Tepepa (1968)

An interesting political Spaghetti Western. It two linked stories. First, the political story of a Mexican revolutionary, Tepepa (Tomas Milian), his disillusionment with the lack of change after the revolution, and his continued fight to bring about real change. Orson Welles mumbles and stumbles his way through the role of an evil Mexican Colonel who is out to get Tepepa, and while the performance could not be described as “whole-hearted” his does end up convincing as a surprisingly cunning corrupt authority figure. Second the personal story of an English doctor (John Steiner) who is seeking revenge on Tepepa for the rape of his financée.

I think the message of the film is that Tepepa’s strength as a revolutionary should excuse his personal failings (mostly his violence against women through the film), which I suspect is a message that plays slightly badly to a modern audience. It is an interesting premise though: the doctor’s personal revenge story us certainly justified (especially by the standards of the Spaghetti Western), but he does not display huge sympathy for the oppressed Mexican peasants he passes (although neither is he outright cruel to them). Similarly Tepepa’s revolutionary quest is portrayed as clearly being “right”.

It’s an unusual combination of two very black-and-white stories to produce a much less black-and-white story. I personally thought that the individual stories were perhaps too clear-cut to justify the 2hr 10min running time: there really isn’t much depth beyond the superficial description here, but none-the-less its in the upper tier of Spaghetti Westerns.

The Koch Media Blu-Ray looks good throughout (the Spaghetti Western database has some screenshots which although from the DVD version give a reasonable idea of the general appearance). The English sound-track has quite a few drop-outs (to Italian with English subtitles) which is probably unavoidable and as good as it’s going to get, and is a bit unclear in places (but that may be Orson Well’s fault).