J-J-J-J-Just s-s- s-s-

- Darwyn Cooke, one of my favourite cartoonists, tries his hand at hard-boiled crime comics with "The Hunter", an adaptation of one of Richard Stark's Parker novels. Which looks beautiful, and knowing the estimable, scarily talented Cooke (if you haven't read "New Frontier" you need to go to Amazon right now and buy it) will be a great read too:



- Last year I was dreading Sam Mendes' adaptation of "Revolutionary Road", because the director was wrong, the casting was wronger, and the mere fact of the movie was wrongest. This year I find I'm looking forward, sorta, to John Hillcoat's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". Interesting director, great screenwriter (Joe Penhall) and good casting of Viggo Mortensen in the lead. But when I read and loved the book I wasn't father to a little boy. Now I am, and I imagine that the film may be unbearably moving, if it captures even a tenth of the book's power. Anyway, the long-awaited trailer, featuring an excrutiating first 20 seconds or so of exposition reportedly entirely absent from the finished cut:



- Chris Ware, genius that he is, has contributed this amazing little single-page story about web culture and virtual friendship to Wired, which is almost worth buying the magazine for:



- Hernanes, next next-big-thing from Brazil, is currently playmaker for Sao Paolo, the country's most successful club in recent years. No doubt he'll be in Europe soon at a Big Italian, Spanish or Portuguese club. Its safe to say he's quite useful:



- The novelist Rick Moody is of that generation of US writers (alongside the likes of Jonathan Lethem and Michael Chabon, say) whose work is absolutely suffused in pop culture. Its an explicit presence in all of his writing, from the use of the Fantastic Four as a metaphor in "The Ice Storm", to the film references in "The Diviners". But music seems to have a particular centrality in Moody's worldview, as indicated by the references to the Jersey scene of the early 80s in "Garden State" and a particular story in his collection, "Demonology". "Wilkie Fahnstock: The Boxed Set" is a short story in the form of a set of liner notes to a 10-volume mix-tape chronicling the title character's life. The tracklisting is in a column on one side of the page, the liner notes in another. Moody has good, interesting, varied taste in music, which goes along way to redeeming the clever-clever aspects of the conceit. "The Feelies", one of the great lost bands of the 80s, feature prominently in "Garden State", and "Wilkie Fahnstock" is almost the perfect hipster playlist in its careful eclecticism.
Recently he's started to write a music blog for The Rumpus , which is a good read if you're interested in that kind of thing (Jazz, Springsteen, Syd Shaw, Frank Zappa) or in Moody's writing in general. Last year he also contributed a fascinating, rewarding playlist to the New York Times , which is, pleasingly, surprisingly heavy on folk music, not an interest I would have ever suspected Moody of having...all of which is basically just an excuse allowing me to post this. The Feelies greatest song, and one of my favourite songs of all time, "The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness":



- Robert E. Howard created a slew of characters, but the 3 most important are the most visible in modern popular culture. Conan The Cimmerian, of course, is arguably the most popular and recognisable character in all fantasy literature, Tolkein excluded. Kull the Conqueror was the hero of a Kevin Sorbo film a few years ago. But the influence of Solomon Kane is more subtle. A 17th Century English Puritan gunman who travels widely across Africa and Europe, fighting and converting heathens, his character is more difficult and less instantly appealing. His influence is obvious visually across the fantasy and SF genres, however. Both Vampire Hunter D. and Van Helsing (and even V, in V for Vendetta, to some extent) are dead ringers for Kane. Kane himself seems to have been developed as a period version of the Shadow, in hatwear and cape, at least. But a new film, starring James Purefoy in the title role, should bring Kane himself into the cultural spotlight to some extent. Illustrator Gary Gianni has done some terrific Kane work in the past, perhaps establishing a definitive look for the character, which even that film appears to echo.



- I've talked here before about my affection for "Red Dead Revolver". Well, the sequel is incoming. Only this time its a free-roaming game, GTA in the West by all accounts. "Gun", only good, I'm hoping. Also hopeful that this has better acting, characters and plotting than GTA, and less tedium. Oh yeah, and more choice spaghetti soundtrack cuts. Whatever, the trailer looks great:



- Speaking of spaghetti Western soundtracks, the Cannes programme includes a listing of the Soundtrack for Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds". The best thing about each of his last three films has been the soundtrack, and this one sounds just as good, stuffed to the gills as it is with Morricone, Tiomkin, both Charles and Elmer Bernstein, Gianni Ferrio and Lalo Schifrin, with just a little bit of Billy Preston and Bowie/Moroder thrown in. I am there. ITunes, I mean...

