Vamos a matar, compañeros

Yes, it is. "Vamos a matar, compañeros!" is to me one of the best "spaghetti-westerns" ever made. Starred by the best actors that a movie of this genre may have: Franco Nero, Tomas Milian, Jack Palance, Fernando Rey. Music by the master Morricone, one of his best compositions. And to boots, directed by the one and only Sergio Corbucci. This team just couldn´t make a bad movie... It´s most enjoyable from its beginning to the end. By the way, the last scene of the movie is what makes it even finer. Obviously I won´t tell you the end...because if you have the chance you must watch this movie.

With a dream cast of Franco Nero (as Swedish mercenary Yod Peterson aka "penguin") and Tomas Milian (Mexican rebel Vasco), a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone and Sergio Corbucci at the Directors helm, this film was always likely to deliver. And it delivers 100%.

The story centres around the town of San Bernardino, and a fight for power between General Mongo (Bodalo) and Professor Xantos (Fernando Rey). Xantos, a pacifist with a young and dedicated following, has been imprisoned at Fort Yuma by the Americans. His absence has left the town, and its safe, at the mercy of Mongo. However, without the combination for the lock, he is unable to access the wealth of the town.

Mongo enlists the help of Peterson to rescue Xantos, for both the combination code and probable execution. Vascos is sent to accompany him, having already suffered much humiliation as a result of an earlier confrontation with the Swede. This makes for a very uneasy relationship.

A brief fracas with Xantos' followers at a hold-up on a train enables Peterson to escape from Vacos' close watch. However, he is soon relying on his companion to rescue him, after he is captured by a former partner John (Jack Palance) - who he had previously betrayed some years ago to save his own skin. This betrayal had resulted in John being nailed to a tree, and relying on his faithful pet falcon, Marsha, to rescue him by biting off his hand. Not surprisingly, John holds a grudge (as well as a wooden hand!).

On escaping John's grasp, the two make an assault on Fort Yuma in an attempt to free Xantos from the Americans. As the adventure really heats up, they're paths will soon cross with the American army, General Mongo, Xantos' followers and, of course, John and Marsha.

The first third of the film is perhaps a little slow and episodic, but does successfully reveal the characters of Peterson and Vasco to the viewer (with fantastic character play by Nero and Milian respectively). Once the background is established, the film soon explodes into action with a series of exciting and highly effective chases and battle sequences. Corbucci at his best.

Probably the strongest element of this movie however is its subtle use of humour. Much of this is provided by the chemistry between the two leading roles, but the laughs really reach a crescendo with Peterson and Vasco's final liaison with Jack's falcon Marsha. Just one great scene in a film full of them.

It is no doubt a crime to have got so far into my review without mentioning Jack Palance's performance in much detail, because his performance as the unhinged, marijuana smoking John is scene stealing. Quite possibly one of the greatest villains of all the Spaghetti Westerns I have seen.

Music is provided by Morricone, and as always the score is a perfect accompaniment to the action - both memorable and rousing. In fact it always amazes me how the man could be so consistent! In summary, this is a must view film from the ever reliable Corbucci. And my mouth waters at the prospect of watching his other Mexican revolutionary movies ('A Professional Gun' and 'What Am I Doing in the Middle of a Revolution')..... very shortly, hopefully!

Vamos a Matar Companeros! is an authentic, made in Italy, Spaghetti Western film classic and is a must see movie for anyone who wants to discover the very best of the Spaghetti Western film genre. This Western-Comedy film was directed by Sergio Corbucci, the number #2 Italian director of all time for Spaghetti Westerns, after of course Sergio Leone, for the entire Spaghetti Western genre, which is saying a lot because there were hundreds of films in that genre alone! This film is just plain fun and entertaining to watch! All the actors are charismatic, comical and professional. The all star cast in the film are Jack Palance, Franco Nero and Thomas Milian. The story is basically about the Mexican Revolution of 1910 where a mercenary (Nero) and rebels, lead by rebel leader (Milian), must rescue a idealist professor to lead the revolution who is held hostage in Texas. This film was made during the height of student protests to the Vietnam War in the late 1960's and early 1970's which may explain the political theme. There are many good scenes, too many to list here, but the best scenes and most surreal, in my opinion, are the ones with the pet falcon and the strange one wooden-handed and marijuana smoking villain (Palance).

