Un esercito di 5 uomini

The Five Man Army are "The Dutchman" (Peter Graves) and four colleagues from previous escapades - Mesito (Bud Spencer), a big brute of a man that can knock out an opponent with a big thump to the top of the head (so, the usual Bud Spencer character then!); Samurai (Tetsuro Tamba), a ruthless sword bearing oriental; Captain Augustus (James Daly), an expert with dynamite; and Luis Dominguez (Nino Castelnuovo) an acrobat turned outlaw and the "baby" of the group.

The Dutchman has gathered the clan with the promise of a $1,000 reward if they can successfully carry out a robbery of a train (bearing gold to the value of £1 million) on behalf of the Mexican Revolution. The catch is that the train is heavily guarded by soldiers, with the military posted at regular intervals along the journey to resist any attempted theft.

This film is an Italian/American co-production, and it does bear traits of both nations particular western styles. It is at times highly entertaining, mostly pretty dumb but always very watchable. The highlight of the movie is the contrasting characters, who are all very likable (albeit fairly clichéd). James Daly in particular has a good role as the ageing Captain Augustus, constantly doubting his (and his colleagues) ability to carry out the heist.

The actual robbery itself takes up nigh on half an hour of this movie, with very little dialogue. The scene is well filmed though and does not drag too badly at all. It also features a great scene where the bodies of the armed soldiers are waved about frantically as a signal to the nearby patrolling military that all is well.

Ennio Morricone's score is rousing (of course), but does sound like a muddled jigsaw of many of his other works. It fits perfectly, however.

It may sound like I am being critical of this film, and I guess that there are a few shortcomings with it. But if you ignore its occasional predictability and just take it for what it is - a highly entertaining yet simple western - you are pretty much guaranteed to enjoy it from beginning to end. I know I did.

Dutchman (Peter Graves) recruits 4 men for a train robbery: a) Luis (Nino Castelnuovo) who knows the details about the train, b) the strong Mesito (Bud Spencer), c) the gambler and explosives expert Augustus (James Daly), d) the knife throwing Samurai (Tetsuro Tanba). Half a million dollars are to be stolen to support the Mexican revolution. But they are heavily guarded, and takes a cunning plan to get on the train and take that gold. Of course, some unforeseen circumstances make it even more difficult...

This is a great, straight western story: find the right men, develop the plan, go for it! Everything feels right, you get the action, the suspense, a little bit of comic relief, I don't see what's not to like. I watched the uncut 105 minutes version, various shorter versions were distributed in other countries, for example the 5 minutes from the beginning which introduce the character of Luis were dropped in the German version.

Set during the Mexican Revolution and ruling General Huertas , a two-fisted man known only as "The Dutchman" has a scheme , to carry out a huge robbing in a train for the Mexican Army , as he teams up a motley bunch , including a veteran captain and other three colleagues to help him out by promising a $1000 reward if it succeeds . The plan turns out to be a fool's mission : rob a train carrying $500,000 that's guarded by dozens of heavily armed soldiers . Naturally, his friends agree to go along with the scheme . They must pull off the dangerous objective , as Dutchman and the ambitious drifters join forces to rob a lot of money located into an impregnable train . In the hands of hardboiled director Don Taylor and a tough-as-leather cast headed by Peter Graves of ¨Mission : impossible¨ , that's all the plot that's needed to make one rip-roaring Spaghetti Western flick . Peter Graves 's mission is two-fold and in ¨Dirty dozen¨style : first an unexpected reunion among ex-colleagues turned into a fighting unit and then turn them loose on a heavily armored train occupied by Mexican soldiers . Dutchman brings four of his old acquaintances , his crime-minded characters include Bud Spencer as a bouncing thief , the old army buddy (James Daly) expert on explosives , an escaped acrobat (Nino Castelnuovo) , and a swordsman samurai (Tetsuro Tamba , who acted in ¨ James Bond's You Only Live Twice¨ also playing a Samurai) expert on daggers . The first half of the film allows the colorful cast of character actors to have their fun as they get their tails whipped into shape and develop shaky relationship with their leader . It will be a long and dangerous mission with continuous risks , as the final part is all action, as the motley group aboard a train , there wreak havoc , passes through a steady stream of military checkpoints and then run for their lives .

