Blindman, le justicier aveugle

This is one of those movies that is just plain great. I would recommend this movie to anyone, not just spaghetti western fans.

Tony Anthony is great in this movie. This is the second Anthony spaghetti western that I have seen, and the other one (A Dollar Between the Teeth) is incredible also. After seeing this film, I am convinced that Tony Anthony deserves more recognition as a spaghetti western star than he has gotten. He belongs right up there with Nero, Gemma, Eastwood, and Milian (no one comes close to Lee Van Cleef). His character in this film is one tough hombre. He really takes a beating, but always returns to create Hell on Earth for his enemies. He has a lot of great lines in this movie too.

The movie really stretches ones suspension of disbelief when the blind man is able to ride a horse to Mexico, and when he exhibits his uncanny ability to aim a gun, but this is such a high-quality film that it manages to pull it off with ease.

The music score is excellent -a great classic spaghetti western sound with a little bit of sitar thrown in.

Besides being a spaghetti western, this film also borrows some elements from exploitation movies, (lots of scantily clad and naked women, women behind bars, etc.) but manages to do it without sacrificing the quality of the movie. Fans of both genres should be especially pleased with this film.

This is a must-see for spaghetti western fans, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys movies that are somewhat off-beat, and very well made.

A mysterious blind gunfighter roams through Mexico with a mission he has sworn to carry out , as he was hired to escort fifty mail order brides to their miner husbands . But his business pals treason him, selling the women to a nasty villain . As some enemies have stolen 50 women that belong to him , thus Blindman heads into Mexico and sets out in pursuit . Blindman is imprisoned by the bandit called Domingo (Lloyd Batista) who has the brides in a fortress where comes a military party commanded by a Mexican general (Raf Baldassarre) . In the middle of these two parties is a beautiful woman , Candy's(Ringo Starr) sweetheart, who helps Blindman . The gunfighter enters the stronghold attempting to take the girls shipment , being trapped between two feuding factions , a Mexican officer and a gang of Mexican bandits led by Domingo and Sweet Mama (Magda Konopka) , and he then is caught up in a struggle against them . But here is a problem however, the gunman is blind .

The film packs violence , shootouts , high body-count , and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes . Tony Anthony is very fine, giving even some comic touches , he ravages the screen, he shoots , hits and run and ultimately takes the law on his own hands It's an exciting western with breathtaking showdown between the starring Tony Anthony and his enemies Lloyd Batista , Ringo Starr , Magda Konopka , among others . The movie contains gun-play, action Western , thrills , bloody spectacle and some nudism in charge of beautiful girls , including the ordinary female shower among them . Made on a fairly middling scale with acceptable set design , adequate photography filmed in Elios studios and evocative musical score by Stelvio Cipriani . Screenplay with interesting premise about a 'blind gunfighter' though its origin results to be a Japanese series starred by ¨Zaitochi¨, a blind swordsman from the 60s and being recently remade by Takeshi Kitano . This interesting theme about a blind gunslinger in the West has been treated in other films such as ¨An eye for eye¨ by Michael Moore with Robert Lansing and ¨Minessota Clay¨ with Cameron Mitchell , directed by Sergio Corbucci and finally ¨Blind Justice¨(1994) by Richard Spence with Armand Assante , Robert Davi and Elizabeth Shue . An interesting casting full of usual Italian/Spanish Western players such as : Tito Garcia , Fortunato Arena , Guido Mannari , Renato Romano and very brief appearance of Eurotrash goddesses as Malisa Longo , Krista Nell , Janine Reynaud , Shirley Corrigan , among others . Special mention to Raf Baldassarre in his ordinary role as a cruelly baddie , he is terrific , and bears a hysterical and mocking aspect , subsequently he would play similar characters . The movie gets the ordinary Western issues, such as avengers antiheroes , violent facing off , quick scenes and exaggerated baddies . This is a good Spaghetti Western with some moments genuinely entertaining if you can avoid thinking too much . It's an improbable blending of standard Western with pursuits, high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . Acceptable cinematography by Ricardo Pallottini , but is necessary a perfect remastering , being the copy a little washed-out . Of course , the film was appropriately filmed in Almeria , Spain . As it was shot in Texas Hollywood-Fort Bravo , Almeria, and ¨ a fortress called Condor¨, where was filmed several Spaghetti as ¨ Blind man, Massacre at Fort Holman¨, ¨A man called Noon¨ , ¨El Condor¨ and ¨Conan the Barbarian¨ .

