Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

lost-in-limbo The spaghetti western sub-genre might have grown rancid by this period, but there are no doubts their titles were striking and creative, when which said simply rolled of your tongue. Tell me that this title isn't a lyrical joy. No stranger to the sub-genre with "My Name is Nobody" and "Day of Anger", director Tonino Valerii's 'A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die!" would be a hardy old-fashion western variation of "The Dirty Dozen". While it might be only half of that film, its remains an amusing fare thanks largely to the three central performances of Bud Spencer, James Coburn and Telly Savalas. The latter might not make an appearance until the hour mark, but it's the combination between the buoyant Spencer and low-key Coburn which drives it. The humour seems to come off thanks to Spencer timing and presence. Even though the greying Coburn and swaggering Savalas get top billing, it's Spencer who's really the star. Like most films of this ilk, it's systematic with its staples as the theme of vengeance and redemption looms prominently. There's no real change of route, as it keeps it gritty and the straight-forward narrative never loses focuses, especially that of the character's motivations with it to throw up a sudden revelation (which my DVD synopsis' spoiled). The expandable characters are clichés, but workable as they serve their purpose with it ending on a bang. It actually starts with the end, to only retell the story from Spencer's character's point of view. This gives it like a mythical tale-like quality. It's well shot with a commendable music score. Valerii does a serviceable job behind the camera letting it move at a fair pace while constructing few intense scenes and cracking action sequences, like the delirious climatic showdown at the hillside forte (with it vivid locations), which had me thinking of "The Wild Bunch" (in which case Coburn would star in Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" the following year), but in the end you feel like there just wasn't enough going on. Some moments should have been much stronger than they were, like the personal battle between Coburn and Savalas. Contrived, but tough and dirty entertainment.

JohnWelles "A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die" (1972) is a exciting, Civil War-set Spaghetti Western, directed by Sergio Leone's protégé Tonino Valerii and stars James Coburn, Telly Savalas and Bud Spencer.The script by Rafael Azcona, Ernesto Gastaldi, Jay Lynn and Tonino Valerii is hardly original, amounting to nothing but a "Dirty Dozen" rehash, but it is adequate: during the American Civil War, the disgraced Colonel Pembroke (James Coburn) tries to retake a heavily defended fort that was taken by the Confederates from him without a shot fired, a mystery that helps drive his character, by using twelve recruits who he has saved from death sentences.Despite the lack of originality in the screenplay department, the spirited direction makes the story rattle along at a breathless pace to the expertly staged, wholesale carnage at the end. Throughout, the the three leads fare remarkably well and are the only ones who are given any sort of more than superficial examination of their past. The music by Riz Ortolani, all powerful horns, is masterly, compensating for uninteresting photography.The fast pace and direction help raise this Spaghetti Western into a higher plane, turning it into a very, very enjoyable film.

wes-connors This English re-titled "A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die" is a thoroughly unconvincing United States Civil War swipe of "The Dirty Dozen", done in the Clint Eastwood "spaghetti western" style. James Coburn (as Pembroke) leads a less than star-studded group of seven desperadoes. (Still pre-Kojak) Telly Savalas, who appeared as one of the original "Dozen", is Mr. Coburn's major foil. Mr. Savalas (as Ward) has interesting taste in sculpture art. The locations are nice, but don't seem very American. The film's relatively high level of explosions, shootings, and stabbings must have been the box office draw, back in the early 1970s. Today, you only need to play a video game.** Una ragione per vivere e una per morire (1972) Tonino Valerii ~ James Coburn, Telly Savalas, Bud Spencer

Cristi_Ciopron The fine quality of this comic and then very dramatic Coburn & B. Spencer western was a surprise for me.This heterogeneous and satisfying western is an odd proof that Valerii was an underachiever and that he should of been one of the most respected western directors ever. The movie is, as I said, very heterogeneous; but it also shows a flawless gusto and an unfailing taste for what an action film must be, and has an admirably pure line, there is this purity of the narration that makes it especially likable.In a few words, it is the Dirty Dozen set during another war—in 1862, I think.It has been noticed that there are some WW 2 action films that are essentially westerns. Well, here we got the symmetrical situation: the Coburn western is essentially a commando flick.A commando of only eight men, all evildoers (Coburn and B. Spencer are the most familiar faces …) is sent to conquer a fort; the fort is ruled by Major Ward (i.e., Savallas). Savallas and his soldiers are Southerners. In a too small role, Savallas makes yet another of his outstanding villains.Coburn's character isn't a lowlife, but a Colonel that wants to conquer the fort that he surrendered to Major Ward.Most of the film is made in a humorous key. B. Spencer is the protagonist of all sorts of bodily jokes, there are discussions about buttocks, urinating and umbilical region. If you allow me an impious thought, who could imagine Wayne, G. Cooper or Mitchum forcing unsuccessfully to urinate, simulating vainly that they urinate, and complaining about their asses being inflamed by horse-ride? I guess it somehow depends on your particular sensibilities, yet this comic is never displeasing or misplaced or disgusting. It is simply Gargantuan joking.The very long fight scene is particularly pleasing—once the commando enters the fort, a long battle begins. The movie's end is somehow a twist—for me, it was a twist—I expected a duel, etc.. Anyway, Savallas is very good. These three actors—Coburn, B. Spencer and Savallas—give the film a particular charm. The fight scene is indeed an interesting one, though on another level than the rest of the movie—it's like the film suddenly changes—the feel, the style change suddenly, and we get one of the finest fight scenes, like an ultra—compact Dirty Dozen!During this last part of the movie—the fight—the tone becomes intensely and convincingly , seriously dramatic. One could define the film in its entirety as a very funny, comical western, excellently played, and with a long very dramatic fight scene. Coburn meeting Savallas is really chilling and thrilling—and Savallas indeed looks as if he was dying when Coburn pierces him with the sword. I dislike disclosing here the end—yet Savallas' death was of course foreseeable and on the other hand and much more important Savallas' death scene is so important and finely done and interesting that it of course deserved to be explicitly mentioned here.A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die is rather short. B. Spencer has most of the screen time. Everything seems to happen very quickly; Eli's (B. Spencer's) sabotage techniques allow for many funny things to be played. Eli and the Colonel are the only two good guys in the film; Eli is as intelligent as the Colonel, and sides with him on every occasion.The humor is of course manly and also very unsubtle; the naturalness gives charm to the comic strips story, while B. Spencer's sometimes aggressive humor is amusing in his usual buffoonish way. This '72 western comes towards the end of B. Spencer's career in the westerns—in '73 he'll launch his Piedone. He alternates placidity with aggressiveness ,having already found the formula of his action roles.On the other hand, I have to say that, with all its merits and qualities, A Reason to Live … remains a modest thrilling funny likable action western, and it's in no way the …equal of a film like The Dirty Dozen (where everything was infinitely better, worked much better, etc., there was plenty of action and suspense, the characters had their individuality and the finest actors abounded!).