 First, he beat the living shit out of
people in the boxing ring, holding the middleweight title
for seven straight years (1970-1977). Then, he beat the shit
out of people in movies. Later, he beat the shit out of his
wife, killing her. Finally, a ditch beat the shit out his
car, two passengers, and himself, killing all of them. Calling
Carlos Monzon's life “violent” is a bit like calling
a sphere “round.” It’s pretty damned obvious. The Last Round is one of those movies where
he beat the shit out of a lot of people. I was going to entertain
you all with a statistical figure, but I lost count about
40 minutes in.
Random acts of violence are always nice, but is the film
any good? Yes and no. The Last Round is about
Marco (Carlos Monzon), a stranger who rolls into town. His
background is a complete mystery, and “looking for work”
gets him noticed by the local mob.
This story might sound familiar because you have seen it
before – several times. Probably the most obvious would
be Clint Eastwood’s role in the Leone’s Man With
No Name trilogy, specifically A Fistful of Dollars inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo.
It also isn’t the last we will see of the character
type. After all, the theme is too good a starting point for
revenge stories for it to be retired completely. Hell, someone
is probably coming up with another one as I write this.
There is an awesome set-up in the film. Marco plays both
sides against the middle, working for rival gangs in effort
to get them to attack each other. But other films have used
this device as well, and to better effect. In fact, the films
mentioned in the  previous
paragraph fit the bill here, too. Ultimately, this is where
the film fails. It isn’t bad, just wholly unoriginal.
It undermines the talent involved.
The film’s villain is played by the awesome Luc Merenda
(A
Man Called Magnum) who is a delightful asshole here as
Rico Manzetti, a crime boss that Marco eventually has to kill
in order to avenge the unjust murders of his family. An effective
villain he makes, too. He plays the character with the same
swagger he put forth in every role, but this one affords him
a chance to display some true evilness. Take for example one
scene where we see an old man making a chalk drawing in the
street. Rico walks up to him, takes the chalk from his hand
and actually adds some nice touches to the illustration. But
there is still this unsettling feeling that he could viciously
kill the man without a moment’s hesitation.
 So
with our two leads – Carlos, an Argentinean and Luc,
who is French – and taking into account that the film
is at least in part inspired by a Japanese film, it could
be argued that this is the least Italian film to come out
of Italy. If it wasn’t for director Stelvio Massi, who
did some killer slow motion fight/death scenes (see also, Thriller for similar use of technique), the marquee would have no real
Italian names on it. It is set in Italy, of course, but the
cinematography doesn’t take much use of scenery. Like
the story, it could easily be anywhere else, which is a bit
of a let down.
Bottom line: The Last Round simply isn’t
something you will be coming back to very often.
The Presentation
NoShame
admits right at the start that some of the material couldn’t
be restored to its full potential, so it should be no surprise
that you will notice imperfections throughout the film. Thankfully
that isn’t too often, but I was plagued with other problems
as well.  At
around the 48-minute mark, I had difficulties playing the
disc on one player, but not on
any of my others. Again, while watching the Enter the Merenda
feature, there were several points where the subtitles simply
stop for about a minute and a half. The audio isn’t
stellar but it is distinguishable. The English
dub is completely laughable (which most are, so no fault there)
but as a standard for NoShame, at least we get the film presented
in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which 98 percent of
the time looks very good.
The Extras
Enter the Merenda – On Site
Visit of Luc Merenda’s Antique Shop in Paris –
(35:25) NoShame discs usually have one meaty feature and this
is easily the most fascinating of all of them. Actor Luc Merenda
has been retired from acting for some years now and has made
quite a name for himself in antique dealing, operating a shop
in France. This interview is quite revealing. It is apparent
that Luc is not only very knowledgeable in his new field of
work, but he shares fond memories of his time in film, though
has no regrets of leaving it. He speaks with great enthusiasm
about the furniture in his store, and responds less favorably
to the interviewer’s constant questions about what it
would take to get back into acting. In fact, Luc seems to
get upset with this towards the end of the interview. Regardless,
you get a great insight into Luc – the man, in this
revealing interview.
Poster
and Still Gallery – (0:49) A series of 10 stills
and posters pass by with the soundtrack playing in the background.
Original
Italian Theatrical Trailer – (3:32) - Original
English Theatrical Trailer – (3:32) These are essentially
the same trailer, and to be honest they aren’t very
engaging. If you watch both together, though, you get a great
lesson in how dubbing absolutely destroys mood and wit.
As
always, NoShame’s booklet is a wealth of information.
This time it provides us with liner notes by Jeff Stafford,
the writer at the Turner Classic Movies website. Additionally,
we get bios for Luc Merenda, Carlos Monzon and Stelvio Massi.
The Carlos bio is an especially good read.
 Compact
Disc – The Ultimate Eclectic Cinedelic Experience: Funky
Cops & Hard-Boiled Girls. - This soundtrack of Italian
film scores, redone by a group called Entropia, really rocks.
To be exact, this has been my driving CD of choice now for
two months. It is by far iPod worthy. I found it odd that
this would be included with The Last Round though, since none of the tracks are actually from the feature.
A few of them are from previous NoShame releases; Secrets
Of A Call Girl and Almost Human. Nevertheless,
despite not having seen most of the films these eight tracks
are inspired by, the CD is still awesome and worth getting
the DVD for alone.
Fine
I hate sounding particularly harsh
on this film, but it gives me no reason to be particularly
nice either. It was worth watching, but only because of the
awesome Luc Merenda. The story was similar to 1,000 others
and nothing seems to really attempt to break that all-too-common
mold. Carlos' acting wasn't particularly engaging either,
so it fell somewhat flat. On the other hand, I really enjoyed
the set of extras that NoShame has provided, although I would
have liked to see a documentary on Carlos since his story
is quite interesting. All things considered, watching The
Last Round wouldn't be a waste of time, but there
are better ways you can spend it.
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