Word: barbarosa
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Dates: during 1982-1982
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...Barbarosa does not remain in the region merely to feed the feud, but rather to feed the myth surrounding the feud. In essence he is only a loner and sometime petty robber preying on squalid little settlements in the region, who takes karlas an apprentice of sorts. The sincere bumbling Karl himself becomes entrenched in the Barbarosa legend, as the "baby gringo," a Sancho Panza to Barbarosa's Quixote...
...BARBAROSA IS THUS NOT so much about these two men as about the legend that engulfs them both. Barbarosa, having escaped from the grave of his enemies by playing dead, goes back to the Zabala household. Inside they are already singing songs of his latest exploit, renewing the legend with their soleman incantations to kill him Barbarosa's smile belies his rapt attention, his pleasure at playing the role of mythical phoenix of the desert: in truth he thrives on the menacing proximity of the Zabalas...
While the subject matter may seem grim and violent, the movie's tone is actually quite gentle, because Schepisi and his writer, William D. Witliff, concentrate on the legend itself. The basic human passions of hatred, bloodlust and revenge are really only minor catalysts in the world of Barbarosa, there to fuel the ritual. The legend of Barbarosa is far greater, far more important than Barbarosa's actions, than even Barbarosa himself, as he has chosen his successor in Karl...
...Barbarosa, Nelson lets his weather-beaten features speak for themselves, like the landscape. Though he delivers his lines effectively and emotionally, he still doesn't so much act as lend his corporeal presence to the film. Though we never learn much about the man, we can still appreciate the legend in full force. Gary Busey, a terribly underrated actor, is equally magnificent in his transition from a clumsily sensitive young man, to a man equaling Barbarosa's legendary stature. The whole film shows a great care and craftsmanship rarely seen nowadays in bigger productions...
...Barbarosa's best--and most telling--scenes has Barbarosa lying in his grave in a bandit campsite, blood seeping through his shirt from a bullet hole. But as the hard dry earth is almost completely shoveled over him, he shifts, jumps out, and is off again to renew his own myth. Similarly, as the commercial vultures of oblivion have been circling over the Western as a film genre, it too has suddenly shaken off the grave dust, at least provisionally, thanks to Schepisi...