- YouTube is a treasure trove of boxing footage. When I was a kid, boxing was awesome. Giants still fought in the heavyweight division. Ali had only just retired. Larry Holmes was in his pomp. A young pitbull named Tyson was carving his name in the division in short, brutal fights. But even better was the Middleweight division, where the "Four Kings" co-existed to create the richest division since the Heavyweight era of Ali, Frasier, Foreman and Norton in the 1970s. Those four fighters were Roberto Duran, "Sugar" Ray Leonard, Thomas "Hitman" Hearns and "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler. They fought each other in different combinations over the course of a decade, creating a series of classic encounters. The most classic was "the War" between Undisputed World Champion Hagler and in-form Hearns at Caesars Palace on April 15, 1985. The first round may be the most exciting I've ever seen, and I vividly remember watching it in a Saturday morning ITV replay with my Dad. I doubt any fight I've seen since has really lived up to it, in its relentlessly gripping pace, its clash of style and personality and the sense that it was two true Greats, and equals at that, determined to beat the crap out of one another. Consider that the early stunning right Hearns catches Hagler with broke Hearns' hand. Consider that Hagler had only seconds before the fight would be stopped due to his bleeding eye. Consider that this fight is like something from a video game. When you've finished watching this, follow the links to watch Part 2. You know its right:



Top?
Valerie Perrine.
Miss Tesmacher to you, bud.

Scoring

Welcome to my most self-indulgent post ever. If you don't like football or don't play FIFA, I'd advise you skip it. Really.

Still here? Ok.

FIFA 09: 6 Goals

David Silva for Spain vs France

Spain are perhaps my favourite team to play as. As in the real world, the entire team has ridiculously solid technique, making their possession game both a necessity and a joy. As Spain - and a few other teams similarly bestowed with creativity and technique - I can keep the ball endlessly, playing in little first time triangles, shifting the play all across the pitch. The magic midfield line-up of Xavi-Senna- Iniesta-Silva is a beautiful thing. And ahead of it are Torres and Villa, to my mind the best strike pairing in the entire game. Villa can seemingly do anything, and he scores goals of unlikely quality: shots from distance, free-kicks, volleys, tap-ins, headers, dribbles...nothing is beyond him in front of goal. Alongside him, Torres' pace is a lethal weapon. I have scored more goals playing through-balls for an on-the-shoulder striker to run onto than of any other kind (though this goal probably belongs in the category of the second most common kind of goal I've scored - the pounce upon a rebound from a save) , and Torres is perhaps the best player in FIFA 09 at playing to this tactic. His pace, once he gets on the ball, is terrifying, and he is virtually uncatchable by legal means. Spain just seem to have goals in them at any point during a game. And its always lovely to look at...

Near the end of a tight game under the floodlights at the Mestalla. A goalless stalemate so far, despite Torres striking a post and Villa twice clipping the crossbar, and Henry being denied in a one-on-one by the onrushing and suicidally brave Casillas. Spain dominate possession while France break with pace down the flanks, usually via the elusive Ribery.
Spain are stroking the ball around in midfield, as they have done all game. Xavi takes a touch, turns away from the pressing Toulalan, then plays the ball off to Senna, who finds him with the return, Toulalan now lost in the space between them. Seeing the opportunity, Xavi plays in Torres with a first-time ball along the turf. Torres, who has made a run along the edge of the box, turns speedily into the area as Gallas closes towards him.
Torres deigns not to shoot and instead cuts it back for Villa, near the penalty spot. The ball is a little behind him and his shot is not as powerful as it should be, but it forces the keeper to dive to his right to save it, then Mexes hooks it clear.
It arcs out of the box towards David Silva, loitering near the left touchline. He takes a short run and hits it first-time, on the volley and it travels over the crowd of players in the area and into the far top corner like an exocet, the keeper barely having moved. Silva may even have done the robot in celebration.