Pretty good S.W. about a relentless and exciting caper set against spectacular scenery of Almeria . The dangerous assignment is set against stark environment , risked railway and hazardous trails . This Western is superior than subsequent Spaghetti entries because it displays stirring adventures, shootouts, riding pursuits , some touches of humor and is pretty amusing . The picture mingles violence , thrills , fights and it's fast moving and for that reason results to be entertaining . This film belongs to the numerous group that are set during the Mexican revolution , called ¨Zapata Western¨ , like are the Italian films : ¨ Duck you sucker¨, ¨The professional¨ ,¨Tetepa¨ , ¨Il Mercenario¨ , ¨Compañeros¨ , ¨What am I doing in middle of the revolution¨ and the American movies : ¨The wild bunch¨, ¨Villa rides ¨, and ¨The professionals¨. There are many fine technicians and nice assistants as the cameraman Enzo Barboni (who subsequently directed Trinity movies : Terence Hill and Bud Spencer) makes an excellent photography with barren outdoors, dirty landscapes under a glimmer sun shot on outskirts of Rome , Lacio , Elios studios and of course Almeria, Spain . And partially shot on ¨Once upon the time the West¨(1968) location as the railroad and the farmhouse . The musician Ennio Morricone creates a classic Spaghetti soundtrack and perfectly conducted by his habitual collaborator Bruno Nicolai.

Well produced by Italo Zingarelli , the famous producer of ¨Trinity series¨ and being well directed by Don Taylor . Don was a notorious secondary actor who sometimes played top roles as in the trend-setting crime drama ¨The naked city¨ (1948) , ¨Battleground¨ and ¨Stalag 17¨. In later years Taylor became a film and TV director, being nominated for an Emmy for his direction of an episode of "Night Gallery" (1969). Taylor met his wife Hazel Court when he directed her in a 1958 episode of "Alfred Hitchcock presents¨ and he went on directing films as the successful ¨The final countdown¨ , ¨Damien , omen 2¨, ¨Escape from Planet of Apes¨ and ¨Island of Doctor Moreau¨, his only Spaghetti Western is this "The Five Man Army¨. Rating : Above average Ravioli Western , it will appeal to Spaghetti aficionados .

Five Man Army may not be as epic or as groundbreaking as other Spaghetti Western films, but it's a lot of fun to watch and overall, provides a good slice of western action. My main reason for tracking down and seeing this film is due to the fact that it was co-scripted by Italian horror maestro and one of the men behind Sergio Leone's masterpiece 'Once Upon a Time in the West', Dario Argento. Argento worked on scripts for a number of Spaghetti westerns, and while this is only the second that I've seen (Leone's masterwork being the other one), it's the one that gets mentioned second most often, which leads to believe that it's one of his best. The plot centres on a man named 'The Dutchman', who hatches a plot to rob a train of $500,000 worth of gold. He can't do it on his own, however, and so recruits the services of four men with expertise in different areas. They all have something to prove, and the $1000 he's offering for their help gives them the initiative to try and prove it. The film then follows the makeshift 'Five Man Army', as they steal the gold.

The film begins with a man going round asking the prospective members of the army to join the foolhardy scheme. This sort of plot device is common in the movie, as it's all rather simply told. However, if you ask me this is a good thing as some films like this tend to get a bit too complicated, and it can take something away from the enjoyment of watching. There's plenty else to enjoy too, as Argento and his fellow scriptwriter have managed to create a varied assortment of characters that play well off one another and, of course, there's all the explosions and shootouts that Spaghetti Western fans have come to expect. It does have to be said that there's not as much violence in this film as there is in similar movies, as much of the movie focuses on the train robbery at the end, which is pulled off with very little bloodshed. The acting is decent enough also, with veteran actor Peter Graves heading up a good versatile cast, which fit into their roles well. Ennio Morricone provides another good western score, and overall, this film is always going to be a target for fans of Argento's work. I won't recommend going into the film with high expectations, but it's a fun viewing and I enjoyed it.

