Il mercenario (1968)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Sergio Corbucci

Writers:

Giorgio Arlorio (story)
Adriano Bolzoni (writer)

Release Date:

29 August 1968 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | Western

Tagline:

He sells death to the highest bidder! Buy or die!

Plot Keywords:

Revolutionary | Political | Machine Gun | Mexican | Silver Mine

Cast

Franco Nero	...	Sergei Kowalski, the Polish
Jack Palance	...	Ricciolo ('Curly')
Tony Musante	...	Paco Roman
Giovanna Ralli	...	Columba
Eduardo Fajardo	...	Alfonso García
Álvaro de Luna	...	Ramón
Raf Baldassarre	...	Mateo
José Canalejas	...	Sebastian (as Joe Kamel)
Vicente Roca	...	Elias Garcia
Franco Ressel	...	Studs
Guillermo Méndez	...	Captain
Enrique Navarro
Simón Arriaga	...	Simón
Ugo Adinolfi
José I. Zaldua	...	Innkeeper

Also Known As:

A Professional Gun (Europe: English title) (UK)
Revenge of a Gunfighter (USA)
Salario para matar (Spain)
The Mercenary (USA)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence and brief nudity.

Runtime:

Italy:110 min | Spain:111 min

Country:

Italy | Spain

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 (cut) | West Germany:18 (nf) | USA:PG-13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | USA:GP | UK:AA (1970) (cut)

Company:

Produzioni Associate Delphos

Goofs:

Anachronisms: A plane is used to bomb Paco's fort. However planes did not begin to drop bombs until the late stages of WWI, in which they were dropped by hand.

Quotes:

Kowalski aka the Pole: Dream, Paco, but dream with your eyes open.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Spaghetti West (2005) (V)

Great fun, good action and characters. Should be a classic.

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)