Juan Roman Riquelme for Boca Juniors vs Sao Paolo

Boca are probably the team I play as on the most regular basis, and it is a source of massive heartache that the Argentine League is not one of the featured leagues, and something EA should address forthwith. I would play as Estudiantes, Lanus and Independiente, for instance. I never ever play the Danish League. Or the J-League or K-League. Anyway, I have to create tournaments if I want to "manage" Boca the way I can Man Utd or Barcelona, say. And, being a stickler for some sort of realism, I tend to make my tournaments regional in nature. So Boca play River Plate, obviously, the bigger Mexican clubs, and a lot of Brazilian teams. Probably the strongest of these teams is Sao Paolo, who are pacy all over the pitch and always tough to beat. Boca play a short-passing game, you see, meaning you need to be at your best to unlock a well-organised team, and that it is extremely difficult against the big European Super-Clubs, who all have considerably better stats.
The pace of Palacio upfront or even Vargas in midfield is no use against a team as fast over the ground as Sao Paolo. But I love playing as Boca. Riquelme, who the commentary in Fifa 08 branded "the orchestrator of the midfield" is just that, on the ball more than anybody else in every game. He also breaks into the box to score crucial goals, as his finishing is almost as good as his passing. This goal, however, was sort of a fluke. I meant it, but it shouldn't have worked.

Boca pass it out from the back, creating little triangles between defenders and then feeding defensive midfielder Sebastian Battaglia, who turns and slides it to Riquelme, hovering, back to goal, near the halfway line. He turns with a little backheel. He has space, a snatch of time. There is no pass on save for a safe ball out to the flank. Instead he looks up, and instantly shoots. One stroke of the boot and the ball is high in the air and traveling at pace in a low arc over the pitch. The goalkeeper is scrambling already and then, somehow, ridiculously, the ball is passing into the net just under the crossbar, the keeper in a heap on the goal line.
1-0 Boca. Beautiful. Later Riquelme would sweep a free kick into the top corner, just to make the result safe, before Palacio stabbed a Palermo cutback inside the near post in injury time to flatter the Argentines with a 3-0.


Kaka for Brazil vs Paraguay

The problem with Brazil is that midfield. Two destroyers in the middle makes them slightly less terrifying than they should be, despite the amazing attacking talent at the top of the pitch (Ronaldinho, Adriano and Robinho in addition to Kaka, with Pato and Diego on the bench). So I changed it. What does Dunga know? I put in Thiago Motta and Felipe Melo, more rounded players, giving the team a more creative element in that area. Motta, in particular is adept at charging forward and delivering telling passes to the forward players. Altough sometimes they do that themselves. for years, when PES was in its pomp and lording it over FIFA, the accusation most commonly made of EA's game was that it was too easy. That you could pick up the ball with one player and dribble right the way through the opposition to score. There may even have been something to this, back then. But for the last 2 years, PES has been the easier, more Arcade game, all unrealistically pacy players and spectacular goals. FIFA is now a game where tactics and patience matter, where goals can be rare and precious for that. And yet it can be spectacular and even beautiful when something goes right. In short, its a true simulation, it feels like football. PES feels like a game. Made by people who want football to be more like a game. Sometimes, though, with the right player at the right moment in the right game and the right coordination, its still possible to score one of those "beat-the-entire-defence" goals in FIFA 09...

Kaka takes the ball from Melo inside his own half. Brazil already lead 2-0. He turns and sets off at pace, beating a midfielder with his speed within two strides, then turning past another. Passes open up for him; Robinho making a run towards the box to his left, Ronaldinho loitering in safe distance. He ignores them. The penalty box is in view now and he performs a step-over and then slaloms between two defenders with a burst of acceleration and into it, heading towards the corner flag, the keeper unsure whether to come out or not. Morel-Rodriguez, the Paraguayan left back, is charging at him and will be there in an instant. Kaka clips the ball just as the keeper commits himself and before Rodriguez arrives and it flicks almost apologetically over his ankle and nestles in the side netting just inside the far post, the goalkeeper skidding into Kaka as Brazil begin to celebrate. He has beaten four or five players and run from the halfway line.



Berbatov for Manchester United vs Arsenal

United are too good in FIFA. Its too easy. No team really measures up. Strong in defence, able to pass it through the middle, quick and inventive on the flanks and with an awesome array of attacking options. If I play as United and get an early goal, it is usually the first of many. Rooney scores amazing goals, of course, as do Ronaldo and Tevez. But Berbatov seems programmed in FIFA to play as a poacher, which he isn't remotely in real life. So he finishes off long passing moves. He scores tap-ins. The real Berbatov likes to drop back and dictate the play, to create for others. Here Rooney does that job. This Berbatov is also blessed with the kind of pace the real Berbatov can only dream of, or at least rarely displays. But one thing is legitimate: that divine touch. That elegance of movement and vision. I usually prefer Tevez. But Berbatov is better in the air and the EA version isn't as seemingly lazy as the real Dimitar...this goal was maybe the second time that trying this had ever worked for me. Which was exhilarating. Especially against Arsenal.

