Gli specialisti

With his deservedly lauded, darkly hued outlaw masterpiece 'The Specialists' Sergio Corbucci once again dynamically proves himself the grand architect of audaciously stylised, dazzlingly quick-fire, bullet-blasting western action! A bona fide, flint-edged classic, dramatically fortified with an exemplary cast of charismatic Euro-cult legends, truly breathtaking vistas, an exemplary score by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, pristine photography by maestro Dario Di Palma, and a seethingly enigmatic performance by broody, blisteringly bellicose blue-eyed Gallic icon Johnny Hallyday as the loner, fatally fast Gunslinger Hud Dixon!

There's a fatalistic, palpably grim, strikingly Noirish quality to Corbucci's art that I found especially fascinating, with its majestically mountainous, soul-stirring vistas, lasso-tight plot, exemplary set pieces, and generously seratonin-spiking climax, the undeniably special 'Gli Specialisti' is a very, VERY fine western indeed! On a more personal note, not only did I find Hallyday's steely portrayal of the stern, solitudinous shootist Hud suitably menacing, it also proved to be pleasingly nuenced, engendering great sympathy for his isolated, doom-laden vengeance, a rare trait one doesn't often find in the more noisome, gun-happy spaghetti western protagonists of its era.

The whole town of Blackstone is afraid, because they lynched Bret Dixon's brother - and he is coming back for revenge! At least that's what they think.

A great Johnny Hallyday and a very interesting, early Mario Adorf star in this Italo-Western, obviously filmed in the Alps.

Bret Dixon is coming back to Blackstone to investigate why his brother was lynched. He is a loner and gunslinger par excellance, everybody is afraid of him - the Mexican bandits (fighting the Gringos that took their land!) as well as the "decent" citizens that lynched Bret's brother. They lynched him, because they thought he stole their money instead of bringing it to Dallas to the safety of the bank there. But this is is only half the truth, as we find out in the course of this psychologically interesting western.

But beware, it's kind of a depressing movie as everybody turns out to be guilty somehow and definitely everybody is bad to the bone...

Still, I enjoyed it very much and gave it an 8/10. Strange, that only less than 5 people voted for this movie as of January 12th 2002....

The French Elvis, Johnny Hallyday is excellent, physically well-cast and impressive as the recurring main character in hundreds of Italian westerns: the lanky, silent stranger with supernatural shooting skills, and for the most part, not particularly interested in having sex with any of the gorgeous girls that filled the Italian westerns.

"The Stranger" character is more interested in dollars or gold but it's rarely explained in most films what his goal would be once he gets said dollars. The prototype was Clint Eastwood followed by Franco Nero, Terrence Hill, Anthony Steffen, George Hilton, Mark Damon, John Phillip Law, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Giuliano Gemma, Gianni Garko, Chuck Connors, Robert Woods, Charles Bronson, Tony Anthony and other actors. Abstract and surreal, the one-dimensional characters in Italian westerns have nothing in common with the more complex characters in American western films and, especially, TV shows that presented westerners faced with the problems and challenges of daily life. An example of this is the character Connors played in Castellari's Kill Them All and Come Back Alone compared to the single dad Lucas McCain raising a son in The Rifleman, a violent show yet filled with great humanity.

Hallyday gives a measured performance, much cooler than the explosive Law was in Death Rides A Horse, lighting the ever-present cigarillo and protecting a beautiful girl from harassing proto-hippies who enjoy rolling in mud holes while dealing elsewhere with a beautiful lady crime boss. Gli Specialisti also includes Mexican banditos, white townspeople (in Nevada), and a closing massacre that wipes out the town. His casting is as unusual as Trintignant's was in The Great Silence, an actor not associated with westerns like Hilton and Steffen were.

As realized in his The Great Silence, and Django, Corbucci had a great eye for scenic and unusual locations that elevated his films from the many Italian westerns that all shared the same geography. His locations are an important part of his westerns. Gli Specialisti never struck a major chord in audiences and Euro western fans but it's well worth repeated viewings.

The copy of this movie that I have seen is not very good. It's grainy and has almost no color in some parts. It switches back and forth between English and French, often in mid sentence, and sometimes even in the middle of a word! To make matters much worse, there are no English subtitles during the French language parts, which I think make up at least one quarter of the film. But, amazingly, the movie is still very understandable and enjoyable, even in this condition, and I think that says a lot about how well-made this film is.

This is a top notch spaghetti western with great acting, an interesting storyline, and an excellent music score. It also has a cool protagonist, a beautiful dark-haired girl, some strange characters and events, and an overall feeling of melancholy. This film has "Euro" written all over it.

I hope there is a pristine negative or print of this film out there somewhere, because it deserves a quality DVD release, and when it comes out I will be one of the first in line to get it!

In the late sixties director Sergio Corbucci made four spaghetti westerns in a row--the classics THE MERCENARY, THE GREAT SILENCE, THE SPECIALISTS, and COMPANEROS. Three of these, all except THE SPECIALISTS, are constantly turning up on ten best lists when spaghetti westerns are rated. Until recently all I had seen was a very poor quality compilation with some English, some Italian, a fuzzy picture, and it was nearly incomprehensible. Now, having seen a beautiful widescreen version with subtitles (still in two languages, however), I can safely include THE SPECIALISTS in that group of four classics. Johnny Halliday is very good as the charismatic Hud, a notorious hand with the gun returning to Blackstone to investigate the death of his brother, who was lynched by the townspeople for losing their savings. It involves a voluptuous beauty who owns the bank, a Mexican bandit leader, El Diablo, who was once friends with Hud, an honest sheriff who dreams of better days, and a small band of hippies--well, it was the late sixties, and hippies were everywhere, even apparently in our westerns. It's not a desert western, shot in the alps somewhere, and is lovely to look at. There is a bit more nudity than I expect in a western, but that's not a bad thing. Sylvie Fennec is lovely as Sheba, who may be Hud's niece, or dead brother's girlfriend...that's never made clear. This film deserves to be seen, and once again, we plea for a nice DVD with all the trimmings--I think THE SPECIALISTS would be as well known as any of Corbucci's other westerns, and that's high praise indeed.