Bandidos

"Bandidos" is a great, action-packed revenge story that is set up by a very dramatic opening scene that has a rogue gunfighter meet up with the man who taught him to shoot. The gunfighter shoots his former friend in both hands, and then tells him to try to get revenge if he's able to hold a gun. The stage is set, and the film doesn't let up until the very end.

All the elements of a great spaghetti western are here. There is a cool music score, an engaging story, suspenseful gunfights, cheesy acting, a couple of great one-liners, and it is all done way over-the-top, like a good western should be. This movie is loaded with style, and style is the reason why the Italian westerns are so much more fun to watch than the ones made in the U.S.

There is a lot of great camera work in this movie. The interesting use of camera angles here gives the film a distinct character in much the same way that the use of close-ups marks the Leone westerns.

My favorite scenes in the movie are the ones that take place in saloons. There is one especially amusing one in which a man who has just lost a gunfight is sitting at a table drinking and harassing customers and saloon girls while he waits to die from his bullet wound. This old woman tells him to "hurry up and die," and he decides he wants to shoot one of the saloon girls so that he can take her to hell with him.

"Bandidos" is a must-see for anyone who likes their westerns Italian style.

Although very obscure and unsung, this is truly one of the best spaghetti westerns I ever saw! Massimo Dallamano's "Bandidos" has a good and compelling plot, albeit working from familiar western themes like blood vengeance and dueling gunmen, and most of all, it's unrelenting, mean-spirited, vile and extremely violent! First, a word of advice that I sadly must mention in too many of my user-comments: do not read the plot synopsis that is described here on the website! You are not supposed to know from beforehand who the protagonists of the story are and what connects them! The synopsis bluntly gives away why the three lead characters (Richard Martin, Billy Kane and Ricky Shot) hate each other's guts, but only in the final act of the film the pieces of the puzzle fit neatly together.

Everything obviously revolves around the extremely bloody train raid at the beginning. This is undoubtedly one of the cruelest massacres in western history! Relentless gangster Billy Kane and his fierce gang rob a driving train, steal all the passengers' belongings and then nihilistically execute everyone on board. Well, everyone except one, the meticulously sharp-shooting Richard Martin, whom Billy Kane clearly knows from a previous life. Kane shoots holes in both of Martin's hands, though, so that he can never operate a pistol again. Years later, Martin desperately tries to make a living out of training young gunslingers into masterful shootists and perform live-acts at town squares. His pupils keep getting killed by jesters, however, but then he meets a handsome and mysterious young stranger. Martin's intention is clearly to train his new pupil to be capable of murdering Billy Kane for him, but the clever Ricky Shot has his own secretive reasons for wanting to confront Kane.

"Bandidos" certainly hasn't stolen its title! It's full of loathsome, egocentric, double-crossing and furious men whose lives aren't worth more than the price of the bullets that kill them. The three relatively unknown lead actors give away terrific performances and Dallamano's direction is downright stupendous. I don't know what it was about this man, but practically every genre that he touched turned into gold! His "What have you done to Solange?" is my all-time favorite giallo (and I've seen more than 120 of those) and his "Colt .38 Special Squad" is one of the better Poliziotesschi thrillers out there. With "Bandidos", he also nailed the Spaghetti Western genre! As I watched the film in its original version, my sole complaint is that the characters' names sound ridiculous when pronounced in Italian.

This is really worth watching: Excellent cast (pity Salerno and Venantini didn't do more Western), good story, turns and twists, fine camera work (no wonder: Dallamano has control). Brilliant opening scene. Highly recommended.

The film starts with a train robbery where all but one passengers are killed. The rest of the film consists in a complex plot where basically the many bandits all kill each other. The 2 honest heroes who have a buddy relationship hardly contribute to the body count. All the leading actors give a good performance, specially Salerno playing the resentful Martin. Cinematography is good but not outstanding and the sets are often quite detailed. On the downside there is the lack of a real focus and too many senseless killings. Finally even bandits need some honest people to steal from. If you want you can call that nihilism as well.

Certainly above average Spaghetti Western. The German budget DVD could have a better image quality.

6 / 10

Like THE PRICE OF POWER (1969), which I watched last September, I only became aware of this obscure Spaghetti Western when it was included in an all-time best poll on the "Spaghetti Westerns Database" website. As it turned out, it's a pretty good example of the genre, though I wouldn't quite place in the top rank. Star Enrico Maria Salerno brings intelligence to the genre - much like Gian Maria Volonte' did in FACE TO FACE (1967). The credits are quite modest, but Egisto Macchi's score is certainly exemplary; interesting characterizations, too, are somewhat nipped in the bud by a mostly unfamiliar cast.

Still, the complex plot keeps one watching: featuring a traveling-show backdrop, it's essentially a revenge saga between old pals; one trains a young gun to eliminate the other, because he can no longer use his smashed hands - but the villain is revealed to be the one man who could clear the mysterious boy of murder! Though the film's tone is generally serious, an anarchist streak surfaces during one scene where Salerno's current protégé is murdered in cold blood by a cowboy in the audience, just for a lark. The climactic shoot-out is somewhat drawn-out, but it's capped by a clever bit involving a mirror.

I watched this via a slightly trimmed German DVD - where one graphic shot to the neck is missing from the main feature but curiously present in the accompanying theatrical trailer!; it also seems to cut off a little too abruptly at the very end.