fulci himself. This Fulci
documentary is unlike any I’ve seen before and is highly recommended
(I like it better than the film itself!).
None of Fulci’s Spaghetti Westerns will ever be
regarded as the best the genre has to offer. That being said, if you
must pick one of his three Westerns, pick FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE. It’s
got all his trademarks of uneven storytelling, brutal violence, visual
stylistics, and religious overtones. FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE also offers
the other side of the Godfather of Gore that will surely surprise his
fans. Gore-hounds who need to see heads crushed every five minutes
beware: This movie has some feel-good moments and flower-child ambiance
at times. The print on Anchor Bay’s DVD is very good, and comparable
with that of DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972). The extras are slim but
the original documentary is a killer. I cannot recommend FOUR OF THE
APOCALYPSE to Spaghetti Western fans (as there are so many better films
out there like KEOMA, BULLET FOR THE GENERAL, and TEXAS, ADIOS) , but I
can recommend it to all those who worship at the altar of Lucio Fulci.
FOUR
OF THE APOCALYPSE is available from DVDEmpire.com
ONCE
UPON A TIME IN ITALY: FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE/TEXAS ADIOS/KEOMA/A BULLET
FOR THE GENERAL/COMPANEROES is available from DVDEmpire.com
