Faccia a faccia

Face to Face is a 1967 Italian/Spanish international co-production Spaghetti Western film co-written and directed by Sergio Sollima and produced by Alberto Grimaldi. The film stars Gian Maria Volonté, Tomas Milian and William Berger, and features a musical score by Ennio Morricone. It is the second of Sollima's three Westerns, following The Big Gundown and predating Run, Man, Run, a sequel to the former. Milian stars in a lead role in all three films. The film portrays the unlikely partnership of Professor Fletcher (Volonté), a university lecturer, and "Beauregard" Bennet (Milian), a wanted outlaw, and a series of events that results in an exchange of their moral values, culminating in Fletcher taking control of Bennet's bandit gang. Frequently interpreted as a parable based on the rise of European fascism, the story and themes of Face to Face were based on Sollima's wartime experiences, and his personal beliefs on the role of environments and societies in the shaping of a person's character. A major success at the European box office, Face to Face has received praise from critics and scholars of the Spaghetti Western genre for its story and acting, although some criticism has been leveled at the execution of Fletcher's character arc. Sollima considered it to be one of the best and most personal of the films he directed. Plot During the American Civil War, Brad Fletcher retires from his position as History Professor at Boston University due to tuberculosis and retreats to Texas. The sexually repressed Fletcher is a well-meaning, albeit conceited, liberal who opposes violence and human suffering. While taking a siesta, a stagecoach carrying several lawmen and Solomon "Beauregard" Bennet, a captured criminal, stops by Fletcher's hotel. When Fletcher tries to give Bennet a drink of water, he is taken hostage, and they escape on the stagecoach before becoming lost in the desert. Under Bennet's instructions, Fletcher takes him to a hideout in the forest, where Bennet recovers from his wounds. During this time, Fletcher learns from Bennet how to fire a revolver.