Panca de Valente

Brazilian Western spoof. Its beginning, both in animation and in the first scene, was very promising. Afterwards, exaggerated slapstick is mostly not fun. However, besides some nice moments (clever cartoon-like ones), the movie has merits, such as cinematography, soundtrack and the outlaw band of Costa-Larga. The whole conception of the film is nice, although the outcome is irregular. Anyway, having a good director (Luiz Sérgio Person) and some high quality actors (Átila Iório, Joffre Soares...) helps even when it comes to a campy comedy under military dictatorship censorship. Many elements from Western movies appear, such as cattle stealing, the train, riding though the river, gang assault in town, shooting practice on bottles, crosses on the cemetery, nobody wanting to be the next sheriff. The saloon brawl, however, is replaced by a piwing brawl. Yes... quite campy...