La collera del vento

Terence Hill and Mario Pardo are a couple killers: always on the run, always ready to kill without compunction. But when they are hired to kill a labor agitator who's making trouble for the local landlords, Hill decides he doesn't like the way things are, especially after pretty innkeeper Maria Gracia Buccela stops the laborers from lynching him for murdering the organizers.

It's a well written spaghetti western, and Hill is good as the steely-eyed western hit man who develops a conscience. I have some issues with the dubbing, but a good cast, including Fernando Rey and Maximo Valverde, keep things humming along with a nice bit of subtext.

This Paella or Chorizo western is set in Andalucia , Spain, at the end of the 19th century, and performed by Terence Hill as a gunfighter called Marco . Marco along with his brother Jacobo (Mario Pardo) are contracted by evil land lord Don Antonio (Fernando Rey) and his son Ramon (Maximo Valverde) to kill a communist who's planning to begin a revolution on the countryside against abusers y exploiters who horribly mistreat the laborers in an Andalucian community . Meanwhile , Marco rests at an inn run by a pretty hostess (gorgeous Maria Gracia Buzzela) . Then , there takes place an+ extraordinary event , the metamorphosis of Marco , a hired gunslinger turned into a good man and defender of oppressed and hapless.

This enjoyable movie contains a relentless criticism to high class and barons land who carry out human exploitation and attacks against local oppressed and impoverished peasants . At the same time , there is a brief observation on the rural life during last years of the 19th century in Andalucia . This meaty Paella/Spaghetti Western contains an interesting but well known plot , violence , shoot'em up and results to be quite entertaining , though drags at times , balancing in ups and downs . Above average Spaghetti/Paella Western is proceeded in violent style in which the bad guys are the local landlord and aristocrat , Fernando Rey , his son Maximo Valverde , hoodlums as Manuel De Blas and good guys as Terence Hill , William Layton , Manuel Alexandre , among others . The film packs violence , shootouts , high body-count , a merciless vengeance and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . It's a thrilling western with breathtaking confrontation between the protagonist Terence Hill against the heartless Fernando Rey and his son Maximo Valverde and his underlings who cause abuse and rampage on villagers . Terence Hill is fine , he ravages the screen , hit and run and kills . This movie is a lot of fun to watch . It's an agreeable story with a touch of peculiarity , some particular characters, and an amazing music score . The picture is a tale of justice as a man finds a community is being exploited and changes his mind as he helps disadvantaged and unhappy people as well as a implacable vendetta when his brother is killed . The basic plot is typical spaghetti western fare , but what makes this movie stand out is its style . This is an exciting film, plenty action , thrills, fights , gun-down and breathtaking outdoors from Andalucia , Sevilla and Huelva . In the picture appears Paella/Spaghetti habitual secondaries playing brief interventions such as Chris Huerta, Rafael Sanchez Polack , Jose Luis Martin and of course , the always great Fernando Rey , Luis Buñuel's usual actor . The notorious Spaghetti actor , Terence Hill is good in his usual tough role , as a close-mouthed gunman . The pic is well starred by Mario Girotti or Terence Hill , he began playing secondary roles into typical examples of popular Italian films of the late 50s as sword and sandal epics, comedies, adventures and was with spaghetti westerns that renamed achieved worldwide stardom . His acting is often accused of being wooden, but in many manners is ideally suited to playing the steely-faced gunslinger synonymous with the genre . 1976 Hollywood called and he appeared in March or die (1977) with Gene Hackman and starred in Mister Billion (1977) with Valerie Perrine. Since then he has concentrated on action/adventure films starring himself and often working with long time partner Bud Spencer. He appeared in 18 films with frequent co-star Bud Spencer , both of whom starred Spaghetti , Fagioli Western , comedy ,adventure and police stories .

