★ 6 / 10
_**Bleak Spanish Western shows the beast called man
Wuchak
_**Bleak Spanish Western shows the beast called man at his ugliest**_ With the help of a couple soldiers, Sergeant Brown (Robert Hundar) and his daughter (Emma…
_**Bleak Spanish Western shows the beast called man at his ugliest**_
With the help of a couple soldiers, Sergeant Brown (Robert Hundar) and his daughter (Emma Cohen) escort a chain gang of seven convicts to the prison at Fort Green, which is located on the other side of a mountain range in the Rockies. Will they make it there alive?
"Cut-Throats Nine" (1972) is a Spaghetti Western produced by Spaniards with no Italians. It’s infamous for being the most violent & gory Western up to that time. Actually, it was initially filmed without much gore, but the American distributer suggested reshooting certain scenes to make them way grislier. Examples include a slit throat, someone shot in the face, a foot hacked off, ashen corpses and close-up stabbing scenes with entrails. There’s also a rape sequence. Obviously it’s not a fun flick.
Personally, the gore doesn’t move me, although I’m sure it was avant-garde at the time and reminiscent of the same in the original “Last House on the Left” (which debuted a month after this film). Disregarding the bloody violence, this is basically a survival story, except with the tone of a non-goofy Spaghetti Western. The wintery setting recalls “Day of the Outlaw” (1959), “The Great Silence” (1968) and “The Hateful Eight” (2015), but this is the least of these.
If you can handle the unrelentingly grim and dishonorable milieu, it’s worth checking out. Emma Cohen was certainly a winsome beauty in a girl-next-door kind of way. And I like the serious adventure/survival element. Yet it’s plagued by what usually hindered Euro Westerns back in the day: Caricatures rather than characters, overkill dourness and dubious dubbing with cheesy-stern voices.
The film runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in northeastern Spain near the border of France at Aragonese Pyreneo, with indoor scenes, etc. done in Madrid.
GRADE: B-
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★ 7 / 10
The Bad and the Ugly ...No good men here!
Coventry
"Cut-Throats 9" is frequently named as the most violent euro-western ever made but, even though this is a righteous and well-deserved reputation, it shouldn't…
"Cut-Throats 9" is frequently named as the most violent euro-western ever made but, even though this is a righteous and well-deserved reputation, it shouldn't be the only reason why genre lovers have to see it! This film primarily tells an engaging story, which describes itself best as a variation on the 'survival of the strongest'-theme blend with Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians", and makes excellent use of its depressing filming locations. The film opens quite atmospherically, with the introduction of seven tough and feared convicts that are being escorted from one prison to another. After a clumsy hold-up, they have to continue their journey on foot; chained to each other and guided by only one remaining prison guard and his gorgeous daughter. Ingenious plot-twists follow pretty soon and, even though it's no real spoiler, I prefer not to mention them here already, because they're well worth checking out yourself! Don't immediately assume that "Cut-Throats 9" is a non-stop series of bloodshed and gratuitous violence, though. The murders are indeed shown very graphically and the nature of this violence is truly mean-spirited, yet director Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent (nice name, by the way) never at one point loses his focus on the compelling storyline. This is one of those very rare flicks in which really none of the characters can count on your sympathy, since even the supposed 'good guys' are greedy and egocentric bastards. Admittedly, there are a couple of tedious moments to struggle yourself through and the acting often comes across as rather amateurish. The music, however, is great and the abrupt, nihilistic ending excellently fits the overall disturbing tone of the movie. There's few to no sleaze, but the extreme and downright sick violence widely makes up for this. Definitely recommended, IF your stomach can take it
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AUDIENCE
6.7/10
1.7K
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Dubbed.....