Undescribable Perfection

Just perfect...

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An uneven blend of comedy and violence undermines Mario Bianchi's low-budget Spaghetti western "For A Book of Dollars," with Lincoln Tate as a sharp-shooting bounty hunter who comes to the aid of a quartet of nuns. You can tell that this Spaghetti was lensed exclusively in Italy and mostly on a set since most of the middle of the movie occurs in a village where a murderous gang rule. The action unfolds with our buckskin-clad gunslinger riding through the country. He reins up his horse near a stream and dismounts to refresh himself with some water. Three tough-talking, loud-mouthed hombres surprise him, and Amen surprises them by gunning all three down. The scene shifts to a bunch of nuns heading for a nearby town where on of their sisters is hoping to find a dentist. She winds up in the hands of a blacksmith and he extracts her tooth. During their ride to the town in a buggy, the nuns and their ineffectual driver are waylaid by outlaws. Later, the head nun, Sister Angela (Gabriella Farinon of "Assignment: Outer Space") hires Amen to get their loot back after a stuttering sheriff (Francesco D'Adda of "Stormtroopers") refuses to pursue the villains. Amen goes after the gang led by a boastful outlaw named Catapult (Gianclaudio Jabes of "Acquasanta Joe") who happens to own a catapult. His favorite pastime is to jam firecrackers into the pants of innocent bystanders and hurl them into the air with a catapult so everybody in his gang can laugh their sombreros. Amen rides into Catapult's town and he is placed in confinement while the outlaws amuse themselves with their catapult. Eventually, Sister Angela shows up and helps him escape and he takes the villains. This altogether forgettable horse opera generates little excitement because the villains are a lackluster gang who never pose a real problem for our indestructible protagonist. Amen looks like pony express rider more than a bounty hunter. The comedy is lowest common denominator material, particularly when Amen spikes a keg of liquor with something that prompts all the outlaws to lose control of their bowels.

FOR A BOOK OF DOLLARS is a routine spaghetti western, posited as a comedy but never very funny or particularly appealing. The main draw is that the film features a squad of nuns who turn out to be female mercenaries in disguise, desperate to get their hands on an outlaw's loot. To this end they hire a gunslinger called Amen to help them get it. Don't expect much in the way of shoot-outs or action here, because this is all about exaggerated characters and silly situations, with bad dubbing to boot. The static nature of the production sees most of the antics play out in a single location. It feels mostly like a cheap rip-off of Eastwood's THE BEGUILED, and just as dull as it sounds.