This is a renowned and undeniably interesting Spaghetti Western of the politicized variety which, however, does not make a satisfactory whole. The first half is especially uncertain: his parents having been massacred by land-grabbing Southern aristocrat Mark Damon and his cohorts, a Mexican boy (played by Lou Castel as an adult) is brought up by a family of Quakers; when their rebellious young daughter runs away, he vows to bring her back - however, not only has she been turned into a prostitute in the meantime, but he himself unwittingly disrupts a robbery and becomes a fast-draw overnight, thus making what is perhaps the subgenre's least likely gunslinger (in fact, so inadept is he that he beats his horse with a frying-pan in order to urge it forward)!!

Anaemic cape-wearing Damon (in one of his better roles) seems to have strayed in from some vampire movie, and I was expecting him to bare his fangs at any moment!; he's also something of a racist/misogynist fop with a penchant for speechifying!! There's even some Gothic-style lighting when Damon murders his Mexican wife for helping Castel; unfortunately, this scene and another (in which Castel's 'sister' falls foul of three of Damon's gunmen, one of them her keeper, in the saloon/brothel where she works) seem to have been trimmed in the version I saw (which ran for 102 minutes in PAL format against the official 110!) - for instance, Damon tells his wife just before she expires that she has died a good death but, all the time, the camera is fixed on his expression, so that we don't even know what method he used to dispose of her!!

However, REQUIESCANT (as it was originally called and which is also how Castel is referred to, since he always says prayers over the men he has just killed!) is perhaps best remembered for the presence as actor of controversial film-maker Pier Paolo Pasolini (whose distinctive voice has been dubbed even in the Italian-language version)!; still, his role isn't up to much (a Mexican priest in peasant garb who turns up intermittently to spout revolutionary ideology),coming into play mainly towards the end, and could have been played by just anybody; also recruited for the film were Pasolini regulars Franco Citti as a heavy and Ninetto Davoli as a trumpeter (the scene where Pasolini and his gang do an impromptu musical number in a saloon to distract the customers' attention from Castel's 'sabotage' is unintentionally hilarious).

The film's best moments, then, are mostly concentrated in its second half: Castel's realization of who he really is when taken to the place where his people met their doom (featuring a flashback to the opening scene tinted blood-red); a contest between Castel and Damon (shooting drunkenly from a distance at a woman holding candelabras); the duel scene at the saloon, perhaps the most original I've ever watched, in which Castel and blond womanizer Ferruccio Viotti are both standing on a stool and have their heads in a noose - and the first to shoot off the foot of the stool will see the other hang!; the destruction of the abandoned fort in which Castel is presumed dead; and Damon's protracted death scene, which first sees him put out of action by Castel's gunfire and subsequently interred by a tumbling church-bell! Riz Ortolani's score is a good one, too.

In Fort Hernandez, San Antonio, a group of Mexican villagers is betrayed by Confederate soldiers led by aristocratic Officer George Bellow Ferguson (Mark Damon) and they are slaughtered. After the massacre, the boy Requiescant wanders in the desert but he is rescued by the religious Father Jeremy that is traveling with his wife and daughter in his wagon. The boy is raised like a son and when he grows-up, Requiescant (Lou Castel) is very close to his stepsister Princy (Barbara Frey). One day, the rebellious Princy leaves her family, traveling with a theater company. Requiescant promises to his foster family to seek Princy out and bring her back home. Along his journey, Requiescant proves that he is a great skill with his gun to self-protect. When he arrives in San Antonio, he finds that the city belongs to Ferguson. He goes to a saloon and he finds that Princy has become a prostitute pimped by Ferguson's henchman, the gunslinger Dean Light (Ferruccio Viotti). Requiescant asks Ferguson to let Princy go with him, but the boss of the town is reluctant to release her. When Requiescant learns that he is Mexican and the fate of his family, he decides to help the priest Don Juan (Pier Paolo Pasolini) to start an uprising against Ferguson.

"Requiescant" is a western with a story that does not work well, actually is absurd. The promising beginning, with the massacre of the Mexican people, has a silly motive to bring Requiescant back to his hometown. His ability with a gun has no explanation and when he finds that his stepsister is a whore, the plot becomes ridiculous .The sequence with Requiescant asking Ferguson to let Princy go is corny and the dispute of Princy while drinking wine is dreadful. I was curious to see Pier Paolo Pasolini and probably this is the only attraction in this film. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Réquiem para Matar" ("Requiem to Kill")

REQUIESCANT is a well-shot spaghetti western with a solid revenge plotline bolstered by some great desert photography and more suspense than most. As an Italian film, it's full of religious imagery and righteous vengeance weighs in heavy here. The unknown-to-me Lou Castel plays the sole survivor of a massacre who grows up to be a gun-toting fighter gunning for revenge. Mark Damon is cast against type as the traitorous villain of the piece while director Pier Paolo Pasolini contributes an acting role here and you wouldn't know he's not a natural. The thrills are thin on the ground, but the film builds up a sense of slow-burning justice and the ending is quite satisfying.