Companheiros

By 1970 the initial gold rush of the spaghetti western was over and directors were seeking new ways to push the genre forward. Trinita opted for a satirical approach while Sabata brought James Bond sensibilities to the classic anti-hero. Others chose to use the Mexican revolution as the backdrop for the escapades of their heroes. That is the case for Sergio Corbucci's Companeros.

It is essentially a remake or a reimagining of Corbucci's The Mercenary, using much of the same cast, and swapping Tony Musante as the Mexican revolutionary for the great Thomas Milian. Franco Nero plays once again the European (this time a Swede) and Jack Palance returns to the fold as the ruthless if not semi-insane baddie. All of them hit all the right notes and Nero and Milian's interactions are a joy to behold. The story opens with a duel between the two in a dusty Mexican village and the whole movie is a flashback that leads us to the events at the start of the movie, again as in The Mercenary two years earlier. Nero and Milian are employed by corrupt Mexican General Mongo to travel to the US and free the Mexican professor Xantos that is held captive in Fort Yuma. Xantos is the leader of another small group of student revolutionaries, but General Mongo wants him for more practical reasons. Xantos knows the code to a safe that is impossible to open and with the gold General Mongo hopes to finance the revolution against Porfirio Diaz. Or does he? Each one has his own personal agenda of course. As they make their way back to Mexico, a semi-insane Jack Palance with a wooden hand (do I sense a small Son of Frankenstein tribute here?) and a hawk will hunt them down and the two companeros will slowly begin to take to the more noble attitude of the professor.

Here Corbucci goes for a more Leone-esquire approach, leaving the dark and brooding nature of his previous westerns (like Django and The Great Silence) behind. As Leone used to say, this is a "fairytale for grown ups". The story takes us from the Mexican revolution to the Fort Yuma prison to the Rio Grande to a spectacular showdown in the end, with comedic touches, wild shootouts, explosions, a typically great Morricone score and excellent performances and cinematography. This is more of an adventure spaghetti western in the Leone tradition. It's considerably light-hearted but fused with the same political undertones one could find in Sergio Sollima's work and brilliant pacing. Above all, this is A grade entertainment like only the Italians can deliver.

Sergio Corbucci is not considered only second to Leone in the spaghetti western realm for no reason. His attention to detail, from the sets, camera angles, props, costumes and cinematography is impeccable and he manages to convey that iconic aspect of the west only the Europeans were able to capture. Don't miss it.

Not in any way is this meant to sound biased, because actually there are some truly great spaghetti westerns out there. Companeros may not be one of the absolute best of them, but to me it's among the most fun. It is a little of a slow-starter and a touch episodic at first and it's less than original, but when the rest of the film is so much fun and so well put together they don't seem to matter.

Companeros is a brilliantly made film, with gorgeously evocative scenery and costumes and stylish cinematography that give off a dream-like quality and harsh realism. Sergio Corbucci's direction as to be expected is exemplary, it's technically faultless while never getting in the way of the storytelling. Ennio Morricone's music score will not disappoint any fans of his and is one of the film's best assets, it's not quite one of his all-time greats but it's haunting and stirring and the theme song is one of the catchiest theme songs for any film. Like almost all his work, it really gives the film soul. Companeros is smartly scripted filled with subtle witty humour, it has blistering action especially one of the most suspenseful and entertaining shoot-out scenes I've ever seen for a film and the story is exciting, tense and fun-filled with a truly sensational and quite emotional ending.

The cast is a talented one and Companeros in no way wastes the actors. Particularly good is Jack Palance, here he has one of his most loathsome characters and Palance's performance is devilishly enjoyable, clearly looking like he was having a ball. While he is a scene-stealer, Franco Nero and Tomas Milian do wonderfully in the lead roles too, in performances filled with charisma and likability, and work like dynamite together in a film where their chemistry ties it together. Overall, a great film and a huge lot of fun to watch. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Not really a comedy western per-se, but it doesn't take itself too seriously, either.

