Death Rides A Horse Review

Death Rides A Horse Review

The problem with a lot of spaghetti westerns is that most people either don’t know that they exist, or dismiss them as being awful. With quite a few spaghetti westerns, this might be the case, but Death Rides A Horse is not to be underestimated. Starring John Phillip Law and the more well known Lee Van Cleef, the film grips you from the opening and refuses to let go.

Bill’s (John Phillip Law) family was massacred when he was a child, and now he wants revenge by hunting down and killing the four outlaws responsible. Unfortunately, another man, Ryan (Lee Van Cleef) wants them for a different reason; he wants 15,000 dollars for every year he spent in jail off each one of them. The two start off working against each other, but eventually decide to help one another defeat the outlaws and retrieve the money from them.

Great gunplay, with tense duels and epic shootouts, adds to a decent plot with an important twist. Locations are also impressive, and some clever lines and occasional slight comedy only help to increase it’s rating. But there are a few downsides; the music is nothing special, although effective in places, and the acting is rather basic sometimes. Apart from that, quality stuff in a classic spaghetti western.

Rating: 4.5/5

Below are some videos relating to the film including a memorable gundown, and a music sample of the main theme. At the bottom, there is a link to watch the whole film. The quality may appear poor at the beginning, but after that, it's OK on fullscreen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcZPw8-iO-Y&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7Csc_Hg65Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff-kQ-UmflA

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6669905970852927917&hl=en#