An arms dealer finds himself smack dab in the middle of two fighting revolutionary forces during the Mexican Revolution. In order to receive payment, he must travel to America to bring back the feuding revolutionary leader, who holds the combination to the bank safe his payment is in. Followed by a headstrong bandit and a former acquaintance looking for payback, the dealer heads for the border.
In my opinion, this has got to be Corbucci's most subversive picture. A lot of people don't know this, but spaghetti westerns have may archetypes. Usually the more popular one is The Man With No Name, which was started by Toshiro Mifune and was pioneered by Clint Eastwood. In this movie, you got the Budding Revolutionary, which was usually played at the time by Tomas Milian. He's somewhat the spiting image of Che Guevara which always gives him this kind of role. You also got the Happy Go Lucky Opportunist. He's the easy going type that always waits for a chance to fall on his lap. This was helmed by Terrance Hill, but in this movie, is played by Franco Nero. It's really a departure of the grim characters he's played before, usually based on Django. Also, you got to give it to Jack Palance. I never knew there was a way to play an Irish stoner mercenary with an itch for revenge. I didn't even know it was possible. Jack pulls it off as well as he can. And of course, we have the Morricone soundtrack making it's presence known.
I think what Corbucci was doing with this film is he was showing people the extremes o revolution and then telling us we gotta keep a level head when we want to bring forth revolution. With one side represented by Mongo, Revolution is an exploitable commodity where only the strong and the one with the most guns survive. Surviving on fear and slaughter. On the other side is Prof. Xantos who represents pacifism and a Gandhi-like non violence. This way is well intentioned, but being docile and cowardly only leaves you dead. Revolutions die quicker that way. This is greatly pointed out when Xantos scolds those who saved him from the firing squad. A very powerful scene at that.
The DVD is part of a bigger box set put out by Anchor Bay. It's cleaned up good visually and though some parts of the audio was lost, the audio dub is well too. The disc also has a fifteen minute conversation with Nero, Milian and Morricone about the film as well as the trailer. Western fans need this movie and it will be a jewel in the collection of the regular movie fan.
4 stars.
(With Milian's Face To Face)
No comments:
Post a Comment