Takes place in revolutionary Mexico during WWI. The Swede (Franco Nero) agrees to sell guns to guerrilla general Gen. Mongo but first they have to break into a safe in order for him to get paid and only the professor (Fernando Rey) knows the combination. Or so we are led to believe.

The professor also leads a rival rag-tag army of students who are fighting both the Mexican Army as well as Mongo's men with Lola (Iris Berben) as the professor's second in command.

It turns out the professor is being held by the Americans in Texas and the Swede and El Vasco (Tomas Milian), Mongo's right hand man, has to accompany him north to free him. However an ex-partner of the Swede's, John (Jack Palance) show up and has other plans for the Swede. The psychotic John like to smoke a lot of dope and has a pet falcon named Marsha (?) who lands on John's prosthetic hand after every scouting mission.

This is one of Corbucci's better westerns in spite of the ridiculous political overtones he gives it. The story is entertaining and moves swiftly along for 2hrs. without me getting bored by any of it. I don't rate it as highly as the Leone's similarly themed DUCK YOU SUCKER (1971), but it's well worth watching all the same.

The standout here for me is Jack Palance and I wish his part was bigger. He really does chew up the scenery and the part where he tortures Milian with a rat in a basket tied around his stomach, is a hoot. Ever notice how one of Palance's sidekick, the little oriental guy, has an old telephone receiver strapped onto his ear as a hearing aid? Nice touch. And the ending where Nero throws a large cross under the boxcar filled with explosives and a detonator, blowing up Palance in the process, is a welcome end to one of the main baddies of the film.

The lighthearted Morricone score fits this film very well and I like the musical cues that are sprinkled throughout that alternate between that familiar fuzz guitar and whistling banjo playing that happens while the action has quieted down.

Anchor Bay is up to it's usual standards using an excellent widescreen anamorphic print with nary a hair or scratch through it. It looks like it was made yesterday. Some of the dialog is in Italian with subtitles because it was taken from a Euro print and was never dubbed into English. However the transitions between Euro and American versions are seamless. There's also a fairly interesting 15 minute interview with Franco Nero, Tomas Milian and Ennio Morricone where they recount their experiences while they were involved in this film.

7 out of 10

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Get ready for a run-on... A Spaghetti Western set in the Mexican Revolution about a foreign mercenary played by Franco Nero who makes an uneasy alliance with a Mexican bandito who unwittingly becomes a revolutionary while simultaneously falling in love with a freedom-fighter chick who is really hot, all while being tracked by an eccentric villain played by Jack Palance...directed by Sergio Corbucci, with a score by Ennio Morricone and a few machine gun massacres and at least one scene where someone is buried up to his neck while horses are about to trample on his head. Ummm...haven't I seen this before? Oh yeah, it was called "The Mercenary" and stands as one of the best Spaghetti Westerns of all time. "Companeros", on the other hand, is an entertaining piece chock full of humor and action (although, like the two protagonists, the alliance between humor and action is not always a smooth one). The pacing could use some work and there wasn't enough nudity (ok, I'm joking on the last one...could have used more nudity though)

Where was I? Oh yeah, "Companeros" is bad-ass fun with one of the greatest shootouts of all time (Nero + Machine Gun = Bad-assery at its best). Wow, what a terrible review.

Yes, it is. "Vamos a matar, compañeros!" is to me one of the best "spaghetti-westerns" ever made. Starred by the best actors that a movie of this genre may have: Franco Nero, Tomas Milian, Jack Palance, Fernando Rey. Music by the master Morricone, one of his best compositions. And to boots, directed by the one and only Sergio Corbucci. This team just couldn´t make a bad movie... It´s most enjoyable from its beginning to the end. By the way, the last scene of the movie is what makes it even finer. Obviously I won´t tell you the end...because if you have the chance you must watch this movie.