A night time game at the Emirates. United lead 1-0 from an early Rooney missile from the edge of the box. Arsenal have had a couple of chances, and have finally gone all cavalier in the last minutes of the game in a desperate attempt to score an equaliser. As a result, United are breaking and threatening every minute or so. On this occasion, Giggs plays a smart first time ball to Berbatov after an Arsenal move has broken down at the feet of Carrick. Berbatove nudges it to Rooney, again first time, and Rooney rounds Sagna and plays it back into Berbatov's path. Gallas and Toure snap at his heels as he approaches the box. Goalkeeper Almunia advances slightly. So Berbatov lobs him. An impudent flick, perfectly struck and judged. Almunia leaps but comes nowhere near. The ball crosses the line at waist height. Berbatov celebrates. Almunia will get one back with a great header in injury time.


Zico for Classic XI vs Brazil

If I miss anything about the old days when I played PES instead of FIFA, its the Classic lineups of International teams. To play with a Classic Argentina starring Maradona (alright, Manadona) and Redondo (Redanda) was a great pleasure. Figuring out who some of the other players were meant to be was always amusing, too. I often found myself scruitinizing an England full-back, thinking "Could it be Kenny Sansom?" This is one rare PES feature FIFA should copy outright. At present, the closest it gets is the Classic XI and the World XI. The World XI seems an arbitrary and somewhat silly notion. As does the Classic XI, I guess. But it allows you to play as Cantona and Hugo Sanchez. Or even better, as Zico. One of the greatest players ever, he is a little underrated, for my liking. He should be somewhere just below Maradona and Pele and Crujif in the pantheon, alongside Platini and Zidane (he was easily the equal of either). In FIFA his stats reflect how good he was. And he can score the most sublime goals. So can most of his Classic XI teammates, to be fair...
Sometimes a player will do something you didn't expect in FIFA. Some combination of buttons and triggers and analogue stick pressure elicits a move you didn't know was possible. A drag back and flicked backheel of a pass. An overhead flick. This Zico goal was like that. And all the more enjoyable for it.

A corner kick. Taken by Paul Gascoine. Zico near the penalty spot, a crowd of Brazilian and CLassic XI players also in the box. As Gascoine steps up to the ball, Zico makes a short run to the edge of the six yard box. The ball is floated in. Behind him. He goes for it anyway, but instead of heading it hopelessly over the bar - which seems the only real option - he dives backwards and, almost upside-down as he strikes it, scissor-kicks it into the top corner. It is a graceful, balletic physical motion, then the ball is in the back of the net.

Thierry Henry for Barcelona vs Real Madrid

Ah, Barcelona. Pass-pass-pass-pass-pass- little dribble - pass-turn-pass-pass-pass-flick-pass-goal. Like Spain, like Man Utd, playing with Barcelona is almost too easy, too smooth. Built for possession, they pass and score, pass and score. Their defence may be unrealistically solid, but they lose the ball so seldom it barely matters. Their midfielders all pass the ball beautifully, their strikers all have amazing pace and finishing prowess - every game is a feast of perfect through-balls and superb clips into the bottom corner.
Anyone who knows me well and talks about football with me knows I love a passing game. Football is a passing game. It must be played that way. Long ball football is an affront to the soul. When I play it I want to play in a passing team. I get annoyed when I don't play in a passing team. When I watch football I want to watch beautiful technical football. Yes, there is a separate pleasure to a strong, well-organised defence, but there is something almost sacred in the sight of a team playing as one in possession of the ball. Even to be involved in a goal based upon the timeless principles of "pass, move, offer, receive, pass" is the greatest pleasure in the game, I think.
But from playing and watching others play FIFA, it is obvious that not everyone plays the game the same way. Most people, in fact, play a weird combination of ceaseless dribbling and long balls muntered up front. Give the ball to a fast, skillful player, and let him do some damage, seems to be the theory. And of course all football comes down to this at some point. Only, with the best teams and the best football, it only comes into focus in the six yard box, after a beautiful sequence of passes has opened up the soft underbelly of the opposition. Style in football is a moral question, I think. If you play ugly, pragmatic football, you're in the wrong, win or not. Thats why the Brazil team of 1982 are more beloved than the team of 1994. Or to quote Keats: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty."
This all applies to FIFA as much as real football.
This goal came at the end of a period of short passing possession that went on so long I was almost getting bored. Then a hole appeared in the other teams defence. And the flea found it.


