Revolver. 1973. Italy/West Germany/France. Directed by Sergio Sollima. Screenplay by Dino Maiuri, Massimo De Rita, Sollima. With Oliver Reed, Fabio Testi, Agostina Belli, Paola Pitagora. In Italian; English subtitles. DCP. 111 min.
An Italian resistance fighter during World War II, Sergio Solima wrote and directed some of the most socially conscious Spaghetti Westerns The Big Gundown and political crime thrillers, or poliziotteschi, of the 1960s and ’70s. Revolver is a gripping example of the latter, the bitterly cynical story of a deputy prison warden (Oliver Reed) who becomes a pawn in a shadowy conspiracy when his wife is kidnapped by the mob and he’s forced to ally with a convict (Fabio Testi). The film boasts one of Ennio Morricone’s most propulsive scores, anticipating that of Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables. Quentin Tarantino, a giddy fan both of Solima and Morricone, quoted the beautiful “Un amico” for the climax of his Inglourious Basterds, the song that seems to capture a lover’s—or a criminal’s—inclination to hope against hope.