The motion picture was compellingly realized by Ferdinando Baldi . Direction by Ferdinando Baldi is well crafted, here he is more cynical and violent and inclined toward humor and packs too much action . Baldi makes a nice camera work with clever choreography on the showdown , fighting , moving shootouts and bemusing scenes . Baldi was a craftsman who directed all kind genres but especially Western such as "Carambola's Philosophy: In the Right Pocket" , "Django, Prepare a Coffin" , ¨Adios Texas¨ , ¨Rita in the West¨ and of course ¨Il Pistolero dell'Ave Maria" or USA original title "Forgotten Pistolero" at his best . ¨Blindman¨ is an outlandish , surprising and uneven story but will appeal to Spaghetti Western aficionados . Rating : 7 , riotous Western in which there's too much action and violence and excitement enough .

The most noticeable thing about Ferdinando Baldi's "Blindman" is that Ringo Starr plays a supporting role in it. Yes, the annular member of the Beatles appears in a spaghetti western...with his voice dubbed! It's more than a little jarring to hear the man who sang "Yellow Submarine" and "Octopus's Garden" have a neutral accent.

But anyway, it's an OK movie, not great. Tony Anthony plays a man hired to deliver fifty brides to the miners, but the brides get kidnapped and so he has to take charge. It's got a lot of the things that we can expect in a spaghetti western, along with a few things that wouldn't have been acceptable just a few years earlier. It's a fairly interesting flick, partly to see the most famous drummer in the world play a bandit, but mostly just to see this lesser known entry in the genre. Good times.

PS: Producer Saul Swimmer also co-produced the documentary "Let It Be" and directed the documentary about George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh. In other words, this is one spaghetti western that's all about the Fab Four.

It's not the first and it won't be the last spaghetti western that sees a purely iconic anti-hero roaming the sierras of Almeria in search of loot, money or treasure of one kind or the other. But it's the first and probably the last time that such a loot will have feminists and other PC characters foaming so furiously in the mouth. The titular Blindman (Tony Anthony) has a contract to deliver 50 women to the workers of a mine in Texas, only he's about to discover his cargo has been stolen by a sardonic baddie named Domingo and is being kept somewhere in Mexico.

If I use the word 'cargo' to describe the 50 hapless women, it's because that's exactly how the movie treats them; as objects to be ravaged, enjoyed or transported as the need arises. They're herded and driven tied in wagons like cattle, washed with buckets of water like animals in a stable and always regarded as a piece of entertainment. Feminists will have a ball of course but Ferdinando Baldi's movie avoids any and all questions of moral and sexist nature by taking a purely cartoonish road. Blindman does not ask the viewer regard it as a serious piece of cinema anymore than it regards itself as such.

After the half-hour mark story becomes largely irrelevant and it's all about the set-piece and the explosive action. It's more or less Blindman trying to get his 50 women while they're being taken from one place to the other – but every five minutes someone is getting shot at or something blows up.

The two most prominent set-pieces among them being first the sight of the fifty women dressed in white nightgowns running scared through the desert while they're being pursued by a dozen savage Mexicans in heat, who proceed to shoot them, tear their clothes and take them right there and then. The other is the closing shootout taking place in a large windswept cemetery that perhaps recalls the ending of DJANGO.

Another interesting angle here is that the connection between the spaghetti western and samurai cinema is furthered by having protagonist Blindman explicitly homage blind masseur swordsman Ichi from the ZATOICHI series, perhaps the single most popular serialized character in Japanese chambara. Blindman is cut from the same mold of solitary badass as Shintaro Katsu's blind swordsman and he shares the same impeccable aim despite his physical shortcoming. But that's something the avid genre fan already knows – the moment Blindman appears on screen we know he's going to kick ass and kick ass he does. He even hefts his Winchester like a two-handed sword and there's a bayonet in the rifle to further resemble the samurai sword.

Ferdinando Baldi's Spaghetti take on the 'Zatoichi' films is one of the most stylish and enjoyable Spaghetti Westerns I've seen. Tony Anthony stars as the titular hero who is after a group of seedy Mexican bandits (one of which is played by...Ringo Starr!) who have kidnapped 50 women that he was supposed to take to some miners in Texas. Loaded with well-directed scenes of violence and gratuitous nudity, 'Blindman' is a must-see. Ha-ha what a knee-slapper!