Barcelona pass it about from a short goal kick. Puyol to Alves, up to Messi, over to Xavi, back to Puyol, over to Milito, out to Abidal, back to Milito, forward to Iniesta, out to Henry, back to Toure, to Xavi, to Iniesta, to Messi, to Xavi, to Alves, to Messi, to Xavi, to Toure, to Etoo etc etc. Madrid make the odd lunging tackle and continually press but never really threaten to regain possession. The ball comes to Messi, facing Heinze. He sprints up the wing then turns sharply and cuts infield. He lays it off to Xavi. Xavi plays it in to Etoo, who plays it across the corner of the box to Messi, back on the wing. Messi turns and flicks the ball past Heinze, and is beyond him before he can even turn. On the edge of the box he plays it fast along the ground almost perfectly along the six yard line. Etoo is already past the ball, as are a scrambling Cannavaro and Pepe. It rolls straight into the path of Henry's run, and he strokes it first time into the top corner, Casillas having no chance. this is the opening goal. Barca will score four more, Madrid none.

"The zone wants to be respected"

If you've seen Andrei Tarkovsky's "Stalker" (1979), then you will be aware of just what a unique, challenging and mesmerizing experience it is. If you've seen it on a Big Screen, then certain images and passages will never leave you. It is Science Fiction of the best kind - thought-provoking, demanding, imaginative, intense and with many elements left open to interpretation. Tarkovsky was a genuine artist, and while none of his features (with the possible exception of his debut, "Ivan's Childhood") is anything less than difficult, his facility with the cinematic medium means that they are all worthwhile. Some of the long, slow crawls across the barren landscapes of the Zone in "Stalker" are filled with that strain of mournful beauty which seems to have come so easily to the director.

Anyway, the film has been on my mind ever since I read Geoff Dyer's rhapsodic piece in the Guardian a few weeks back. He gets it right. No film feels remotely like "Stalker". It is too uncompromising, too singular. Which only makes it all the more surprising that it was partly the basis for a video game, "S.T.A.L.K.E.R: The Shadow of Chernobyl". And not just any video game; a First Person Shooter.

Ok, maybe "basis" is going too far, but "Stalker" was certainly the visual inspiration for the game, which parlays its setting to a future Chernobyl, sometime after a second catastrophe has made the area a "Zone" filled with mutated horrors and unexplained phenomena. The men who exist and make their livings within the Zone are called "Stalkers" just as in Tarkovsky's film. Only here they carry a variety of weaponry and spend much of their time, not arguing intently about their philosophies and what the zone could mean, but trying to blow each other to hell.



In reality, both film and game are based upon "Roadside Picnic", a 1971 novella by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky which tells the tale of a "zone", the site of an alien landing which has become affected by strange reality-warps and space-time distortions, not to mention radiation, but which nevertheless attracts prospectors in search of power or "artifacts". The novella eerily appears to foretell of Chernobyl, which following the 1986 disaster became the location of what has been deemed a "zone of alienation", a 1,400 square mile area, terribly irradiated and now monitored by men who refer to themselves as "stalkers" as they patrol dead cities and ghost towns.

But its the thought of Tarkovsky's slow view of the world twisted into a First Person shooter that really tickles me. And made me wonder what other canonical classics of World Cinema could work as video games. Nothing with guns or swords, so no genre films, no Melville or Kurosawa, since both of those directors have enjoyed direct or indirect influence on the game medium anyway. A few possibilities, however:

The Seventh Seal: You play as the Knight. You play chess with Death. So its basically a chess game with funky trimmings and a really really grim atmosphere. Max Von Sydow could even do his own voice work. An unlockable extra could be the ability to play Battleship with Death, ala Bill and Ted. Winner, I think. I'd buy it.

The Battleship Potemkin: There's this baby-carriage, see. On some steps. Teetering. While a load of malarky carries on all around it. Will it go, rolling down the steps, or will - I can see it as an iPhone game, maybe, where you have to tilt the phone this way and that to keep the carriage from plummeting downwards. I dimly remember an Untouchables game back in the day, though I have no idea if it included an Odessa Steps sequence...

The Leopard - Like "the Sims", maybe. You have to make social connections at the Ball, wear the right frock, do your hair just so, not mess up your dance, always say the right thing, know our table-manners, etc etc. Unlocking new cravats and hairpins as you go, new apertifs. Some people actually like games like this. Imagine.