Atmospheric though worn-out cinematography by Roberto Gerardi , being necessary a right remastering . The motion picture was well directed by Mario Camus .During various decades he touched styles varying from romantic comedies and musicals to splendid adaptations from famous novels, as is the case of the prestigious TV series "Fortunata y Jacinta" (1979) . In 1983 he was given the 'Medalla Oro De las Bellas Artes' (Arts Gold Medal), and one year later he prepared his most successful work both with public and critic : Los Santos Inocentes (1984), an adaptation from the novel by Miguel Delibes. Mario is an expert on interesting dramas as proved in ¨ The house of Bernarda Alba¨ , ¨La Colmena¨ which won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival , ¨The days of the past ¨ and many others . Rating : Acceptablea and passable ; it's an agreeable film though sometimes slow-moving . Essential and indispensable watching for Terence Hill fans .

As befits Camus, one of the more talented and purposeful Spanish film directors whose work we have been able to glimpse despite the miserable English language distribution given Hispanic material, "Collera del Vento", at least in it's English dubbed "Revenge of Trinity" version, tries for atmosphere and organises it's intrigue round a Marxist movement among the peons.

The cast is good with Hill and Gimpera looking great and individual sequences are atmospherically staged but the film needs more action to liven up its near two hours mainly made up of of brooding introspection. Dumb English lines like "The only thing they understand is the whip" don't help either. Fernando Rey shows up late and with an unsuitable English voice.

Hill isn't playing his jolly Trinity character despite the re-titling.

There is a certain expressiveness that is linked to groups of people, ethnicities, community struggles. I would impress this point upon the prospective viewer of the dubbed English version of this film: an undertaking to capture the moment of civil unrest in the black community, only instead of speaking in the authentic manner or the black community, each actor's lines are overdubbed with proper Scottish dialect complete with accent. That's what it was like to watch this film in the English dub, and unfortunately subtitles were not available. As a western, this film is a cheap imitation of "A Fistful of Dollars", itself an imitation of "Yojimbo". But whereas those films have a whimsical undertone engulfing the nobody from nowhere with no cares, this film was undertaken from a more serious perspective of building a heroic narrative around the collapse of the padrone system. Ironic since the lead here would soon gain cult-like status for his slapstick fists and fazouli routines with Bud Spencer. And in the attempt to capitalize on that notoriety, this film would be marketed as an "Trinity" adventure, which it certainly is not. It is a tragedy. The final scene is an attempt to reproduce the poignant final moment of Dr.Zhivago. Why not? The substance of the film is the rise of democratic socialism in Italy as the Padrone was challenged, no less momentous to Italians than the rise of Marxism in Russia would be to students of the ante-bellum Russian writers. But it would take 6 years for the subject of the Italian social upheaval to receive an epic cinematic treatment with none other than Vito Andolini (Robert Dinero) anchoring the cast in "1900". But yet the kernels of an emotional tale of divided loyalties, personal struggles, and the ethics of organized society are evidenced in this film. Too bad they cannot be heard as well due to the crummy English overdubs which put Hong-Kong-Phoey martial arts movies to shame.

Not far from directors like Elio Petri or Francesco Rosi, Mario Camus tells a story of growing social awareness when killer Marco comes to town, paid to shoot a man who wants to start a revolution. Watching his boss Don Antonio suppressing the working class, Marco soon regrets what he has done and joins the revolution. For the sake of drama, there is a beautiful lady to fall in love with and a brother who does not understand his change of motivation. It may not be extraordinary for 1970, but surely is a solid early work of its director.

The Spanish original title "La colera del viento" means "The Wrath of the Wind", and as Don Lucas quotes the biblical "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind" (Hosea 8,7) in the dialog, the connexion seems clear. However, in most countries, the distributors preferred titles similar to the successful "Trinita" comedies with Terence Hill, e.g. "Trinity Sees Red", even though "La colera del viento" is hardly intended for the same audience. The restored Spanish version for DVD runs 102 minutes instead of 93 like the old cinema print, which apparently was no censorship issue, merely a few dialog scenes which had been shortened. I personally didn't feel the film was too slow moving, it gives time to breathe and time to think. If you like watching Terence Hill in serious films, try "Il vero e il falso" by Eriprando Visconti next.