One of Corbucci's better westerns. The story concerns a bandit (Musante) who wants the legitimacy of being a "revolutionary", but needs the help of a hardened professional (Nero) to do it. Palance gives the movie some of its best moments as a gay gunslinger ( a rival mercenary) out to revenge himself on Musante for humiliating him. Not much plot, but Corbucci's fluid direction keeps it from growing stale and the god performances from the stars make it worth watching. Also look for fun, cynical dialogue and story elements from genre expert Vincenzoni. Contains the dark undertones present in other Corbucci (and Leone) westerns, but not to as great an extent as his masterpiece, "The Great Silence".
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funkyfry14 November 2002
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Franco Nero, sporting a burly mustache and sideburns, stars as Segei `The Pollack' Kowalski, an angelic opportunist, who, for profit not nobility, helps a revolutionary, Paco (Tony Musante), overthrow the corrupt Mexican generals. It is a very good Spaghetti Western, with a nice pace, good action, and interesting characters playing off one another. Jack Palance is Curly, an obviously gay bad guy, whose prissy demeanor hides his ruthlessness- that is until he kills his own partner out of spite and blows a few men's heads off. The story starts with Nero establishing his badassness while catching a dice cheat, forcing the gambler to eat the dice and saying, "When you get them back, I suggest you dont use them again." He is then hired to help protect a trainload of silver make it through rebel territory to the States. Nero goes to the mining town only to find it overthrown by Paco and his gang, and the mine collapsed. Nero luckily finds himself able to offer his help to the rebels and guide Paco in the art of stealing, strategically avoiding, and attacking the corrupt army, eventually overthrowing it. But, mostly it is not a buddy-buddy relationship, Nero is in it for the money, Paco is in it for the righteousness, yet they both respect each other. (To give a good example, at one point, while crossing the desert, Nero makes Paco and the revolutionaries empty their canteens so he can have a shower while they go thirsty.)
Aside from nice bits of humor, it sports some religious allusions, such as, Paco begins with only twelve men + Nero (their Jesus), they masquerade at one point during a religious parade and attack while dressed as angels and virgin Mary's, as well as Nero being strapped to a t-shaped cross when captured. There is also a nod to Macbeth when Paco's woman uses his power drunk naiveté to convince him to turn against Nero. The film makes use of an obviously fairly high budget, with many large battles, crowd scenes, entire towns destroyed, planes bombing, and many locales. It has an interesting structure, since the bulk of the film is told in flashback before returning to the beginning and then reaching the grand finale. The Morricone score is great, and amazingly enough, very understated. Corbucci's direction has never been better.
(Any film that opens with a shot of a dwarf clown dressed like a matador, you just know is going to be good) -
Bunuel197624 August 2006Last week, I came across a sale of Italian DVDs of several Spaghetti Westerns; I managed to purchase 4 of them and, being one of 2 I hadn't watched before, this ended up as the first I checked out.
Actually, I had missed this on late-night Italian TV; considering that a similar 'political' Spaghetti Western directed by Corbucci and co-starring Franco Nero and Jack Palance, namely COMPANEROS (1970), had been a bit too much tongue-in-cheek for my taste, I expected this to be in the same vein. However, while certainly lighthearted in comparison with Corbucci's DJANGO (1966; which I should revisit again in a couple of days) and especially THE GREAT SILENCE (1968), it's a more balanced proposition than COMPANEROS (particularly with respect to Palance's performance - quietly menacing here as opposed to the campiness of the later film) and, thus, superior to it in practically every way.
Nero has already matured quite a bit from the youthful gunslinger in DJANGO; here, he's basically playing a variation on Clint Eastwood's iconic Man With No Name figure in Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy" (incidentally, Nero's own voice resembles that of Enrico Maria Salerno - who used to dub Eastwood in those films!). Indeed, the ongoing game of cat-and-mouse revolving around Nero, Palance and Mexican revolutionary Tony Musante is clearly inspired by the tricky relationship that went on between Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef in THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966)! This is most evident in the numerous scenes where the taciturn Nero gets the brash Musante out of trouble or, conversely, 'sells' him to the authorities...and even more in the rather splendid showdown between the three characters, undoubtedly the film's highlight - given another dimension by being set in a bullring with Palance sporting a wig (he's nicknamed Curly!) and Musante made up as a clown!!
Despite her belated entrance in the film, Giovanna Ralli makes quite an impression as a fiery Mexican woman who hitches up with Musante; Euro-Cult and Spaghetti Western regular Eduardo Fajardo is also on hand as the requisite figure of oppression (who, at one point, is made to eat a living lizard by Musante!). While the comedy never quite descends into spoofiness and the political content is thankfully downplayed, the action sequences are very well handled...and the film is further blessed with a memorable theme tune by the one and only Ennio Morricone (with a little help from his friend and protégé Bruno Nicolai). -
CinemaClown11 July 2020Revolution, repercussion, robbery, shootout, greed, treachery, cynicism, retribution, all comes together in this fervently crafted, stylishly filmed and unabashedly violent spaghetti western flavoured with Mexican spices. The Mercenary is fun, amusing & thrilling from start to finish, and is laden with political underlinings that provide more depth & richness to its plot & characters.
Directed by Sergio Corbucci (Django & The Great Silence), while there is a playful, adventurous vibe to how the events unfold and are presented, the film doesn't hold back on brutality when the occasion calls for it. Corbucci's direction isn't as precise as in aforementioned classics but he nonetheless exhibits sufficient control over all aspects to give us another satisfying extravaganza.
Franco Nero plays the eponymous opportunist with charisma & pizzazz as he aids an idealistic peasant, finely acted by Tony Musante, in leading a rebellion in return for monetary gains. The on-n-off collaboration & fluid rapport they share with each other is what keeps the drama flowing. And then there is Ennio Morricone's terrific score that effortlessly elevates certain moments to new heights.
Overall, The Mercenary is a fascinating combination of skilful direction, solid acting & spirited soundtrack, and is easily amongst the finest examples of zapata western. A spicy mix of action, humour & violence that delivers the desired goods and also serves as a critique of Hollywood's handling of Mexican revolutions, Corbucci's film is engaging & entertaining in equal measure and comes thoroughly recommended. -
ma-cortes6 February 2010A Spaghetti-Paella Western directed by Sergio Corbucci, one of the most representative directors of the genre, including an international cast and many supporting Spanish family members. This is an entertaining Zapata/Spaghetti Western set in Mexico during the confrontation between Madero and General Huertas, which includes communist revolutionaries and evil bandits. A Pole named Sergei Kowalski (Franco Nero) is a mercenary, working for the highest bidder. While Paco Román (Tony Musante), who is a laborer who works in a silver mine owned by Elías García, rebels against his boss and humiliates him and his two brothers, including Colonel Alfonso García (Eduardo Fajardo). He is soon captured, but his friends save him from the firing squad. Kowalski is ordered to transport silver to a mine, but only finds that the Mexican rebel named Paco has formed a guerrilla group and taken control. Meanwhile, Kowalski makes a deal with Elias and his brother to get their money safely across the border. However, Sergei is hired by Paco and teaches the revolutionary leader how to put his idealistic fervor into practice. They are pursued by Curly (Jack Palance), a gay gunman dressed in white. Fate brought them together, greed made them inseparable, violence made them companions!.
The picture mingles violence, thrills, shootém up, comedy with tongue in cheek and it's fast moving and that's why it's quite amusing. It's a thrilling western with overwhelming and violent shootouts between the protagonists Franco Nero and Tony Musante and the enemies Jack Palance and Eduardo Fajardo. Tony Musante, such as Tomas Milian, puts faces, laughing, crying and overacting, but he plays splendidly. Agreeable intervention of an italian beauty as Giovanna Ralli. Furthermore, here appears usual secondaries from Italian Western as Franco Ressell, Raf Baldassarre, Jose Canalejas, Alvaro De Luna, Simon Arriaga, Lorenzo Robledo, Tito Garcia, and of course Eduardo Fajardo, Corbucci's ordinary. The highlights of the film are the Tony Musante's burying edge neck similarly to Franco Nero's ¨Corbucci's The Professional ¨, the confrontion at the bullfighting square and the Polish wielding a machine gun and shooting though with anachronism because is a modern model, in fact this is a fictional machine gun similar to the one used in Django (1966): Hotchkiss Mle 1914. This film belongs to the numerous group that are set during the Mexican revolution, called ¨Zapata Western¨ , like are the Italians: ¨Leone's Duck you sucker¨, ¨ Corbucci's The professional¨ ,¨ Giulio Petroni's Tepepa¨ and the Americans : ¨Peckinpah's The wild bunch¨, ¨Buzz Kulik's Villa rides ¨, and ¨Richard Brooks' The professionals¨. There are many fine technicians and expert assistants as the cameraman Alejandro Ulloa who makes an excellent photography with barren outdoors, dirty landscapes under a glimmer sun shot on location in haunted town of Cuenca and of course Almeria, Spain. The musician Ennio Morricone composes a classic Spaghetti soundtrack and well conducted by his habitual collaborator Bruno Nicolai. Well produced by Alberto Grimaldi -PEA productions- famous producer of ¨The trilogy of the dollars¨ filmed by Sergio Leone, along with the Spanish priction 'Copercines' . Sergio Corbucci's direction is adequate , he made several classic Italian western : ¨ Django¨, ¨The great silence¨, ¨Hellbenders¨ , ¨The specialist¨ and the ¨Compañeros¨, the latter bears special resemblance to ¨ The mercenary ¨ and along with ¨ ¨What am I doing in middle of the revolution¨ belongs a Corbucci's trilogy about Mexican revolution. Rating : 6,5/10. Good Spaghetti Western. -
cengelm9 January 2005This film was actually one of my favorites at a student movie theater really many years ago. It was kinda cult and thus shown quite often and the audience could have been always the same. Like many of Corbucci's works it has frequent showings on German TV. IL MERCENARIO is very comparable to the better COMPANEROS which has particularly a much better cast. It's another buddy western with a Nordic (blond) and a Mexican guy where the first is cool and intelligent and the other hot tempered and rather low witted. Compañero Milian is much slicker than Musante who many times prevails just as a fool and is closer to Tuco Ramirez of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. Nevertheless Musante feels more realistic as a peasant than the grimacing Milian. Nero is more dominating in his role as the mercenary of Polish origin than as the Swedish Peterson of COMPANEROS. He is never really convinced of the revolutionary values. Curly/Ricciolo (Jack Palance) seems pretty superfluous for the plot and serves as a comic relief character with an extra portion of sadism. In the absence of a real lead villain he enters the final duel.
The pace of the film is fast and the excellent (maybe Morricone's best) and rousing score supports the generous action. Machine guns are roaring and counting the bodies falling seems pretty impossible. Impressing wide screen photography immerses the viewer.
9/10 with a slight nostalgic bonus. Top 10 Spaghetti Western. -
"A Professional Gun" (aka, "The Mercenary") is an oddly paced film that is mostly enjoyable--but highly uneven. Some aspects of the movie are quite good (such as the Ennio Morricone score) but the plot itself often seems contradictory and confusing. Mostly, the motivations and behaviors of Franco Nero's character make little sense and change almost randomly.
The film begins with a small-time bandit (Tony Musante) in revolutionary Mexico (about 1915). He talks about 'the revolution' but mostly is just a leader of some opportunistic thugs. When he meets up with a cool mercenary (Nero), he pays through the nose to have the mercenary tutor him on warfare. As the film progresses, the bandit slowly evolves into a revolutionary hero, whereas the mercenary seems interested in one thing--money. But, as I said above, this guy's motivations inexplicably change--and this change left me cold. It just seemed formulaic and nothing in the film seemed to explain this change. In addition, a smaller and somewhat unrelated subplot involving a nasty Jack Palance is sprinkled throughout the film.
A few things to look for in the film include Nero's revolver that shoots SEVEN times when he's taking a shower as well as Palance's butt. Not a brilliant and occasionally a confusing film--but enjoyable nonetheless provided you don't try to think too much as you watch.
Finally, the casting is ironic. Musante plays a Mexican, while he's American born and bred. Nero plays a Polish-American, while he's an Italian! -
washboard10 August 2005I recently got hold of the Japanese DVD print via ebay. This is of really high quality and I was amazed that this film is not more widely known or appreciated. What a brilliant film. In many ways it is similar to Companeros and if you liked that wonderful film you will also love this. The story is somewhat far-fetched but is very enjoyable and fast paced in a 'boys own' way. The machine gun makes its familiar appearance. Franco Nero, as always, delivers a superb performance and Jack Palance gives a very good performance as a very unpleasant killer. The music is brilliant and the duel in the bullring is incomparable and is perfectly choreographed to the wonderful music. If you are interested in westerns you have to see this film.
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Apollo15AnnoPianoCatDogSnailAnt7 May 2020A compelling portrayal by Palance, and just Nero also. Basically lots of turnabouts reminisces the s.w. genre cycle is about just this. Standout theme is the whistle tune and nothing else quite like that. Something else: Carnival is a recurring theme here showing up with masked people, clowns, showing this element of the fun, the actors going another dimension where even the characters wear masks. As for Nero, certainly an emperor worth portrayal of cooly done up.
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JasonT41325 November 2002This is one of the better Spaghetti westerns from the late 1960's. Franco Nero, Tony Musante, and Jack Palance are all in good form. My DVD copy is a cheap one and seems badly edited but the fun and vibrancy of the film still comes through. A cool political western the theme of which was continued in Sergio Corbucci's next film Companeros (another very good 'Spaghetti Western').
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Sergio Sorbucci, although not as known as Sergio Leone, made some pretty cool spaghetti westerns. They are dirty, rough, fun and brutal. His best work are undeniably Django and The Great Silence. This film, Il Mercenario, is entertaining but lacks a strong narrative. The plot, involving a mercenary and a revolutionary, is about the Mexican revolution. But it never gives the sense of urgency the previously mentioned films have. Especially the final third is messy and features more climaxes than a porn movie. Some are good (the attack on the Mexican village with a freakin airplane, the shootout in the arena), others not so much (the sheep shooting climax, for a lack of a better word). Franco Nero is, as always, great. But Tony Musante isn't as charismatic as a Tomas Milian. Great soundtrack, one that Tarantino loved to recycle.
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The second collaboration of Sergio Corbucci, the Italian Western's most important director besides Sergio Leone, and Franco Nero, one of the genre's greatest actors, after the ingenious "Django" from 1966, "Il Mercenario", a movie set in the time of the Mexican revolution, and therefore late for a Western, is a must-see for every fan of the genre.
Sergei Kowalski (Franco Nero) gets hired by short-tempered revolutionary Paco Roman (Tony Musante), in order to help his squad of unexperienced rebels with their campaign for a free Mexico. While Paco is a crook, but also an idealist, becoming more and more idealistic after his troop is joined by beautiful and idealistic Columba, a woman whose father was a revolutionary , the Polish is a typical anti-hero, witty and cool and somehow sympathetic, but mainly concerned on his own benefit.
The acting is great, specially Franco Nero as the Polish, and Jack Palance's performance as one of the villains. Another villain is played by Eduardo Fajardo, who played the villainous Major Jackson in Django. The score of this movie, composed by Ennio Morricone, is just brilliant (how couldn't it), the cinematography is great as well as the locations. My favorite film by Corbucci is still the incomparably brilliant "Il Grande Silenzio" ("aka. "The Great Silence") of 1968, "Django" of 1966 being my second-favorite due to its immense entertainment- and cult-value. Maybe not quite as brilliant as "Il Grande Silenzio" and not quite as influential as "Django", "Il Mercenario" is nonetheless an exceptional Spaghetti Western with a great sense of humor that I would recommend to everybody, not only genre fans. 9 out of 10! -
The 1960s really did produce some remarkable Westerns that categorised them into the "cool" factor. You would be hard pressed to draw a line between Franco Nero and Terence Hill, actors who tried to break out of the mould defined by Clint Eastwood yet embodied his style and stoicism.
This is an enjoyable Western, but it did have numerous short comings. It is quite a violent film with a death count that probably exceeds a hundred, but it is all bloodless. The story ends really strongly with an hombre-on-hombre shootout that is worthy of The Dollars Trilogy, but it does take some time to get there with a plot that at times is a little confusing. The character of Paco Roman (which always reminded me of the aftershave Paco Robanne) kept on calling himself revolutionary, but I could not muster what his revolution was all about. I guess the revolution was a guise to play a bandit.
Franco Nero is brilliant as the quick draw smart alec Sergei Kowalski (the Polak) who has some of the most amazing blue eyes I have not seen since Paul Newman or Robert Redford. He was seriously handsome in a rough rugged sort of way. As I said there were times I could not tell him apart from Terence Hill who played a similar character Nessuno in My Name Is Nobody. The acting all round was very good and I did enjoy seeing Jack Palance play a somewhat effeminate villain with one of the best wigs I have ever seen on celluloid. That wig alone should have got its own billing. The direction by Sergio Corbucci was also good and imaginative.
For me the plot could have been tighter. I found the film needed more humour and less violence. I felt kind of sorry for all those innocent soldiers that were gunned down in their dozen.
The best bit of the film must be the music by Ennio Morricone. That man was a genius. Check out the soundtrack on Spotify. Simply divine. -
wmjahn17 October 2006... just another GOOD, BAD, UGLY clone, in fact (which seemingly nobody notices ...). But let's start where things start: 1966 was an important year, simply because one of the best movies ever made saw the light of day then: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY is a rare piece of motion art, where really everybody involved gave his absolutely best and also succeeded in doing so. There has so much praise been said regarding this movie, that I actually don't have to add any more lines, except maybe this one: Clint Eastwood is maybe the most important director today and was certainly one of the most important and influential actors in the 60ies and 70ies and although he has made more great movies in recent movie history than anybody else, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (GBU) still shines as the absolutely and by far best picture he was ever involved in. Quentin Tarantino calls GBU rightly the best picture ever made and IMDb-voters have voted it # 2 of the all-time-best-list (it should be # 1, but I'm sure that will happen some day, smile).
When GBU hit the screens in 1966 it was a major success in Europe, but had a somewhat slow start in the USA, but word-of-mouth got around and finally made this a HUGE hit worldwide.
In Europe the narrative potential of GBU was immediately recognized and multiple clones were made in the years to come, IL MERCINARIO being one of the earlier ones.
But ... well ... Sergio CORBUCCI is not Sergio Leone (despite their sharing their first name), Franco NERO is not Clint Eastwood, Tony MUSANTE is not Eli Wallach and well, Jack PALANCE is probably as good as Lee van Cleef, but his hairdo in this movie having him play a gay (?) gunfighter makes the role of the "BAD" he has to take in IL MERCINARIO somewhat ridiculous (and still this movie isn't a comedy ...). And yes, Ennio Morricone is of course Ennio Morrcione, turning in another major achievement, not as good as in GBU but also not very far from that.
But Corbucci not only copied the three lead roles from GBU, there are in fact many more similarities, from the storyline of hunting stolen (!) gold up to even a scene in which Franco Nero takes bath in the desert, simply lifted and slightly changed from the GBU-scene in which Eli Wallach does the same in front of the short-from-dying Clint Eastwood. Not to mention the shoot-out scene between Nero, Palance and Musante in the bull-fighting arena with camera-shots to their hands in the very same way as on the cemetery in GBU ... anyone who's willing to watch IL MERCINARIO with GBU in mind will find more similarities. IL MERCINARIO is certainly an above-average Italo-western (which doesn't mean that much, considering the low average Italo-westerns have "achieved"), but it's still just a GBU-clone.
But as said above, simply copying main elements of another movie does not necessarily lead to the same outcome although Corbucci still did it much better than many other minor directors. This also shows, how much of the enormous grandeur of GBU is owed to Sergio Leone's fantastic direction, his eye for detail and feeling for timing.
This is what IL MERCINARIO is lacking most in my humble opinion: appropriate timing. Actually the screen is practically permanently crowded with too many people and there's action going on for most of the time, where in fact less would have been more. The cool scenes in between and any better-than-average characterization of the leading men is completely missing as is the dialogue seldomly on the point.
A few months after seeing the GBU one will still remember many scenes, a few days after watching IL MERCINARIO one will most likely only remember the gun pointing out of the pig's head and hardly any more. -
I realize this is a fairly short-sighted statement, but generally speaking you could say there exist only two types of spaghetti westerns There are the ones dealing with lone and mysterious gunslingers traveling into small towns to extract some sort of vengeance, and the other ones dealing with the Mexican Revolution. Yours truly is definitely more in favor of the first group (and all of its variations), because they are more grim, filthy and realistic. Mexican Revolution westerns somehow always seem a bit tedious and are often also overly idealistic and drenched in a misfit kind of festive ambiance. Even a brilliant director like Sergio Corbucci (arguably as brilliant as that other Sergio; - Leone) has difficulties here to turn a Mexican Revolution scenario into a qualitative and compelling film. Corbucci delivered a few of the greatest genre efforts ever made, with "Django" and "The Great Silence", but they neatly fit into the first family of spaghetti westerns. The constraints in "The Mercenary" are the too banal plot, the fake and cartoonesque lead characters, the misplaced comedy and – worst of all – a vast shortage of mean- spirited and relentless violence! Franco Nero plays a Polish mercenary who cheerfully switches sides depending on who pays the most money. At first he's still transporting silver for a bunch of rich tycoons, but when the young rebel Guiseppe grabs the power, the mercenary is very quick to offer his services and teach the inexperienced and over-enthusiast lad how to become a fearsome revolutionary leader. Well, in exchange for a royal fee and lots of extras of course! Naturally there soon arise conflicts, for example when ideologies collide with fortune or – even more clichéd – when a beautiful Mexican fury woman walks into the scene. Franco Nero is great and reliable as ever, although pretending to look and speak Polish is not exactly the easiest role of his career. There's still a reasonably vivid chemistry between him and rebel leader Paco Roman. The most entertaining sequences, however, are the confrontations between our duo and the eccentric American gangster Curly. As depicted by the still underrated Jack Palance, Curly is a kind of megalomaniac and homosexual psycho.
PS: Of course there are some really great spaghetti westerns about the Mexican Revolution, like "Bullet for the General", "Run Man Run" and Corbucci's very own "Vamos a Matar, Compañeros". -
Hey_Sweden28 February 2018Franco Nero is as cool as he's ever been, in the role of the title character. Sergei Kowalski is a Polish scoundrel who tends to only look out for number one - and make a couple of dollars in the process. He makes the acquaintance of Paco Roman (Tony Musante), a peasant tired of mistreatment who assumed the role of revolutionary. They are subsequently united in many episodic adventures as they scheme to rob a bank of silver to fund Pacos' movement. Working against them are characters such as Alfonso Garcia (Eduardo Fajardo), and Curly (Jack Palance), a rival who turns bitter and vengeful.
"The Mercenary" is considered by some to be one of the finest Spaghetti Westerns ever made, and this viewer would have to agree. It manages the neat trick of combining action, comedy, and drama, without ever getting too maudlin, silly, or gory. Both Musante and the fiery, incredibly sexy Giovanna Ralli supply the necessary humanity in a story often hinging on the differences between the Pollack and the freedom fighter. Paco has found a cause bigger than his own personal comfort, but Kowalski remains mostly concerned with financial gain. Special guest star Palance is very funny; sporting an appropriately curly, ridiculous looking wig, he's good for a number of chuckles. He also bares his backside for the camera, in a comic dose of nudity. Nero is priceless as a man who always uses what's available to strikes matches for his cigarettes, and who continues "billing" Musante for services during a gun battle.
The fact that this story uses the Mexican revolution as a backdrop allows for some political / social commentary, as it did for various other Italian oaters that did the same thing. It also boasts typically wonderful Ennio Morricone music and splendid widescreen photography by Alejandro Ulloa.
A fine film with subtly poignant moments and a resolution that will leave a smile on ones' face.
Eight out of 10. -
SMK-36 August 1998This is one the three best Westerns made by Sergio Corbucci, the others being Django and Il Grande Silencio, and it is the only comedy of these three.
The story is about a group of Mexican peasants and miners who attempt a revolution and the Polish mercenary Kowalski (Franco Nero) who shows them how. They are up against the exploitative establishment (Eduardo Fajardo in the kind of sleazy role he was born to play) and the sinister Ricciolo (Jack Palance) and his boyfriends (sic!) who are only after the bounty.
This is an unusual film in many respects. Despite being a western comedy, it does not spoof the traditional code of the west, it creates its own sources of humour. And despite being a western comedy, people do get killed and die gruesome deaths. This had the unfortunate consequence that some distributors cut the film to get rid of the more explicit scenes, and this also happened with the version I saw on British TV (possibly the standard English language version). However, the violence/gore was not gratuitous and the cuts leave some sequences rather unbalanced, e.g. the death of Franco Ressel's character is a gloriously ironic scene in the original but leaves the viewer rather puzzled in the cut version. The English version also suffers from a poorly translated dialogue that removes some of the sardonic humour.
The music by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai is yet another classic, and it is put to excellent use in the climactic scene of the film, the gunfight in the bull ring. This is the most impressively staged gunfight I've seen in any Western, and I have seen an awful lot of Westerns in my life. Unmissable! -
JasparLamarCrabb15 September 2012Sergio Corbucci's often violent, often comic western is a classic. Franco Nero (as the Polak) is a self-serving gun for hire who finds himself aligned with Mexican rebels circa 1910. Tony Musante is the Simon Boliva wannabe who pays Nero to help him & his motley band stave off a pursuing army. Also in the mix is ruthless hired killer "Curley," played by Jack Palance. A fast paced, extremely well made spaghetti western with all the accoutrements of the genre: it's produced by Alberto Grimaldi; scored by Ennio Morricone; the supporting cast includes the likes of Giovanna Ralli and Eduardo Fajardo. Nero and Mustante have a lot of chemistry and Palance, looking oddly fey with black curly hair and perpetual grimace, is very menacing.
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I was totally knocked out of my socks when I saw that this masterpiece was on TV. One of those many titles this movie has makes it hard to identify it in my TV magazine but still...
Why was I so curious about this movie? First, its famous for its music, composed by Ennio Morricone. Mainly, it's "L'Arena", the tune that was used in Kill Bill Volume 2, which gives me goes bumps every time I hear it. So that was the main reason I wanted to see it. The other: Directed by Sergio Corbucci (Django), starring Jack Palance and Franco Nero (Django). Produced by Alberto Grimaldi....
And what did I get? A high-quality, well-written, nicely filmed epic set in the Mexican revolution. The music perfectly fits the movie. Nero and Palance each have their own theme tunes, and there is a lot of Mexican tunes in the film. The movie as an awesome pace and its very nice to watch. I can really not understand why this movie hasn't gotten a proper DVD release yet. The available Full Screen DVD is really not worth wasting a buck on it, I even got to see the widescreen version on free-TV... This is one of Corbucci's finest works, and one of the best spaghetti westerns ever made, with incredible music, cinematography and mood. Don't miss this. Write down all those alternative titles so you don't miss it when it's on TV. -
BandSAboutMovies14 November 2023As he watches the circus, Sergei "Polack" Kowalski (Franco Nero) thinks that one of the performers is Paco Roman (Tony Musante), which makes him think back to when they were revolutionaries and battled against another mercenary named Curly (Jack Palance).
Much like another Nero character, Django, Kowalski has a gun that gives him a big advantage, a Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun. Paco hires him to teach him how to lead a revolution. They go from town to town, stealing money, horses and weapons, even adding another member to their group, Columbia (Giovanna Ralli, What Have They Done to Your Daughters?).
Yet Paco and Kowalski soon start fighting over how much it costs to have him be part of the revolution. Finally, Paco imprisons him and marries Colombia, but then Curly and his men attack. He tries to free Kowalski, who turns the tables on him and he has to be saved by his wife.
Back to the circus, where Curly and his men attack. Kowalski kills them all and gives each man a bullet for their final duel. Then, he takes Paco to collect the reward only for Colombia to betray them both or so it seems before she and the circus performers create a diversion big enough for our two heroes to use machine guns to kill every one of their enemies. Kowalski suggests to Paco that they should be mercenaries, not understanding the dream of the revolution.
Director Sergio Corbucci set the standard for violence in Italian Westerns in movies like Django and The Great Silence before making comedies. Yes, somehow, the same man who made Super Fuzz made the most depressing Western ever, one that leaves its hero and his lover dead in the snow. -
lost-in-limbo25 January 2006An Mexican outlaw, with the help of a hired Polish gunslinger go out to make an massive rebellious army to take back what they believe is an poorly treated Mexico that is run by crooked and rich upper-class folk. So now they are part of the growing revolution, but the two men seem to have their ups and downs on who really is in-charge here, as the Mexican peasant actually relies on the European cowboy most the time. While, the army might be on the rebels' tails, but also too is another gunslinger that has a score to settle with the two men.
I don't know how long I've had this for, but I nearly missed the opportunity of watching this more than decent spaghetti western. Basically I recorded it off TV some time back onto a blank DVD, which I was going to use, until I realised that this flick was ready to go. Phew, lucky I decided to check it before erasing it. Also after the opening credits the film actually went black and dead quiet for 3 minutes or so, and I was thinking maybe I wasn't meant to see it, but that was short-lived and I was back right into it.
Anyhow, away from my pointless ramble "The Mercenary" which is first I've seen of any Corbucci's films was an exciting gung-ho spaghetti western that doesn't let up on the violence and colourful characters. Although the violence isn't terribly graphic and sometimes it happens off screen, but these minor glitches don't take away anything from it. The actual characters might be hard to like as they come across as incredibly greedy and downright blood thirsty for violence. Which I say isn't too much of a bad thing for this type of flick, because that's one of the draw cards of this sub-genre, but it's just that the characters are expendable to it, well maybe not Franco Nero's easy going character. Sergio Corbucci direction is the key also because the story isn't planned out with any real sort of purpose but just to stage one comical scene or action packed moment. But at least those moments actually worked to make you forget the plot's shortcomings. Plus it was jokier than I thought it would be. From that point it did kind of reminded me of Leone's 'The Good, the bad and the Ugly', that was because of the buddy humour that they played around with and like another reviewer mentioned Paco Roman did have an uncanny nature to that of Taco from GTBTU. Other than that, you can see other influences from the dollar trilogy evident too. For me Nero's gunslinger has a striking resemblance and steady persona to that of Eastwood's character of Dollar trilogy and the showdown in a bullring you could think the same too. But that's enough about that.