Pather Panchali - Try to survive growing up in abject poverty, acquiring skills along the way - begging, sitting in the shade and out of the sun, not annoying your sister too much. Dance in the rain without catching fever and run through the grass to see the trains as they pass. I see it as a free-roaming sandbox game, like "Fable". The two sequels could be the later, more advanced stages.

Metropolis - Build the most impressive, self-sustaining sci-fi city you can, from the ground up, then populate it with hot robot babes with metal boobies. Ensure your society and economy function. Try to avoid damaging industrial action.



The Red Balloon - A platform game. Guide the balloon as it is buffeted by Parisian winds towards treacherous sharp branches and evil gargoyles. Avoid the falling birdshit. Gain power points by connecting with the cute little moppet at ground level.

Last Year at Marienbad - A puzzle game. Try to figure out whats going on. Do you know this woman? Does she know you? Is this the past or the future? Didn't we have this conversation before? All interspersed with mini-games: Nem and target-shooting. And a maze option - find your way through the endless corridors...

I was going to include "El Topo", but apparently its a big influence on a Wii game called "No More Heroes", which disturbs me mightily. Also disturbing - as if the "Godfather" game wasn't bad enough, there should be a "Heat" game out later this year. Do you think it'll have some shooting in it?

They call him King...

I don't play many games these days. FIFA and the occasional First Person Shooter. The latest Call of Duty was the last one. I don't have the patience for campaigns or story modes. I don't have the time, really. I tried GTA4 and was bored quickly. I wanted instantly to be performing rooftop sniper hits, not going on bowling dates with cardboard cutout girls and working my way up through this silly criminal underworld filled with broad humour and crappy dialogue. FIFA never disappoints in this manner, because its a football simulation and I love football, and I turn it on and within 30 seconds I'm Boca Juniors playing Juventus and all is right with the world.

But I do still have a stack of some of my old games. I revisit one just occasionally. Halo or Rocky, say. Recently I've been playing Red Dead Revolver again. its not the greatest game ever, but its an entertaining Spaghetti Western pastiche, and in terms of atmosphere and detail, its fantastic. Some scenes feel just like they've wandered out of a bad Italo-western and the actors replaced with some dodgily-rendered computer generated figures. The landscapes and architecture are all spot on, the farmhouse and mining towns and abandoned forts.

But whats most perfect and what I've found most rewarding this time is the Soundtrack. RockStar pay a lot of attention to the soundtracks on their games, and that in turn pays dividends. The GTA series makes inspired use of pop music - particularly Vice City - resulting in healthy cd sales when they release the official compilations. For Red Dead Revolver, somebody at RockStar - a chap called Patrick Whitaker, to be precise - has trawled the Spaghetti Western genre and selected a fistful of amazing themes and cues by the likes of Francesco De Masi, Stelvio Cipriani, Bruno Nicolai, Piero Piccioni, Daniele Patucchi and Gianni Ferrio. Theres also, strangely, some of Nino Rota's music from Fellini's "Casanova" and, not so strangely, a couple of pieces by Ennio Morricone and Luis Bacalov.



I know and love the work of both these gentlemen, but the Bacalov theme most prominently used in Red Dead Revolver was unknown to me before I encountered it here. And its great, easily the equal of his work in "A Bullet for the General" and even "Django". Bacalov is an Argentinean composer, possibly best known today for winning an Oscar for his score for "Il Postino" or for the couple of his tracks selected by Quentin Tarantino for the "Kill Bill" soundtracks despite the fact that he has scored well over a hundred features stretching back to 1960. His Spaghetti scores are all awesome - the creativity of the work already done in that genre by other hands seemingly brought out the best in Bacalov. Anyway, the theme used as the Main Title theme in Red Dead Revolver is from an obscure Klaus Kinski Spaghetti from 1971, "Lo Chiamavano King" directed by one Giancarlo Romitelli. A theme of such cool and beauty deserves better than to languish in semi-obscurity, so RockStar should be thanked for rehabilitating it, together with its amazing bassline and that great guitar burn at the very end:



The version used over the credits in the movie itself has a female vocal - I don't know the singer though - over the top, telling us just how bad a bad-ass this King chap actually is. Its pretty good too:



The only downside to all this is the fact that there never was a Red Dead Revolver Soundtrack cd, and a lot of Spaghetti Western stuff is devilishly hard to track down. Thank God for the internet.