Si può fare... amigo

I like spaghetti westerns, and I also like Bud Spencer movies. So I thought I would like this spaghetti western starring Bud Spencer (as well as Jack Palance.) Unfortunately, I have to report that even if you like spaghetti westerns and/or Bud Spencer, chances are you'll find this movie a bore like I did. The movie has very little story, and it moves at an unbelievably slow crawl. The comedy is mostly lame, though Bud's instant charisma lifts the humor from level zero, even though Bud seems to be doing this movie in his sleep. Jack Palance gnashes his teeth so much that he seems to be in pain doing this movie. And the director often shoots the actors so that the tops of their heads are cut off at the top of the screen! (The pan-and-scan presentation of the movie makes things even worse.) Not recommended.

Coming too late in the Italian Western cycle to get a significant American release, this tiresome Bud Spencer vehicle tries to be picaresque, as the big lug wanders around having borin on-adventures. A cute young boy is thrown in for sentimental value.

In a parallel world where Hollywood big-screen Westerns had not gone out of style, it could have been perhaps a homegrown vehicle for Dan Blocker to provide old-0fashioned family entertainment following his meteoric success starring on tv in "Bonanza". But as ersatz cornball entertainment it comes up as zero.

Despite having a great cameraman Aldo Tonti, who shot epics like "Barabbas" and classics like Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria", it's a mess, with annoying, inappropriate music and even some dubbed dialog that echoes.

For a Spaghetti Western It Can Be Done...Amigo is neither among the best or worst. While less than perfect, it was entertaining if in a strange way.

While it does deserve a much better DVD with a more expansive widescreen and sharper picture quality, It Can Be Done...Amigo is not a bad-looking film at all. In fact, the scenery is very evocatively beautiful and the camera work is well-placed and doesn't try to be too ambitious or simplistic. The energetic, rousing, haunting, stylish and beautifully and cleverly orchestrated music score is the best thing about the film, plus it fits very well, while the songs are a good memorable fit. It Can Be Done...Amigo is well-directed and the acting is also not bad although the child actor is a little annoying and the dubbing is unnecessary and poorly utilised. Bud Spencer is a charismatic and imposing lead with a good flair for comic timing and Jack Palance is lots of sinister yet hammy fun despite his accent rarely staying the same. Dany Saval brings charm to her role as well.

Regarding the script and story, both are a mixed bag. A good deal of the humour is very entertaining, a couple of the running gags like with the cans and the reading glasses do really work and give off a fun vibe. but some of it does fall flat when it does get a bit too silly and bizarre. The dialogue has its moments and is appropriately good natured, but also gets too silly and awkward-sounding. The story is problematic, credit is due for it trying to do something different for a Spaghetti Western, the interaction between Spencer and the child mostly engages and the final fight is oddball but amusing and tense. Also despite how it sounds reading a synopsis it is thankfully easier to follow than you think. However the film does start very sluggishly and feels like you're riding on the shell of a snail for a lot of the first half of the film, and it ends on an abrupt note.

Overall, flawed but strangely entertaining. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Released in 1972 (but not in the USA until 1974), "It Can be Done… Amigo" is an Italian oater starring Ben Spencer as a gentle giant, Coburn, saved from unjust hanging. He becomes the caretaker of a little boy who's the heir of a remote ranch that many people are interested in obtaining for some reason. Jack Palance plays a comical gunfighter/pimp who insists that Coburn marries his nagging sister (Dany Saval) because he was previously intimate with her.

In spirit, but not plot, this is basically an early 70's Euro version of 1963's "McLintock!" Unfortunately it was lost in translation for me. Obviously a lot of effort was put into it, but it failed to engage. It's also marred by the limitations of most Spaghetti Westerns, like dubious dubbing. Plus there should've been more prominent women (Saval is likable, but she just grates on the nerves after a while). Still, the movie's likable; it's just very eccentric, which limits its appeal, but I'll give it another try in a few years.

The film runs 109 minutes and was shot in Almería, Andalucía, Spain.

GRADE: C- (4.5/10 Stars)

This is a funny spoof about several Spaghetti clichés with relentless comedy and parodying usual Western events that sometimes becomes stale . This is a good entertaining juvenile for Bud Spencer fans , as he's delightful in a fraternal story . It packs action, fist-play, sniping, slapdash , humor with tongue-and-cheek and is quite amusing . It deals with Coburn (Bud Spencer or Carlo Perdesoli) an insouciant , bumbling drifter who breaks out from prison and attempts to right wrongs . He embarks on his getaway and he gets stuck a ten years old little boy (Renato) . The boy's uncle dies, leaving a house , useless land to the child but is actually plenty of petroleum that is coveted by a priest-sheriff-judge (Francisco Rabal) and his hoodlums (Salvatore Borghese , Riccardo Pizzuti) . Hiram Coburn oblivious to risks and hopeless odds endure mishaps adventures and he join forces with the child to rout nasty gunmen . Meanwhile, the gunfighter Sonny Bronston (Jack Palance) going out the chase of Coburn to marry his sister (Dany Saval) and the baddies want to take the rich lands.

This release has some cool and several hilarious moments , though the Terence Hill-Bud Spencer duo films are much better , such as ¨They call me trinity¨, ¨Trinity is still my name¨ and ¨Truoblemakers¨ . Good for laughs as well as lots of shootouts and fist-play . The film isn't always good , sometimes is fresh and diverting and on a couple of memorable occasions , it's frankly delicious . The flick belong to the sub-genre that Bud Spencer played in which he has as partners some sympathetic children , as ¨Supersheriff¨, ¨Banana Joe¨, ¨Flatfoot¨ and ¨Aladdin¨. The film displays a wide plethora of secondary actors usually seen in Spaghetti genre as Sal Borghese , Luciano Pigozzi or Alan Collins , Robert Camardiel as an old drunk and Ricardo Pizzuti , the latter usual in Hill-Spencer flicks . The movie displays innumerable jokes , laughter , and slapstick , though relies heavily about the continuous relationship between the tired gunslinger and the orphaned boy . Enjoyable but silly screenplay Ernesto Gastaldi and Rafael Azcona . Catching musical score with noisy songs by Luis Enrique Bacalov who subsequently would win Oscar for ¨The postman¨ . This motion picture was professionally directed by Maurizio Luzidi . Although Maurizio couldn't be deemed an "A"-list director, his movies had a professionalism and a verve that many of those made by his fellow B directors lacked . He was a fine editor and also filmed detective thrillers , Giallo , comedy and even a horror film or two . He directed two Western more as ¨La grand Rapina del West¨ with George Hilton and Jack Betts and ¨Pecos¨ with Robert Woods , and even made films with international cast as ¨Sweet people¨ with Roger Moore and Stacy Keach and ¨The last chance¨ with Elli Wallach and Ursula Andress . His greatest conquest was the edition of ¨Don Quijote¨ by Orson Welles . Rating : 5,5 . Acceptable , passable but average . It is a middling Western story in which gibing the Spaghetti genre , plenty of fights and shoot'em up . As the director Mauricio Lucidi is uninspired and the ending is pretty predictable .