Review: Beyond the Law

I'm always super excited to watch a film starring Lee Van Cleef (who I'll claim is cooler than Clint Eastwood 'til the day I die). Also, please don't mistake this movie for the 1992 film of the same name, though that really shouldn't be an issue seeing as they're completely different. But anyway...

At a Glance
"Beyond the Law" came out in 1968 and was directed by Giorgio Stegani. It stars Lee Van Cleef as quasi-bandit-I-guess Billy Joe Cudlip, Antonio Sabato as a heroic and seemingly naive European, and Gordon Mitchell as quite possibly the most laughably generic villain ever. Here is a brief summary brought to you by Wikipedia: "After robbing a stagecoach, Billy Joe Cudlip is determined to "go straight", and is named the new sheriff of Silverton. But does he really want the job -- or just access to the valuable shipments of silver?"

Story and Characters
The story of "Beyond the Law" is not the most unique thing in existence; it's essentially a bad guy's struggle between his morals and desire to get rich with his buddies. However, this does not take away from the quality of the storytelling. Van Cleef's character grows and changes when he meets other characters in the story and it is interesting to see how his relationship with his two friends changes from the beginning of the film to the end. That said, the end of the film was bittersweet and (spoiler alert maybe) inconclusive as to Cudlip's choice. The movie is pretty funny, not "Sabata" funny, but the characters are all somewhat exaggerated and share some goofy dialogue. It was also kind of neat to see Van Cleef as an illiterate and disheveled character, a type that I had not seen him play until this movie. As I mentioned earlier, the villain in "Beyond the Law" is very cheesy and over-the-top, but it fits the comical nature of most of the movie.

Filming and Locations
The production quality of "Beyond the Law" seemed pretty high. It's not super artistic, but it looks nice and doesn't have many (if any) visual hiccups that often run rampant in this genre. The fight scenes are a little unconvincing, but that's not a big deal.

Music
Nothing to make a fuss about either way. It fits the movie and that's all it really needs to do.

Overall
"Beyond the Law" starts off slow, but is an enjoyable experience. The characters are fun and the production is solid. Not a tough guy's Spaghetti, but still a good one.

Final Verdict: 4/5