Boot Hill (La collina degli stivali) (1969)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Spaghetti Western	Reversible Cover
Rating
Year Of Production	1969
Running Time	86:20 (Case: 84)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Giuseppe Colizzi
Studio Distributor	Bounty Films	Starring	Terrence Hill Bud Spencer Woody Strode Lionel Stander Victor Buono Glauco Onorato George Eastman
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Carlo Rustichelli

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     As Boot Hill opens the circus is in town and scenes with clowns, dancing girls and trapeze artists, being watched with various degrees of interest by the audience, are intercut with scenes outside the circus tent where a man, Cat (Terrence Hill), is being hunted and shot by a group of gunmen. Next day the circus leaves town and Thomas (Woody Strode) finds the badly wounded Cat in one of their wagons. Together with the owner of the circus, Mamy (Lionel Stander), they care for Cat until the next town when Cat rides away. But gunmen have followed the circus and cause the death of one of the trapeze artists before leaving.

     Thomas goes looking for Cat, both to try to understand what is happening and to get revenge for the dead circus performer. When Thomas catches up with Cat he learns that a town in the hills has struck gold and that Fisher (Victor Buono) is using thugs led by Finch (Glauco Onorato) to intimidate or murder people in order to take their claims. A friend of Cat’s had entrusted him with his claim documents to try to keep them out of Fisher’s hands which was why the gunmen were after Cat. When Cat has recovered from his wound the two enlist Cat’s old friend Hutch (Bud Spencer) and his companion Baby Doll (George Eastman) and, making a plan with the circus performers, set out to take down Fisher and his gunmen.

     Boot Hill (original title La collina degli stivali) has garnered negative reactions from fans of spaghetti westerns and / or fans of Terrence Hill (born (Mario Girotti) and Bud Spencer (born Carlo Pedersoli). It is easy to see why as Boot Hill is a strange film and an unusual spaghetti western which does not confirm with many of the spaghetti western conventions. As well, it is certainly not a comedy western in the style of Hill and Spencer’s later collaborations such as They Call Me Trinity (1970) and its sequels which may be what fans were looking for.

     In fact, Boot Hill was Hill and Spencer’s third western with writer / director Giuseppe Colizzi following God Forgives . . . I Don’t (1967) and Ace High (1968), none of which featured comedy! Boot Hill, in fact, is a dark and gritty tale of corruption and revenge that for three quarters of its running time is a good, interesting film. The opening sequence is impressive and well-staged, intercutting the music inside the circus tent, the coloured faces of the clowns and the colourful circus performers with the deadly hunt taking place outside in the dark alleys and streets of the town. The middle section is rather slow and convoluted, introducing such characters as “Baby Doll”, but then the build-up to the climax is fine and the shoot-out in the dark between our heroes and the hordes of bad-guy gunmen is decently executed. Yet then the film seems to lose steam: the showdown between Cat and the leading villains is perfunctory to say the least before, for some reason, the film forgets about the gunfight and ends with a comic bar-room brawl that may as well have come from another film.

     There are, however, other joys to be had in Boot Hill. The dusty landscapes and drab, dusty towns look good and watching the great Woody Strode, so memorable in Spartacus (1960) and in his superb cameo in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), is always worthwhile. The score by Carlo Rustichelli is also interesting. Rustichelli had 373 credits listed on the IMDb in a range of genres including scoring Blood and Black Lace (1964) for Mario Bava. His score for Boot Hill deliberately stays away from anything referencing Ennio Morricone; instead in the wideshots it sounds like a traditional dramatic western orchestral score while circus themes and jazz like sections also occur in other places. It is unusual and certainly a different sounding spaghetti western score.

     Boot Hill is not overly violent. There are of course gunfights, and the barroom brawl, but blood and gore is minimal. Instead, it is more of a revenge drama in which the clowns and the circus performers provide colour and interest. Boot Hill is a decent film and I feel that because the film was neither your usual spaghetti western nor a Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer low comedy western it has been underrated.

     Boot Hill has been shown in a variety of cuts since its release with running times that vary between 73 minutes and 100 minutes. For example, following the success of the “Trinity” films, in the late 1970’s Boot Hill was recut to add more comedy elements so this is likely to be one of the longer versions. For come comparisons of various cuts see here and here.

     It is hard to tell just which version of Boot Hill we have on this release. It has the Italian credits, is 1.85:1, PAL, runs 86 minutes and looks a lot like the “new” German PAL DVD shown in the first comparison above.

Video

     Boot Hill is presented in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced. The IMDb gives the film’s original aspect ratio as 2.35:1 which is likely to be right as some scenes look cropped, although not badly so. As far as I can see all current releases are 1.85:1. I guess we have what we have.

     I was impressed with the print. Some scenes looked soft with quite prominent grain but others were very sharp showing the sweat on the faces of the gunfighters and the colourful clown make-up. Indeed, colours were good; the performers’ costumes and clown make-up was bright and clean which was nicely in contrast to the dusty and stained clothing of the townspeople and gunfighters. Blacks were fine and shadow detail acceptable, although occasionally indistinct, skin tones good and brightness and contrast consistent.

     Other than a few very minor speckles, this was a clean print.

     No subtitles are provided.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The only audio is English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono at 224 Kbps.

     The film was originally shown with mono sound. Dialogue is clear and the effects, such as gunshots, horses’ hooves and wagon wheels are sharp and loud. As noted, the original score by Carlo Rustichelli was a unusual.

    This was a multinational cast, speaking various languages on set, and all the dialogue was looped. In this English version Woody Strode loops himself well but for most of the other cast lip synchronisation varies. I did not notice any hiss or crackles.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     The DVD has a reversible cover but no extras. The static menu offers only Play Movie / Chapters.

     Amazon lists a Region 1 NTSC and a Region Free European PAL version of Boot Hill. None, as far as I can tell, are in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

     Boot Hill has been labelled by some as one of the worst spaghetti westerns. This is to undervalue the film for it is, for most of its running time, an unusual and interesting film with impressive set pieces, a good premise and some charismatic stars. If you don’t expect a standard spaghetti western or a low comedy Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer western then Boot Hill is well worth a look.

     The aspect ratio is incorrect, but other available releases are the same. The film looks very good and at least we get an inexpensive release in this country thanks to Bounty for which fans will be thankful.

     Note re: Rating. The DVD cover and the DVD itself indicate the film is classified “PG”. When the DVD loads, however, a screen shows the film as rated “M”. The Australian Government Classification site shows that versions of the film have been classified as both “M” and “PG”. This is certainly not a bloody or violent film so a PG is probably justified.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall