★ 8 / 10
You play by the rules you lose! Il
John Chard
You play by the rules you lose! Il mercenario (The Mercenary) is directed by Sergio Corbucci and Corbucci co-writes the screenplay with Luciano Vincenzoni…
You play by the rules you lose!
Il mercenario (The Mercenary) is directed by Sergio Corbucci and Corbucci co-writes the screenplay with Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Spina and Adriano Bolzoni. It stars Franco Nero, Tony Musante, Jacl Palance and Giovanna Ralli. Music is by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai, with cinematography by Alejandro Ulloa.
It's the Mexican Revolution and Sergei "Polack" Kowalski (Nero) is a gun for hire. Hired by revolutionary Paco Roman (Musante), Kowalski muses on all the scrapes they got into before bringing the story to a present day resolution...
A Technicolor/Techniscope production, Corbucci's Zapata Western is a barnstormer full of political bents, wry humour and searing action. With beautiful Spanish vistas prominent and a musical score that's like a spicy jumping bean, story holds court from beginning to end. Essentially at it's heart it's a buddy buddy piece, though these buddies are hardly what you would call rock solid. Into the mix comes the gorgeous Ralli to add the sauce, whilst as Paco and Kowalski take on the Government and its Army, they also have to contend with Curly (Palance), a camp sadistic dandy with revenge on his mind.
Corbucci has a great eye for action, there's reams of gun fire, with machine guns, artillery and even a plane laying waste to bone and buildings, and usually the cruelty and carnage on show is done with a glint in the eye (milk and dice drink/grenade in mouth), and splendidly so. It's so deft that often a scene is being played out and on the side there is an execution going on, casually unfurled as matter of fact. There's also religious fervour cheekily in place, with Paco's army the Apostles and Polack their Jesus, so it's no surprise that religious imagery is placed within.
Corbucci also likes to let his camera talk. Standard Pasta Western traits operate, such as close ups of the eyes, roving tracking shots, angled up tilts and glides. He also gets lucky with the weather for one shot, capturing a natural rainbow amid some more furious character action. Cast are doing sterling work. Nero is cool supreme, with awesome face fuzz and casually striking matches on various things, Nero proves to be a fine action hero and it's so easy to buy into his character. Musante is also excellent, giving Paco an earnestness that's beguiling, he's a lovable rogue, at times bumbling but utterly heroic within the revolutionary arc. While Palance, though not in it as much as you would think, is giving Curly a most intriguing persona, confusing sexuality and religious alibi.
From a bullring circus opening featuring midget clowns, to a glorious clifftop turkey shoot finale, there is nary a dull moment in the pic. Top dollar Pasta Oater. 8.5/10
Read full review
★ 7 / 10
An Italian/Spanish co-production well directed by Sergio Corbucci with action, shootouts, humor and mayhem.
ma-cortes
A Spaghetti-Paella Western directed by Sergio Corbucci, one of the most representative directors of the genre, including an international cast and many…
A 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.
Read full review
80%
TOMATOMETER
· 5 reviews
77%
AUDIENCE
· 500 ratings
7.1/10
7.1K
•••
thanks!