El Diablo

Funny though unknown TV Western with noisy action, brawls , humor, mirth, shootouts and amusement. This Western comedy deals with the young man, Billy Ray (Anthony Edwards), a gentle children's school teacher who must fight against a nasty enemy to free his kidnapped student Nettie Tuleen (Sarah Trigger's film debut). Firstly, Billy Ray enlists the aid of unscrupulous gunman (recently deceased and unforgettable Louis Gossett Jr). His mentors are some sympathetic crooks. The cocky dandy Billy Ray wearing elegant clothes but he changes his garments to a ridiculous cowboy style with pants made of animal skin. Billy Ray Smith creates a 'posse' made up of the most eccentric gunslingers: The Preacher (John Glover), the writer Kid Durango (Joe Pantoliano) Zamudio (Miguel Sandoval), Bebe (M. C. Gainey) and Indian Dancing Bear (Branscombe Richmond). The veteran partners teach him the West manners and training him for shooting. Along the way, the bunch confronts the deadly outlaw nicknamed "The Devil" (Robert Beltran). When a young man can't ride or shoot he needs help real bad and here's help that's real bad!.

Anything is possible in this comical-serious Western movie. This film contains Western action , shootouts, fist-play, high body-count, humor with tongue-in-cheek and results to be pretty bemusing. A good Western with lots of silly laughters in which the notorious outlaw El Diablo kidnaps a schoolgirl, her teacher, an Easterner named Billy Ray, decides to rescue her. It's an entertaining film with enjoyable comedy in which Anthony Edwards plays a young man who teaches at a school and promises to rescue a girl kidnapped by a bandit, incompetent to track her alone, he joins a team of gunfighters. And the leader results to be Louis Gossett Jr who steals the show as the shameless and ambitious ex-Union soldier, along with a notable plethora of secondaries, such as: John Glover, Joe Pantoliano, Robert Beltran, M. C. Gainey, Miguel Sandoval, Sarah Trigger, Jim Beaver and Branscombe Richmond.

The comical formula deals to enhance the hilarious observations of the western originated on the decade of the Sixties, including the following filmmakers : Andrew McLagen with ¨McLintock!¨, ¨The rare breed¨, Something Big¨ and Burt Kennedy with ¨Support your local gunfighter (one of his better spoof Western)¨ , ¨Support your local sheriff¨ (his highpoint) , ¨Dirty Dingus Mcgee¨ , ¨War Wagon¨ and ¨ The Good guys and bad guys¨, ¨Texas Across the River¨ by Michael Gordon and a bit later on, Mel Brooks directed the indispensable ¨Blazing saddles¨ and after ta-hat, Hugh Wilson made ¨Rustlers' Rhapsody¨.

The motion picture well directed by Peter Markle. And John Carpenter was the film's executive producer and writer. Peter Markle is an expert on all kind of genres as comedy as ¨Hot dog , the movie¨, ¨Wagon East¨ the last film of John Candy¨ ; Sci-Fi as ¨White dwarf¨; Sports as ¨Youngblood¨ ; ¨Drama¨ as ¨Personals¨, ¨Nightbreaker¨, and suspense as ¨Through the eyes of a killer¨ and ¨Last days of Frankie the Fly¨ , and Wartime genre as ¨Bat 21¨. Rating : 6,5 . Worthwhile seeing, better than average humorous western.

Because that's the way he was facing. I loved this western, it was one of the best I've ever seen. Gossett played a practical gunslinger who shot a man in the back if he had to in order to win and stay alive, not because he was a gutless wonder. He took a school teacher with 2 left hands under his wing after the man's fiancee is captured by a notorious murdering bank robber, El Diablo. Watching the instructor learn the ways of the west while becoming a tougher man was both amusing and exciting. Thumbs up.

A young student named Nettie (Sarah Trigger) is kidnapped from an oh so sleepy Texas town. Problem is she was kidnapped by the notorious El Diablo (Robert Beltran). Her teacher Billy Ray Smith (wonderfully played by Anthony Edwards) finds it is his duty to find Nettie and bring her back. Next problem is Billy Ray is the worst shot in the west. It is quite funny watching Billy Ray leave town on his horse (which he can not ride). Along the way he meets up with Van Leek (Louis Gossett Jr., who as usual puts in a great performance) who is going to assist him and might turn Billy Ray into a gunslinger.

A pretty good film that you have fun watching. May not even need to be a huge western fan to enjoy it either. Leaves laughs and dead horses in its wake. On a side note does have some good music by William Olvis, but I did find it at times reminiscent of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST by Ennio Morricone.

Written by legendary director John Carpenter, Tommy Lee Wallace and Bill Phillips (who both worked with Carpenter on other film projects as well). Also starring John Glover as The Preacher and Joe Pantoliano as Kid Durango.

Wonderfully fun film that sometimes takes itself seriously, but mostly just has a lot of fun with the genre. Anthony Edwards is very well cast in his part, and Gossett is just fabulous as the "rode hard" old gunslinger who tries to turn Edwards into a western hero...sort of. Gossett's glorious line about why he shot someone in the back is no doubt destined to become a classic -- "Cuz that's the side he was pointing toward me." Whether you like westerns or not, this is definitely worth watching. And probably more than once.

Colorful characters, played by colorful actors almost push "El Diablo" beyond average, but not quite. There are several laugh out loud situations, but not enough to cover 108 minutes of this uneasy mixture of comedy and western. Lou Gossett and Anthony Edwards carry the film, with nice support from John Glover, Joe Pantoliano, and Robert Beltran. Unfortunately the straightforward fish out of water story is too simple and seems stretched to the max. There are a couple of instant classic lines however, my favorite being "You look a man straight in the back and then shoot him". I'm sure no horses were harmed during this movie either. LOL - MERK