Les Cinq de la vendetta

Even I have my limits for Italian genre cinema, it turns out, and Aldo Florio's "Five Giants From Texas" is pretty close to it. As far as I can tell there are exactly two reasons to see this film, three if you count the somewhat mind-numbing brutality depicted. The first is the presence of Guy Madison in one of his earlier Spaghetti Western roles, playing one of a group of cowboys from Texas who travel to some dusty hellhole to avenge the murder of a mutual friend & the rape of his wife. The second is the presence of Joe D'amato on the production staff, credited for "cinematography", which in this case translates out to standing by the camera and telling it's operator where to point it.

I lost track of the story very quickly though there isn't much to it. Look, I love ultra-low budget Spaghetti Westerns as much as anybody. One of my favorites is FOR A DOLLAR BETWEEN THE TEETH with Tony Anthony, filmed on a Mastercard budget on exactly three locations and packing ten times the artistry of this film. The difference has to do with not just the approach, writing and acting so much as the application of imagination, wit & style. None of the above is evident in this film, it's a dismal, ultra violent and talky slog through yet another vengeance plot that exists only as a way to make a genre film for grown-up audiences, with the inclusion of some strikingly graphic violence and a truly detestable rape scene.

In many ways this film stands as evidence to what the Italians and their Spanish collaborators were going for with Spaghetti Westerns. The Americanized approach is usually meant for more general audiences, with shootouts and hell bent for leather riding segments, maybe a romantic scene between the leading man & his lady out by the corral fence as the sun sets. The Italians and Spaniards instead used the conventions of a Western as a framework upon which to weave an adult melodrama complete with hangings, whippings, sexuality, scenes of torture & bloodletting that would never be acceptable by those Hollywood standards. Usually I can admire the approach no matter how seemingly heartless & cruel the results, provided it's made with a sense of style. Even composer Franco Salina's musical score fails to be involving, and if the musical score to your Spaghetti Western passes without notice you know you're doing something wrong.

Redeeming factors are few but one of them is that this is a decidedly Spanish Spaghetti, not just by counting the names in the cast with Spanish roots but in the methodology involved with telling the story, which lingers on the brutality & suffering of those involved. It serves to set up a vicarious sense of justice to the climactic and phoned-in shootout between the five heroes and the sadistic monsters who are fueling the plot. Spanish art has always had a pre-occupation with tragedy and suffering, a better example of the approach actually working in a Western is a film called FEDRA WEST which was filmed for as low of a budget and with even more graphic brutality & suffering than is on display here. The difference is that the film is made with that all important sense of style.

So I don't know about this one. It's a joyless, brutal and unrewarding film though that may very well have been the point and I am just being slow to appreciate it. The reason I adore Spaghetti Westerns so much is that they usually exist as fantasy pieces with an emphasis on arty indulgence that seems to be utterly lacking here. I am sure that the beatings, stabbings, shootings, whippings, hangings, rapings, maulings and assorted carnage & suffering may be right up the alleyway of some, but I gotta call things like I see them. This movie is appalling, difficult to enjoy, and almost impossible to recommend especially considering how many overlooked and clever little gems the industry produced. This isn't one of them.

4/10: Obscure to a point, and there's good reason for it.

Thrilling but mediocre Pasta western dealing with five desperadoes : Mariano Vidal Molina, Vassili Karis , Jose Manuel Martin , Giovanni Cianfriglia or Ken Wood led by John Latimore : Guy Madison to revenge the death of an intimate friend : Germano Longo , being accompanied by the affected widow : Monica Randall . At the end the brave antiheroes advance down the central street of a solitary Mexican city to take on the three nasty Gonzalez brothers and their hoodlums at the customary gundown .

Typical Spaguetti/Chorizo Western about an ordinary issue : a merciless vendetta . It is a slow-moving , routine Pasta Western that is only redeemed by the rousing and moving finale . It is a run-of-the-mill Western with no much interest , an oater in which our protagonists get together to help a deranged widow , Monica Randall , to take on the regular villains . Being a Spain/Italy coproduction here appears some familiar faces from habitual subgenres of the Sixties , as Spaniards actors : Mariano Vidal Molina , Jose Manuel Martín , Antonio Molino Rojo , Mónica Randall , Gaspar Indio González, Victor Israel , as Italian ones : Vassili Karis , Ken Wood , Ferdinando Poggi , Germano Longo . Adding an American star who at the time emigrated to Italy to play some Western , adventure , historical and wartime movies . As Guy Madison was an important figure in the classic Hollywood , starring the successful "Till The End of Time" , a bit later on , he travelled Italy where become a common actor in the Spaghetti Western sub-genre, such as : " Seven Winchester for a massacre , Gumen of Río Grande , Il figlio of Django , Reverend Colt , This man can't die , Bing Bang Kid and this 5 della vendetta"

Special mention for the catching musical score with plenty of Spaghetti sounds in Ennio Morricone style . However , Victor Monreal's cinematography is lousy , due to a worn-out copy , being really necessary a perfect remastering . And shot in Cataluña locations and Splugues de Llobregat , Barcelona , and Cinecitta and Elios studios . The motion picture written and produced by Alfonso Balcazar and Jose Antonio de la Loma was regularly directed by Aldo Florio . This Italian filmmaker Florio was an expert on action , crime and Eurospy genre as he proved in : Crimine Contro Crimine 1998 , Una Vita Vendetta 1978, , Tutto Sul Rosso 1968 , L'uomo del Colpo Perfecto 1967 and another Western : Dead Men Ride 1971 with Fabio Testi and Charo López . Rating : 5/10 . Mediocre Pasta/Tortilla Western .

This is a very good Italian western with a decent cast and enough suspense to keep the viewer involved to the very end, and oh what a great ending it is!

The music is very good and definitely appropriate for a spaghetti western (lots of guitar, whistling, some trumpets). I especially like the sound of the blaring guitar note that repeats while the five vengeance seekers are tied up and baking in the sun. Closer to the end of the film we are treated to some cool zoom shots and great music as the adversaries face each other in the street. It's great, dramatic spaghetti style action. The characters look a bit too clean cut for a spaghetti western, but the rest makes up for it.

People that like revenge stories will love the part where a slow painful death is gleefully delivered to a rapist as his victim watches. Great stuff!