El Verdugo

Sheriff Lyedecker (Jim Brown) comes to Mexiko as he chases the bank robber Yaqui Joe (Burt Reynolds). As a victim of circumstance, Lyedecker becomes the number 1 enemy of a Mexican general who wants to kill the Yaqui Indians. The sheriff has no other choice than to fight side by side with the bank robber and the Indians now...

The years 1969-1971 mark the beginning of the modern western with the irony of „Little Big Man", the cruelty of „Soldier Blue", the myth awareness of „Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid", the depression of „McCabe & Mrs Miller" and many more. „100 Rifles" is a kind of missing link between 1960s westerns and the new approach as from 1970 onwards. It makes deliberate, obvious attempts to break taboos, telling the love story between a black guy and a white woman, pushes violence to the level of an Italian western of that time, includes nudity not only in Raquel Welch's famous shower scene, but also in Soledad Miranda's hotel scene at the beginning, and the screenplay adds a left-wing political, anti-racist theme. „100 Rifles" gets carried away by its own enthusiasm sometimes, putting forward its messages a bit clumsily compared to the elegance of „The Professionals", a movie which took much more careful steps into the revolution movie direction 2 years earlier. Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching the picture for being a (wild) child of its time, speedy narration and a gorgeous Raquel Welch.

The action film is a pretty obvious genre. It's purpose is to distract, entertain, and many money. Yes, there's quite a market for this material, probably supported by a similar audience that keep gothic paperbacks moving in the marketplace year after year.

"100 Rifles" is a substandard action western that offers a time capsule back to the late 60s early 70s. Generally unpleasant in its excessive depiction of killing and bloodletting, the film does utilize the star talents of three interesting actors.

The lead role gave Jim Brown an opportunity to strut his macho stuff, riding horses, shooting bad guys, and fist fighting his male costar on occasion. It also provided a couple of intended heated love scenes with his leading lady. Unfortunately, Brown comes across as wooden and even disinterested here. Too, his vocal instrument is much too high pitched and unsonorous to match his impressive physicality.

Burt Reynolds comes off better, making the most of his high cheekbones and sunken eyes--lending credibility to character ethnicity. He, like Brown, is in fine physical shape, and even elects to do some fancy stuntwork himself, like jumping off a moving train.

Still, it's Rachel Welch that emerges victorious here. Here's an actress that takes on a routine part in a routine script and plays it for all its worth. Also in great shape, Welch knows that if she's got it, she might as well flaunt it. She does, and we are the appreciative recipients.

The film also shows how much energy it takes to do this kind of production. Not a great deal of brainwork required, but a barrelful of brawnwork.

The movie takes place during a bloody time period of Mexico history… At that time, anyone coming to Mexico ought to be speaking Spanish… But Lyedecker (Jim Brown) didn't speak the language… He was a black policeman looking for a valuable man, a bank robber named Joe Herrera (Burt Reynolds), who looks Mexican but doesn't talk Mexican… Herrera is a half-breed, whose mother was a Yaqui Indian and his father was from Alabama…

General Verdugo (Fernando Lamas) is sure that the money was not spent on women or on Whisky… For him, Joe stole the $6,000 from the Citizen's Bank in Phoenix, Arizona to buy 100 rifles for his people, the Yaqui Indians…

Verdugo—a murderer and an assassin who runs the State of Sonora—have orders to get rid of the Yaquis any way he could, and he took the easy way by killing everybody… He even kidnapped Yaqui children to regain the rifles… And now he wants Lyedecker's head on a stick in the middle of the plaza for everyone to see…

Lyedecker doesn't care about nothing and nobody… He took a job that nobody else wanted… His intentions are to take Joe back for the $200 reward and a permanent job… The policeman rejected any deal in spite of all the atrocities he witnessed like executing Indians or hanging them up like a side of beef…

Steven Grimes (Dan O'Herlihy)—who runs the railroad— doesn't want his train to be a small sacrifice to the mean general… The German military adviser Lt. Von Klemme (Eric Braeden) thinks that the Indians must be finished off as quickly as possible before more guns come through… Raquel Welch's most audacious moment comes out when the Indians attack a well-guarded train carrying troops and supplies, and she was openly showering in the flat part, under a water tower…

With a very nice score by Jerry Goldsmith, "100 Rifles" is a slam-bang action epic, with loads of explosions and gory fighting, making little sense but a lot of amusing noise

I admit that I liked the film, rather more than I expected to. Jim Brown, while not a professional actor held his own for the most part, although his scenes with Raquel Welch seemed a little forced. This makes me think that acting is not really that hard to do acceptably, since so many non-actors have done OK at it. Welch does her part and looked wonderful. Burt Reynolds was at the top of his game here, before he became a world-wide phenomenon, still had to make his way ACTING. Fernando Lamas was suitably evil as the native general/governor trying to commit genocide on the poor, misunderstood, peaceful Indians. And I have to mention the beauty of the late Soledad Miranda. She brightened the screen in the short time she was on it.

I just rewatched "100 Rifles" and it is still a joy to watch, good actors and effective action makes this very spaghetti-like US western simmer, as well as a very sexy Raquel Welsh. Made 2 years before Leone made his "Duck You Sucker" and has a surprisingly lot of elements in common with it. A healthy dose of humor is also infused into this film. 7/10