A Bona Fide Spaghetti Western Classic! Fifteen years after four bandits massacred his family while executing a $200,000 robbery, a young man (John Phillip Law, Danger: Diabolik) seeks revenge. The men responsible for the murders all hold positions of power in the new west, but now a bandit (Lee Van Cleef, Sabata, Return of Sabata) they had framed for the murders is due to be released from prison… he’s ready to exact bloody reprisals and decides to form an unholy alliance with the vengeance-seeking young man. This stylish revenge tales directed by Giilio Petroni (Tepepa) and written by Luciano Vincenzoni (The Mercenary) featured a strong supporting cast that includes Mario Brega (A Fistful of Dollars), Luigi Pistilli (For a Few Dollars More) and Anthony Dawson (Dial M for Murder) with a haunting and rousing score by legendary maestro Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly).
As embodied by Alan Bates, Butley falls back on the surgically precise wit and savage eloquence that helped put him in his current circumstances in the first place. The blitzkrieg of vitriolic commentary with which Butley engages lovers, students, rivals, and allies, all with equal ferocity, becomes a glass bottom boat illuminating the churning depths of his bankrupted soul. Acclaimed playwright Harold Pinter, in what Time Magazine hailed as “a quite superior directorial debut,” turns author Simon Gray’s single-set, dialogue driven stage play into an irresistible dynamic visual experience that tracks Bates’ hilarious and fearless performance with cunning precision.
Bates and an expert supporting cast, including Oscar® winner Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy), joust with a sly, self-referencing wit and an unselfconscious exuberance that is breathtaking. With every verbal parry and valedictory flourish of wordplay, Butley’s life becomes more of an inescapable bear trap of thwarted ambition, clandestine affection, and squandered brilliance.
