Le Spécialiste

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.

You gotta love the spaghetti western universe. The vision of a west where good guys get shot point blank with no warning, cartoonish villains chew the scenery in extreme close-ups, and the anti-hero walks away from the girl in the end. A lot of people call Corbucci's films 'depressing'. I find that a bit dodgy as far as descriptions go. I think bleak and unforgiving are more apt mostly because 'depressing' suggests a level of sentimentality almost every Eurowestern director ignored in favour of painting characters in broad strokes.

GLI SPECIALISTI must be seen in all its widescreen glory before it can take its proper place in the Sergio Corbucci canon. It's a beautiful movie. And it makes sense that Corbucci wanted to blow off some steam with COMPANEROS after the unremitting one two punch of THE GREAT SILENCE and this (although he would later revert back to his usual tricks with the foulmouthed SONNY AND JED). There's still a certain amount of caricature that detracts from the overall grimness of the movie, imo it hurts more than does any good to have a needless inclusion of three kids dressed like hippies skulking around town in search of gold and trouble. And it hurts to have Mario Adorf playing Mexican one-handed bandit El Diablo as over the top as he always plays his characters.

Those minor gripes aside there's more than enough here to wet the palate of the spaghetti aficionado. Shootouts galore, the population of an entire town reduced to crawling naked in the dirt, the typical iconic badassitude of the laconic antihero (played by Johnny Halliday), the moral bankruptcy of almost every character in the movie. Corbucci might never receive the acclaim of the more famous Sergio or the American patriarchs of the genre but you and I know that's a gross injustice for a very talented director. His dynamic shot selection, in depth staging with objects sticking close to the camera and receding in the background, his flair for quick pacing and feverish energy in moving a story that wasn't always all that along, the way he photographs open spaces, everything in his work makes me sure that if Corbucci was American and had emerged 15 years later along with Mann and Hawks, the Cahiers du Cinema critics would have lauded him as an auteur worthy of serious critical consideration.

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 Specialist 1969 (Sergio Corbucci ) yey another revenge based Spaghetti Western, of particular interest in this one is its not directed by Sergio Leonne or features a soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone. What it does contain is French Singer Johnny Halliday, who was France's biggest rock pop (The French Elvis) star throughout 60s/70s and into the 80. He was known as much for his hell raising as his singing (there is a great documentary about him, made just after he died in 2017, if you able to find it) What about the film, well its a decent western, like most of the genre, there is a reason for all the carnage, in this case its, the return of the gunslinger Hud Dixon, to avenge the death of his brother by the town's folk of Blackstone . This Dead Man's Shoes but with cowboy boots and chaps. There's villain's El Diablo, the Mexican with one arm, crooked businessmen and politicians (aren't they all) and the love interest Sheba played by actress Sylvie Fennec who I've never seen in anything before who is drop dead gorgeous.

There are also some random hippies and a pacifist sheriff who has flowers in the barrel of his pistol (it was film in 1969 after all) great stuff but not a great film. 6/10 . If you want to try a Corbucci film, try The Great Silence, at least it features a Morricone score, and is based in the snow, I'm sure Tarantino got ideas for Hateful 8 from this.

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.