Dead Man's Bounty

This film—previously titled Summer Love—is the world's first sagebrush saga shot in Poland. As odd as that sounds, the film is even odder, helmed by artist and first-time director Piotr Uklanski. The plotting is sketchy and the visuals ugly but colorful, as a stranger (Karel Roden) and a drunken sheriff (Boguslaw Linda) square off over a dead body (Val Kilmer, dead throughout) and a bar maid (Katarzyna Figura). There are lots of Sergio Leone-esque close-ups and hallucinatory camerawork, a shrieking score punctuated by a couple of American songs (one by Lorne Greene) and lots of blood and shooting that will keep western fans hanging in there—even while scratching their ponchos.

Shelf Talk: There's undoubtedly still an audience for westerns (3:10 to Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) and neo-westerns (No Country for Old Men) these days, so a congenial reception for this truly one-of-a-kind confection is not totally unexpected. The film received play at film festivals and museum showings and best resembles some of the weirder examples of the genre such as out-there outings Zachariah and Dead Man.