Los desesperados

Bullet for Sandoval, A (1969)

*** (out of 4)

Interesting Spaghetti Western takes place during the Civil War when a soldier (George Hilton) gets word that his pregnant girlfriend is dying. By the time he reaches the house she has died and her jealous father (Ernest Borgnine) makes him leave with their newborn son. Without the resources to take care of the child, it dies and soon the soldier sets out for revenge. This film has a great revenge story going for it but by the time it ended I was pretty mad at the movie because it could have been so much better. The film has several subplots and none of them are as interesting as the revenge story so these subplots get in the way and in the end they really pull the film back some. The film's main story is still good enough to make this worth watching as it features some great action sequences as well as two good performances by the leads. Hilton is very good in his mainly silent role and Borgnine delivers a maniac style performance. The ending is very strange and bizarre but it works well with the film even though the revenge takes a few different turns.

Saturday continues with another Spaghetti western with Ernest Borgnine and George Hilton.

The story takes place during the Civil War. Hilton got Borgnine's daughter pregnant, and she died delivering. Hilton comes back to marry her, finds, out she's dead, and takes the baby, who dies because no one would defy Don Pedro Sandoval (Borgnine) and give him milk.

After the baby dies, he flips and gathers some murderers to get revenge on all who were responsible, particularly Sandoval.

Great knife fight between the two of them at the end, and I assure you it wasn't a bullet that did him in.

Good action throughout.

Not the worst nor the best. And compared to the garbage people claimed were westerns in 2020/2021 this was far better.

The idea for the plot was great, the acting was a little wooden by some of the other characters. Ernest Borgnine was probably the only one that did a great job of making their character believable.

The editing for the film leaves one scratching their head though. At one point in the movie it seemed like a portion was cut out or missed. It went from talking and riding straight into a gunfight.

Anybody who is into spaghettis should watch this film. The plot is about a woman that dies after giving birth to the son of her lover (George Hilton), a soldier away on duty. The father of the woman (Ernest Borgnine), hates Hilton and blames him for her death. The hatred the men have for eachother consumes them both and they spend the film stalking eachother, until they finally settle the account at the end, with one of the best and climatic endings I have ever seen in any movie.

For a start, the acting in this spag, is better than 90% of the spags I have seen. The atmosphere is dripping with a sense of fate and destiny...a sort of weird nihilism between the two men. The cinematography is gorgeous and the film moves from scene to scene very smoothly...making it easy to watch.

The ending is an unusual one for a spaghetti. Its simply brilliant.

Confederate soldier John Warner (George Hilton) receives news that his girlfriend is giving birth. Her wealthy Mexican father Don Pedro Sandoval (Ernest Borgnine) had forbidden their relationship. He decides to desert and go home. After some harrowing escapes, he finds that his love had died. Sandoval rejects the baby which also died. Warner vows revenge and turns into a bandit.

This is a spaghetti western of revenge and greed. There is no easy hero in this one. It is only shades of grey. I wish the lead is someone more familiar. Warner mostly worked in Italian or other foreign films. He has a coldness which works better for villains. That is still very interesting in this world.