Specialists (1969)
"Gli specialisti" (original title)

Director:

Sergio Corbucci

Writers:

Sabatino Ciuffini, Sergio Corbucci

Stars:

Johnny Hallyday, Françoise Fabian, Sylvie Fennec

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Johnny Hallyday	...	Hud / Brad
Françoise Fabian	...	Virginia Pollywood
Sylvie Fennec	...	Sheba
Gastone Moschin	...	Sheriff
Mario Adorf	...	El Diablo
Serge Marquand	...	Boot
Angela Luce	...	Valencia
Mario Castellani	...	Judge Ham
Remo De Angelis	...	Romero
Riccardo Domenici	...	MacLane (as Riccardo Domienici)
Renato Pinciroli	...	Lord
Lucio Rosato	...	Cabot - Deputy
Andrés José Cruz Soublette	...	Rosencrantz (as Andres José Cruz)
Gabriella Tavernese	...	Apache
Stefano Cattarossi	...	Kit

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

treasure | winter | street shootout | mexican border | bar shootout | 

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Genres:

Western

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Details

Country:

Italy France West Germany

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

26 November 1969 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Specialists

Filming Locations:

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Belluno, Veneto, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Adelphia Compagnia Cinematografica, Les Films Marceau, Neue Emelka

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

A thoroughbred Eurowestern as only Corbucci can do it

You gotta love the spaghetti western universe. The vision of a west where good guys get shot point blank with no warning, cartoonish villains chew the scenery in extreme close-ups, and the anti-hero walks away from the girl in the end. A lot of people call Corbucci's films 'depressing'. I find that a bit dodgy as far as descriptions go. I think bleak and unforgiving are more apt mostly because 'depressing' suggests a level of sentimentality almost every Eurowestern director ignored in favour of painting characters in broad strokes.

GLI SPECIALISTI must be seen in all its widescreen glory before it can take its proper place in the Sergio Corbucci canon. It's a beautiful movie. And it makes sense that Corbucci wanted to blow off some steam with COMPANEROS after the unremitting one two punch of THE GREAT SILENCE and this (although he would later revert back to his usual tricks with the foulmouthed SONNY AND JED). There's still a certain amount of caricature that detracts from the overall grimness of the movie, imo it hurts more than does any good to have a needless inclusion of three kids dressed like hippies skulking around town in search of gold and trouble. And it hurts to have Mario Adorf playing Mexican one-handed bandit El Diablo as over the top as he always plays his characters.

Those minor gripes aside there's more than enough here to wet the palate of the spaghetti aficionado. Shootouts galore, the population of an entire town reduced to crawling naked in the dirt, the typical iconic badassitude of the laconic antihero (played by Johnny Halliday), the moral bankruptcy of almost every character in the movie. Corbucci might never receive the acclaim of the more famous Sergio or the American patriarchs of the genre but you and I know that's a gross injustice for a very talented director. His dynamic shot selection, in depth staging with objects sticking close to the camera and receding in the background, his flair for quick pacing and feverish energy in moving a story that wasn't always all that along, the way he photographs open spaces, everything in his work makes me sure that if Corbucci was American and had emerged 15 years later along with Mann and Hawks, the Cahiers du Cinema critics would have lauded him as an auteur worthy of serious critical consideration.