To begin with, this is one of the first films I ever recall watching – my father having acquired a copy on 16mm when I was still a kid!; needless to say, I've been wanting to re-acquaint myself with it for several years – particularly to see how it stacked up against other Spaghetti Westerns which, naturally, I came across much later…and, this, in spite of Leonard Maltin's unflattering rating!

As it turned out, the film lived up to my expectations in being a middle-of-the-road genre effort – not one of the best, perhaps, but reasonably entertaining all the same. Incidentally, it forms part of a handful of Spaghetti Westerns with the Mexican Revolution as backdrop; an added attraction to the film, then, is its main plot involving a caper aboard a moving (and heavily-guarded) train – it has, in fact, been referred to as a cross between THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960; in view of the select group called upon to aid in a cause) and THE WILD BUNCH (1969; which had a similar robbery as a subplot)!

While the central train sequence involves some notable tension (the elderly dynamite expert loses part of his equipment, the samurai falls off and has to run across a lengthy stretch of fields in order to rejoin his associates), the gang is never shown to be in any serious danger throughout; the final confrontation with the Army, for instance, is nothing at all like the notorious massacre seen in THE WILD BUNCH itself – in fact, none of them gets wounded or killed…and even the tension within the outfit over whether they should hand over the gold to the revolutionaries or else keep it for themselves is resolved without so much as a punch (rather it's shrugged off with a laugh!).

The multi-national group is played by Americans Peter Graves (well cast in a basic extension of his signature role in the classic MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE TV series) and James Daly (his presence here isn't displeasing yet quite baffling, as he can't have been at all a familiar name to Italians – personally, I only knew him from his brief role in PLANET OF THE APES [1968]!), Japanese Tetsuro Tamba (who's just as anonymous as Daly – perhaps the film's budget could afford only one foreign 'star') and, of course, Italians Bud Spencer (a staple of the genre and, thankfully, resorting only very briefly to his trademark comic brawling) and the youthful Nino Castelnuovo (who, naturally, sides with the Revolution all along). The supporting cast includes another genre contribution from Italian starlet Daniela Giordano (as a Mexican peasant girl who shows interest in samurai Tamba): her lovely presence is always welcome – and I still recalled the scene here in which the Army General tears off her clothes from all those years ago! – but it's not quite as captivating as in the two other films of hers that I've watched; there's also Giacomo Rossi-Stuart – who, for an actor of his stature, is given very little screen-time as a lieutenant to the Mexican General.

Having mentioned the surprise casting, one also has to question the decision behind offering the directorial reins to a minor-league American, former actor Taylor; incidentally, years later, when Giordano was asked by a magazine to comment about the film, she couldn't even recall him being on the set and that co-director Zingarelli handled most of the proceedings! Dario Argento was also behind this film as a scriptwriter – which makes the film's tameness all the more curious and, given its derivative nature, perhaps shows his ultimate disenchantment with the Spaghetti Western genre…or else he was already thinking of branching out into direction (his debut film, the seminal giallo THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE [1970], was released not long after). THE FIVE MAN ARMY is marked by yet another rousing Ennio Morricone score – which is cited by fans as being among his best from this era but, to me, it felt somewhat too similar to his work on Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy!

Finally, I couldn't really determine the running-time of the film – since it was interrupted by numerous publicity spots (I watched a VHS recording of a TV broadcast); however, curiously enough, the Italian version is listed as being only 91 minutes long on "Stracult"…whereas the edition prepared for U.S. consumption is 107 minutes!