Les Dynamiteros

Look at that cast! I guess with that lot you'd need a different plot from your usual Spaghetti Western plot (anti-hero, corrupt businessmen, Mexicans) so here we instead get a Dirty Dozen set up…which is the plot of many an Italian war film.

This one starts off with our hero Captain Kaleb of the US army discovering that his wife has been raped and flayed by a bunch of Apaches. After putting her out of her misery, Kaleb goes nuts at his superior officer as they were supposed to be guarding the mission where his wife was working. After shooting his superior officer in the leg, Kaleb heads off for the wilderness to go rogue and kill loads of Apaches.

Two years later, General John Houston turns up and demands that they find Kaleb for a special mission (They haven't seen him in that time, but it takes about five minutes to find him!) and promises him a pardon if he'll take a team of men over the border and wipe out a certain Apache army that's been troubling the US – but who will make up this Dirty Dozen-or-so? There's Chuck Connors (explosives expert, smoking), Ricardo Montalban (Native Indian, overblown philosophy), Woody Strode (Engineering, punch ups), Slims Pickens (good ol' Southern hospitality, tobacco chewing), Ian Bannen (Sarcasm, full of Buckfast) and some other guys. They all do what a Dirty Unspecified Quantity always do – start training! This being the seventies and not the eighties, we get a fairly long training scene instead of a montage.

After all that crap, it's time to go on the mission, but wait, Kaleb's superior officer has something to tell them, and I'd love to tell you what that is, but just as he's about to speak the Mill Creek version of the film immediately cuts to the Dirty Group heading for their destination. Thanks Mill Creek! Thanks also for the bit where Kaleb tells the group to shut up and ride in silence when no one was talking.

As you'd expect from films like this, this lot don't get on very well and have a few punch ups on the way, and not everyone will make it to the epic battle at the end. In tone this plays out a lot more like an American Western than an Italian one (although it's as violent as an Italian one!), which means it wasn't quite as daft, although I loved that bit where they are hoisting a donkey up a cliff face when the Apaches ride by, causing everyone to dive for cover and leave the donkey hanging there, looking genuinely perplexed.

An obscure but acclaimed Western by some reviewers and in Spaghetti style . It deals with a small group of soldiers assigned by a General : John Huston to a dangerous mission : to attack an Indian stronghold that Apaches set up in Mexican territory and eventually wipe them out . They are commanded by ex-captain Victor Kaleb : Bekin Fehmiu, an extremely bittered deserter who after his spouse's death due to what he thinks was army negligence is really unsettling, that's why he left the cavalry service seeking for vengeance. As nowadays he will pardoned and given reinstatement if he executes the risked assignment beyond the enemy lines. As the deserter captain commands a squadron of special forces on enemy territory throughout the Southwest wasteland to arrive in a location into Mexico country : Devil's backbone. The team is formed by several especialists of wide range as Machine Gun, dynamite, weapons , such as : Chuck Connors as a priest expert on explosives, a professional explorer as Slim Pickens, an Indian scout : Ricardo Montalban, a Major called Brown : Richard Crenna, a strong fighter and Afro-American : Woody Strode , a British Army captain: Ian Bannen, furthermore : Albert Salmi, Patrick Wayne, Jack Alderson and the young Lieutenant Brandon De Wilde. They must combat the nasty Indian leader, Apache chief Mangus Durango : Mimmo Palmara and his stronghold located just out the army's reach once passed the Mexican frontier. The deserter and his blood brigade !. They drenched the west with terror! A savage renegade and the chosen few... They followed him into Hell just for the chance to kill him!

Moving and spectacular Western with story and script by prestigious Claif Huffaker in "Dirty Dozen" style with assaults, noisy action, marauding Apache attacks, violence and gorgeous outdoors from Spain. Stars Bekim Fehmiu who creates especially a memorable role giving acceptable acting as a deserter captain who is given the amnesty in exchange for leading the misfit team, as the avenger Victor Kaleb is promoted again as an Army Captain, being offered the pardon and reinstatement in the cavalry if he agrees to command a special forces bunch. He is well accompanied by a great and large support cast with plenty of familiar faces playing the especially trained soldiers, such as Albert Salmi, Chuck Connors, Ricardo Montalban, Slim Pickens, Patrick Wayne, Richard Crenna, and John Huston as a stubborn General, adding other minor roles for Remo De Angelis, Fausto Tozzi and Mimmo Palmar as cruel Apache chief.

