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Trigger Warning: Giancarlo Santi's THE GRAND DUEL

 THE GRAND DUEL (aka STORMRIDERS, aka THE BIG SHOWDOWN) 

Lee Van Cleef, Alberto Dantrice. Dir. Giancarlo Santi, Mount Street, 1972
(half of 2013 Mill Creek Bluray)

FAIR WARNING: The following writeup contains references to both STAR WARS & GEORGE LUCAS.

Yesterday, I tweeted my Sunday Western triple feature consisted of THE GRAND DUEL, KEOMA, and THE BEGUILED, the original version. Too ambitious, by 2/3. Though I particularly intended to write up GRAND DUEL and KEOMA since they're part of the same Mill Creek Bluray, I nodded off during the latter, worn out from staring at my phone for three hours as I wrote about watching THE WITCH Saturday night. When I woke up I decided to knock off the movies, smoke, and relax with NPR's HEARTS OF SPACE & ECHOES, yet now, 7.5 hours later, I'm still awake and keen to write about Giancarlo Santi's 1972 Spaghetti Western. I guess I can always write KEOMA up here later and retweet the expanded piece.

I don't like going negative, but THE GRAND DUEL's Wikipedia article leaves much to be desired. It omits co-star Alberto Dantrice's name from its cast list, for one thing, which is particularly glaring since it's Dantrice as outlaw Philip Vermeer, whose journey of discovery to find out who murdered his father and framed him for the murder of the powerful Saxon clan's patriarch, provides the catalyst for the movie's action. What the article DOES do is quote someone named Fridlund to the effect that, in GRAND DUEL, "the relationship between Wermeer and Clayton before their arrival to Saxon City follows the stories of the (commercially more successful) Spaghetti Western films Death Rides a Horse and Day of Anger, about the relationship between an older gunfighter and a younger protagonist, and he further traces the root of this type of plot to the play between the younger and the older bounty killer in For a Few Dollars More."

It's an interesting insight, though just as interesting that Fridlund doesn't observe that the relationship between Van Cleef and Dantrice echoes archetypal, alchemical/mystical master&apprentice relationships in a deliberate, self-conscious way. Wermeer's search for justice for himself and his father aligns with the archetypal hero's quest myth, and Santi salts the story with religious/mystical allusions, like the Stage Driver who reckons all timespans as lasting "three days and three nights," the length Jonah spent in the whale's belly and Christ in the tomb. Three, the numerological symbol of the holy trinity, appears throughout the story. The stage carries three interrelated passengers apart from Van Cleef. The reward for capturing Wermeer is $3,000, he's pursued by three bounty hunters, who plan to turn him over to the three Saxon Brothers. It's not difficult to imagine heavily Catholic Italian and Spanish audiences eating the symbolism up. It certainly grabbed me.

Get ready: here comes the STAR WARS references. While both the hero's quest and the master&apprentice archetypes form the basis for countless stories in every medium, from John the Baptist & Christ to Merlin & Arthur, Van Cleef & Dantrice's relationship not only mirrors Obi Wan Kenobi & Luke, it includes an exchange of dialogue in which Van Cleef misses Kenobi's "I must go alone. Your destiny lies along a different path," by a few words. It COULD be coincidence, but it's a big damn coincidence. It's hard to believe Lucas did NOT look at GRAND DUEL among the westerns which inspired A NEW HOPE.

Fortunately for SW agnostics, GRAND DUEL works as a movie perfectly well without drawing comparisons to Lucas. Though Santi, who worked with Leone on A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, faithfully replicates the Master's aesthetic, tonally GRAND DUEL reminded me more of Richard Moore's 1978 martial arts meditation, CIRCLE OF IRON, which Bruce Lee had planned to make before he died. Santi's blend of ultraviolent set pieces, particularly the climactic duel between Van Cleef, Dantrice, and the Saxons, and the mythic-quest structure make THE GRAND DUEL mandatory viewing for all Spaghetti Western fans. Calling the film a pleasant surprise WOULD be damning with faint praise. I fucking LOVED THE GRAND DUEL. It's one of the best of the still-too-few Spaghetti Westerns I've seen.

KEOMA - TBP. To be posted. Soon. Promise.




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