LE PISTOLE NON DISCUTONO [BULLETS DON’T ARGUE] (1964)
Le Pistole Non Discutono is an Italian spaghetti western directed by Mario Caiano, starring Rod Cameron and Horst Frank. Cameron plays legendary wild west lawman Pat Garrett, who is forced to leave his own wedding to track down two ruthless bank robbers. Interestingly, this film was produced back-to-back with A Fistful of Dollars by Arrigo Pap for Jolly Film, and had a much bigger budget as Rod Cameron was a more ‘bankable’ star than Clint Eastwood at the time – of course, we all know what happened there.
The inimitable Peter Tevis returns to perform the title song “Lonesome Billy,” a downbeat lament for the life of a gunfighter, made all the more poignant by the silky bass in the singer’s voice. The rest of the score is built around variations on the main theme, “Le Pistole Non Discutono,” a determined melody for trumpets underpinned by acoustic guitars and hoofbeat percussion, which often swells with dark brass nobility and string-led fortitude. There are numerous variations throughout the score, including a couple of lovely versions for solo guitar, a somewhat dissonant variation including chaotically stark combination of pianos and harmonica and thrumming bass guitars (“#2”), and a fun arrangement for regional folk instruments and a Spanish soprano vocalist in the “Version Cantina Messicana”.
The two other main recurring ideas are “Gli Indiani,” recurring insistent explosions of percussion, stabbing pianos, and low horn clusters which give the score a sense of danger and underscore most of the film’s action sequences, and “La Ragazza e Lo Scheriffo,” a more bouncy and playful melody for assorted woodwinds that stands at odds with the rest of the score, but is a ton of fun.
There’s a lot of ‘what if’ about Le Pistole Non Discutono – what if this film had been more successful than A Fistful of Dollars, as was expected? Would this score have been more famous today? Film and music history are filled with stories like this, of chance and missed opportunity. Whatever the case may be, and despite its obscurity these days, Le Pistole Non Discutono is a great early entry into the spaghetti western genre, with a lovely lilting main theme and some bold, energetic, enjoyable action music.
The score for Le Pistole Non Discutono has been released a couple of times; as a standalone limited edition album by GDM Music in 2010, and as part of a double-feature coupled with score for L’Avventuriero in 2015. The main ‘Lonesome Billy’ song and related main theme can also be found on several of the many Morricone western compilations released over the years.
Track Listing: 1. Lonesome Billy (performed by Peter Tevis) (1:52), 2. Le Pistole Non Discutono (2:35), 3. Gli Indiani (2:15), 4. Le Pistole Non Discutono (Tema Chitarra) (2:04), 5. Le Pistole Non Discutono (#2) (4:41), 6. La Ragazza e Lo Scheriffo (1:10), 7. Le Pistole Non Discutono (Tema Chitarra #2) (2:01), 8. Le Pistole Non Discutono (#3) (1:07), 9. Gli Indiani (#2) (3:40), 10. Le Pistole Non Discutono (Cantina Messicana) (1:46), 11. Le Pistole Non Discutono (#4) (2:20), 12. Gli Indiani (#3) (4:21), 13. Le Pistole Non Discutono (Tema Chitarra #3) (3:02), 14. Le Pistole Non Discutono (#5) (2:03), 15. Lonesome Billy (Stereo Mix) (1:52), 16. Gli Indiani (Stereo Mix) (2:14), 17. Le Pistole Non Discutono (Stereo Mix) (2:32). GDM Music GDM-4138, 40 minutes 59 seconds.
