Barbarosa
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Movie Reviews of Barbarosa
Movie Review: Barbarosa, a different look at the old west.
Summary: 4 Stars
I've always loved the movie, since first seeing it on Cinemax in the early 80's. I was happy with the DVD quality.Movie Review: One of the great late Westerns on a poor DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
Some movies are eternal victims. Case in point: Barbarosa, which had the best script and the worst luck of any of the late-70s-early-80s Westerns. Barely released to theatres after production company ITC went bust, little seen on TV and almost impossible to find on video, it turns up on DVD cropped from the impressive original 2.35:1 widescreen to a very cramped fullscreen 1.33:1, begging the question why bother to release a film in the wrong ratio this day and age?
Even awkwardly cropped it still holds up, managing to straddle the middle ground between the revisionist and the mythical, taking place in a landscape at once all-too real (parched Texas wilderness, ramshackle farmsteads) and stylised (the almost cave-like room where Gilbert Roland's bitter paterfamilias endlessly retells the legend of Barbarosa to each new generation who will grow up to hunt him down and die in the attempt). As the two unlikely partners caught up in pointless blood feuds with their in-laws, Willie Nelson isn't always as good as he should be and it takes a reel or two to get used to his style and Gary Busey is nobody's idea of a Western hero, but their very unlikeliness as movie icons helps sell them as closer to the reality of the old West. And the film is also blessed with one of the best endings of the 80s, as a supposed fiesta becomes almost funereal, the dead faces of the film's `victors' sapped of all purpose until... well, see it for yourself, it's worth it. Barbarosa! Barbarosa! Barbarosa!
Movie Review: DVD Leaves Out Vital Scene
Summary: 3 Stars
This well-filmed western tells the story of two outlaws who join together after each one is unfairly ostracized by his family. The original film contained a critical explanation toward the end of how a common enemy can strengthen a group of people, increasing their resilience and giving them a sense of purpose. But, alas, for some inconceivable reason, that scene with the great actor Gilbert Roland (playing the patriarch of the Zavala family) was cut. Imagine "Citizen Kane" without the explanation of "Rosebud." This is still a good western but if you liked the original, you may be sorely disappointed with the DVD.Movie Review: The Vandal's Cut
Summary: 2 Stars
First, I LOVED "Barbarosa." I was one of the underwhelming few who tracked it down when it was in its original theatrical release, and greedily recorded it on VHS from a widescreen cable broadcast. Alas, that recording is gone, along with a heartbreakingly large quantity of other presently unobtainable material.
The fatal flaw with this product is that it is presented ONLY in what they ironically call "full-screen" format; chop off nearly half of what you saw on the theater screen, and you get "full-screen." This film has been tragically butchered.
The logic of producing this product in this manner utterly eludes me. Those of us who appreciate and value good films enough to lay out our money for an individual title on DVD want to experience the vision of the director who made it, and/or re-experience, as nearly as possible, what we first saw in the theater; not the "vision" of some nameless technician artlessly cropping two noses to fit into the same frame.
This is not a widely known film. Who is more likely to seek out and buy this title? Someone who appreciated it in its original form, and now wants to see it again, or watch it with others he believes could share in his appreciation of it? Or, someone who just needs something the right size and shape to fill the blank picture tube of his standard format television? I posit that ANY piece of junk will fill that empty space, and such a person is far more likely to fill it with free broadcast content than to pay to fill it with this film which they probably never heard of in the first place! I believe that anyone who is looking for this movie will be disappointed or angry that it was hacked apart; it reminds me of knocking the arms and head off from a statue to get it into a packing crate. This was a good-- I'd say great-- movie. No one had to do a thing except transfer it to digital and ship it out the door, and I'd have bought it, and loved it. The director had one vision; whose vision is THIS? Instead of "the director's cut," we're presented with "the vandal's cut."
This is an awful shame, because, as I said in the beginning, I love this movie in its true form. I believe the story is memorably good, the photography was beautiful, the actors were well-chosen. If you can get past the fact that this film was vandalized, there is still much to like. I'm going to wait and hope for an undefiled version to be released, or record it on my computer the next time I see it shown in widescreen on cable. But, if you're too impatient for that, or seeing the original version did not spoil this version for you, then I can recommend this. "Barbarosa" is one of my favorite movies... but, sadly, I do not recognize this version as that movie.
Movie Review: Terrific little-seen western on an awful DVD
Summary: 2 Stars
Fred Schepisi's "Barbarosa" was all but buried on its initial release in 1982, and has seldom been seen since. That's too bad, because William D. Wittliff's literate, poetic script shows genuine feeling for -- and an insider's knowledge of -- the American West. With memorable performances from Willie Nelson and Gary Busey, "Barbarosa" is worth seeing. Unfortunately, the full-frame video transfer here is awful. Given the poor quality of this DVD, the price comes as something of an insult.