The cinematography is beautifully filmed by cinematographer Alejandro Ulloa who also filmed other excellent Spaghetti Westerns. The music in the film is by the maestro of Spaghetti Western music and film music in general, Italian composer Ennio Morricone. Companeros includes a theme song and the beautiful classic acoustic and twangy electric guitar riffs invented by Morricone.

Not really a comedy western per-se, but it doesn't take itself too seriously, either.

Takes place in revolutionary Mexico during WWI. The Swede (Franco Nero) agrees to sell guns to guerrilla general Gen. Mongo but first they have to break into a safe in order for him to get paid and only the professor (Fernando Rey) knows the combination. Or so we are led to believe.

The professor also leads a rival rag-tag army of students who are fighting both the Mexican Army as well as Mongo's men with Lola (Iris Berben) as the professor's second in command.

It turns out the professor is being held by the Americans in Texas and the Swede and El Vasco (Tomas Milian), Mongo's right hand man, has to accompany him north to free him. However an ex-partner of the Swede's, John (Jack Palance) show up and has other plans for the Swede. The psychotic John like to smoke a lot of dope and has a pet falcon named Marsha (?) who lands on John's prosthetic hand after every scouting mission.

This is one of Corbucci's better westerns in spite of the ridiculous political overtones he gives it. The story is entertaining and moves swiftly along for 2hrs. without me getting bored by any of it. I don't rate it as highly as the Leone's similarly themed DUCK YOU SUCKER (1971), but it's well worth watching all the same.

The standout here for me is Jack Palance and I wish his part was bigger. He really does chew up the scenery and the part where he tortures Milian with a rat in a basket tied around his stomach, is a hoot. Ever notice how one of Palance's sidekick, the little oriental guy, has an old telephone receiver strapped onto his ear as a hearing aid? Nice touch. And the ending where Nero throws a large cross under the boxcar filled with explosives and a detonator, blowing up Palance in the process, is a welcome end to one of the main baddies of the film.

The lighthearted Morricone score fits this film very well and I like the musical cues that are sprinkled throughout that alternate between that familiar fuzz guitar and whistling banjo playing that happens while the action has quieted down.

Anchor Bay is up to it's usual standards using an excellent widescreen anamorphic print with nary a hair or scratch through it. It looks like it was made yesterday. Some of the dialog is in Italian with subtitles because it was taken from a Euro print and was never dubbed into English. However the transitions between Euro and American versions are seamless. There's also a fairly interesting 15 minute interview with Franco Nero, Tomas Milian and Ennio Morricone where they recount their experiences while they were involved in this film.

7 out of 10

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Not in any way is this meant to sound biased, because actually there are some truly great spaghetti westerns out there. Companeros may not be one of the absolute best of them, but to me it's among the most fun. It is a little of a slow-starter and a touch episodic at first and it's less than original, but when the rest of the film is so much fun and so well put together they don't seem to matter.

Companeros is a brilliantly made film, with gorgeously evocative scenery and costumes and stylish cinematography that give off a dream-like quality and harsh realism. Sergio Corbucci's direction as to be expected is exemplary, it's technically faultless while never getting in the way of the storytelling. Ennio Morricone's music score will not disappoint any fans of his and is one of the film's best assets, it's not quite one of his all-time greats but it's haunting and stirring and the theme song is one of the catchiest theme songs for any film. Like almost all his work, it really gives the film soul. Companeros is smartly scripted filled with subtle witty humour, it has blistering action especially one of the most suspenseful and entertaining shoot-out scenes I've ever seen for a film and the story is exciting, tense and fun-filled with a truly sensational and quite emotional ending.

The cast is a talented one and Companeros in no way wastes the actors. Particularly good is Jack Palance, here he has one of his most loathsome characters and Palance's performance is devilishly enjoyable, clearly looking like he was having a ball. While he is a scene-stealer, Franco Nero and Tomas Milian do wonderfully in the lead roles too, in performances filled with charisma and likability, and work like dynamite together in a film where their chemistry ties it together. Overall, a great film and a huge lot of fun to watch. 9/10 Bethany Cox