What else it has going for it is the great and thunderous score that you come to expect by the ever-reliable Ennio Morricone and the cinematography gets some dynamic treatment. The script is filled with cynical humour and leaden dialog on that of the rich and poor, and how greed can blind you to true intentions. There an over abundance of sharp and witty replies and that's especially between Kowalski, Paco and Columba. The three leads Franco Nero, Tony Musante and Giovanna Ralli as ever gusty but beautiful Columba put in exceptional performances and Jack Palance as Ricciolo 'Curly' the gunfighter on the trail of the group brings the added venom to the villain role, but I thought he was vastly under-used and his agenda with Kowalski would've made for more interest than what is given.
We're thrown right into this baroque western with the backdrop splashing off the screen with such exuberant touches of flair and gusto. Corbucci paces the film swiftly by making it more compelling and surprising the further along it went, without letting you doze off because of some well stage scenes like a bank heist, bombing of an Mexican town and the final shootout. Actually it would be hard to doze off with the loud sound effects and bellowing score. Even so just when you think its finished and the climax feels like it came too early, there's even more to come afterwards. Overall, Corbucci takes advantage of this good rolling adventure, even if it does lack some sort of killer punch or impact to make it overly memorable and grand. But nonetheless it's swell escapism fun that's bursting at the seams with madness, double crossings, plentiful violence, promising performances and grit.
It's a more than decent way to the past time with. I see 'Companeros (1970)' gets praised a lot, so it looks another to hit my must-see list. -
Corbucci is not known for any serious films and that this turned out to be one is maybe something of an accident - but there is no mistake about it, many scenes reveal the true nature of this film and especially the end, which is nothing less than gripping. To live for what is right and maybe dream but with open eyes. Often this film is mistaken for Two Comapaneros a much inferior effort although using some of the same actors. Whereas Tomas Milian is unreal in most of his films, so is not the case with Tony Musante and especially not in this film. It's a film about revolution but it does not neglect the hidden problems in all of us regarding this. There are traitors all around and some of them are given the right treatment in this film. All and all this is a film with a heart where you least expect it - right in the very center of what appears to be only a cheap "Spaghetti"-western. A film made in the very same times as the phony 68-movement but without being phony itself. Why did not this film receive a descent DVD-treatment instead of the much inferior "Two Companeros"? Your guess is not as good as mine - because I can tell You: American companies do not like truly revolutionary films. Yes, Criterion, this would be something for You to have a bite of!
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pixrox18 March 2014. . . as in, an amusement park, with the title character carrying simple tunes by noted spaghetti western composer Ennio Morricone, as he cackles maniacally while gunning down legions of Mexican troops who put up LESS resistance than the target wooden ducks in a carnival midway shooting gallery. The lead characters here pull off more close escapes than John Dillinger and the Boston Marathon Bombers combined, no matter how hopeless their many predicaments appear to be. THE MERCENARY will work as a feel-good comedy, as long as none of your ancestors served in the Mexican Army. It also provides a chance to see actor Jack Palance in the buff, BEFORE he won an Oscar. (Palance is so busy stripping down in THE MERCENARY, he does not even have time for any of his trademark one-armed push-ups.) This flick packs so much action into its 106 minutes that you barely notice that the allegedly "Polish" title character looks as Latin as his co-stars. Though some guys probably would have preferred to see MORE of the mercenary ladies and LESS of Jack, this flick is about making War, not Love.
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Going into this film I did have expectations. After all it was directed by Sergio Corbucci (director of the original Django), music by Ennio Morricone (who hasn't heard of him?), and has an all-star cast with Franco Nero (original Django and a lot more), Jack Palance, Tony Musanti, and even Giovanna Ralli. So there is the amoral and self-serving Pollack Sergei (Franco), the immoral bad guy Curly (Palance), idealist revolutionary Paco (Musanti), and revolutionary idealist female Columba (Ralli). And look at all these raving reviews here. Hey, and even nudity. So what can go wrong? Well I did stick it out (sigh) but the story is really downright ridiculous where I was utterly bored stiff. So much so that I thought to write its first really negative review (as of this writing) to balance things out and warn those who have tired of ridiculous westerns. It is 102 minutes of your life, and there is a whole slew of westerns that I think are much more worthy of these 102 minutes. But on the other hand you might like a ridiculous story where the impossible keeps happening over and over and over. So it's just my take, it's just my opinion. Oh, and if you are looking forward to the nudity, no it's not the luscious Giovanna Ralli, it's a full-nude of **Jack Palance** (from the rear). And well a brief look at a Mexican hooker's (?) fanny.
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alimirabbasi-073863 October 2020Wow. if you have not seen this movie better you start to see that when you read my review.