Duration: 3:00

The Big Gundown (Italian title: 'La Resa Dei Conti' - 'Account Rendered' or 'The Settling of Accounts') is a 1966 spaghetti western directed by Sergio Sollima - starring Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian. Many consider The Big Gundown one of the finest spaghetti westerns second only to Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy". It was the first film Van Cleef made following The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and was his first leading man or hero role. Tomas Milian played Manuel Cuchillo Sanchez, who is a charming rogue, it on the run accused of commiting crimes. Van Cleef as Jonathan Corbett, ex-sheriff-turned-bounty-hunter, hunts him down to help further his own political ambitions. But all is not what it seems. The music for the film is written by Ennio Morricone and conducted by Bruno Nicollai. The Big Gundown, along with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, is one of Morricone's most prominent western score. It contains a powerful and stirring main theme which can be heard in varying arrangements throughout the running time. 'La Resa', a triumphal march, which is the music for the films main showdown scene - Morricone utilises piano, choir and trumpets within this tense and dramatic piece of scoring. Trivia - Tomas Milian, was a Cuban- born graduate of the Actor's Studio in New York, in his first spaghetti western role. Milian reprised the character 'Cuchillo' only once in Sollima's sequel 'Run Man Run' (1968). In Germany the film was titled 'Der Gehetzte Der Sierra Madre' and in Spain it was released as 'El Halcon Y La Presa' (The Falcon and the Prey) as a response to the climactic cane-fields chase.