Monte Hellman's China 9, Liberty 37.

Monte Hellman's China 9, Liberty 37 (the original Italian title was Amore, Piombo e Furore: Lead. Love and Rage) came out in 1978, at the very end of the so-called Spaghetti Westerns cycle, which reached its peak with Sergio Leone's impressive epic Once Upon a Time in the West (C'era Una Volta il West), 1969.  Although China 9, Liberty 37 was screened once in the Film Forum series of such Westerns in 2012 it is often not considered an Italian Western, because it was directed by Hellman, an American.  That series at Film Forum was clear evidence that Leone was the only Italian director to make quality Westerns; Leone's Westerns filtered American history through a European sensibility.

I first saw Hellman's film at the Thalia theatre in 1978 and not again until Turner Classic Movies showed a complete, pristine, widescreen print this week.  I originally was taken aback by the nudity and eroticism in the film (in a Western!), starring Fabio Testi, Warren Oates and Jenny Agutter.  The soundtrack is also a bit of a problem: Testi seems to have dubbed his own dialogue and can't be understood most of the time and the dialogue is sometimes drowned out by the music (though Pino Donaggio is no Ennio Morricone the music is not bad, and Ronee Blakley's rendition of the title tune, when Testi and Agutter are making love, is appropriately passionate).  Hellman has only made a few films in his career, but his austere Westerns of the 60's --The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind (both 1966) -- were effective preparation for the elegant style of China 9, Liberty 37; this title is supposedly an actual road sign in Texas, though in the context of the film it suggests that China may be easier to find than freedom, as Agutter unsuccessfully tries to kill her abusive husband Oates and run off with Testi.  The cinematographer is Giuseppe Rotunno, of many Fellini films, whom Hellman uses to capture the rich browns, greens and blues of the landscape, including the deep valley in which Oates and Agutter reside, holding out against the railroad trying to get their land.  Hellman's film also has an effective cameo by director Sam Peckinpah, who plays a pulp writer ("I bring the West to the East") and whose films often included Warren Oates in the cast.

Much has been made of Fabio Testi's hat in the film, a hat similar to that of silent Western heroes such as Tom Mix and William S. Hart.  Hellman clearly wants to make us aware of the continuing vitality of the Western, going back to silent films, just as John Ford did in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962.