It contains at atmospheric cinematography by Aldo Tonti, though a perfect remastering being really necessary. Shot on location in El Torcal de Antequera, Malaga and Almeria, Andalucia, Spain and Lazio, Rome, Italy. As well as rousing and stirring musical score by Piero Piccioni. The motion picture well produced by Dino De Laurentiis was professionally directed by Burt Kennedy. He is mainly known for being writer in Budd Boetticher western fims. As Burt also directed a lot of Westerns as The good guys and the bad guys, The train robbers, The war wagon, More wild wild west, The rounders, Return of the Seven, The wild wild west revisited, The dynamite and the gold, Hannie Coulder, The Alamo 13 days to glory, and his two most successful westerns : Support you local gunfighter and Support you local sheriff. In addition, Kennedy directed others genres including films as Killer inside me, All the kind strangers, Trouble with spies, Big bad John, and Suburban commando. Rating 6/10. Acceptable and passable Western.

One thing I like about THE DESERTER is that it pulls no punches. No political correctness here to take your eye off the prime considerations of survival and revenge.

Captain Viktor Kaleb, convincingly played by the largely unknown then Yugoslav actor Fekim Behmiu, finds his wife skinned and otherwise tortured by marauding Apaches, and he kills her to end her misery. After doing that, he returns to base only to be threatened with court martial by the unsympathetic and bureaucratic Major Brown (played by Crenna, in a largely thankless role as ineffective fort commander).

Kaleb decides to desert the army and go on on the path of revenge right in the heart of Apache territory.

By all accounts, Kaleb is more successful on his ace than Brown's entire troop of misfits that include a lieutenant blandly played by Brandon de Wilde (a child star in SHANE who lost luster as he grew older and sadly died at 30); a chaplain who is a dynamite expert (Chuck Connors, possibly in his most memorable supporting role after THE BIG COUNTRY); Jackson, the Afro-American who hates Kaleb for no particularly clear reasons; the extremely reliable British actor, Ian Bannen, as guest officer of the Imperial Majesty's Army; and Kaleb's only friends, Tattinger (played by the always interesting to watch Slim Pickens) and Natchai (Ricardo Montalban, with a superlative minimalist performance).

And then you get John Huston as Gen. Miles. Montalban and he steal the show. Miles sees the need to use the revenge-driven Kaleb to hit at Apache Chief Durango, who's weaving nefarious plans to overrun the fort from his hideout in Mexico. Behmiu, always accompanied by his trusted wolf, has no sense of humor: he is out to do a job, picks the men for it, and heads them across territory that CHATO'S LAND would seem inspired by, two years later.

Thus Gen. Miles gives Kaleb the mission to strike at Durango and his marauding braves. Kaleb picks a team of men that he knows will test and undermine his authority. He knows that he will have to prove himself and his leadership capacity every step of the way. He and his lone wolf will do it in a relentless atmosphere of desert sand, sun, sweaty men, struggle for survival. Everyone knows the odds are very much against.

THE DESERTER is no masterpiece but it has the great merit of never seeking the easy way out and it certainly avoids any type of hypocritical political correctness. These are human beings pushing against the elements and against a barbaric enemy. No quarter given, none taken. Even children are no saints here.

Footnote: I found it interesting to see Behmiu close the eyes of the lieutenant played by de Wilde. There is something premonitory about that scene: de Wilde would be killed in a car accident in Denver just over a year later.

This cavalry-Indian western has a great veteran cast, an international flavor, beautiful scenery and plenty of action. An army captain discovers his wife tortured and murdered by Apaches and deserts but is later persuaded to train soldiers to undertake a seek-and-destroy mission against the Indians. Old antagonisms and resentments resurface as the special unit sets out on its mission, and there is as much fighting among the the soldiers as there is against the Apaches in this graphic, violent film. Bekim Fehmiu isn't bad in this adventure but his character is one-dimensional in his vengeance quest against the Indians. The film has beautiful western vistas, even if it was filmed in Europe and great character actors put the movie over the top in this wild but interesting film.

Totally acceptable Italian western utilizing many American character actors. My only gripes are the weirdly inappropriate score, and Indians who look suspiciously like Europeans. John Huston easily steals every scene as the Calvary General who doesn't mind sending Bekim Fehmiu and his band of misfits on a suicide mission. The desert scenery is exceptional, the acting passable, and the action strong. This film has some very sharp editing, thus eliminating scenes that would do little to move the story forward. It is also one of the least predictable westerns I have seen. Put this all together and you have a rarely viewed film, that deserves far more attention. - MERK