Vamos a matar, compañeros (1970)

Director:

Sergio Corbucci

Writers:

Sergio Corbucci (screenplay)
Sergio Corbucci (story)

Release Date:

April 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Western | Comedy

Tagline:

Fate brought them together. Greed made them inseparable, and violence made them Companeros!

Plot:

Arms dealer Yolaf Peterson aims to make a sale to guerilla Mongo, but the money is locked in a bank safe...

Plot Keywords:

Political | Female Nudity | Nudity | Zapata Western | Train

Cast

Franco Nero	...	Yodlaf Peterson
Tomas Milian	...	El Vasco
Jack Palance	...	John
Fernando Rey	...	Prof. Xantos
Iris Berben	...	Lola
José Bódalo	...	Gen. Mongo (as Francisco Bódalo)
Eduardo Fajardo	...	Colonel (as Edoardo Fajardo)
Karin Schubert	...	Zaira
Gino Pernice	...	Tourneur (as Luigi Pernice)
Álvaro de Luna
Jesús Fernández
Claudio Scarchilli
Lorenzo Robledo	...	Man dancing with Zaira
Giovanni Petrucci		(as Giovanni Petti)
Gérard Tichy	...	Lieutenant

Also Known As:

Companeros (USA)
Laßt uns töten, Companeros (West Germany)
Los compañeros (Spain)
Zwei Compañeros (West Germany)

Runtime:

118 min | Spain:110 min | Germany:115 min

Country:

Spain | Italy | West Germany

Language:

Italian | English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (cut) (1971) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (2005) | West Germany:18 (nf) | Singapore:NC-16 | Norway:16 (1970) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1995) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Almería, Andalucía, Spain

Company:

Atlántida Films

Trivia:

At one point, Tomas Milian is seen dragging a coffin out of a graveyard. This is a reference to Sergio Corbucci and Franco Nero's previous collaboration Django (1966) in which the title character drags a coffin behind him.

Quotes:

Yolof Peterson: If you ever come to Sweden, I'll let you meet my sister.
El Vasco: [singing] Beautiful eyes, just like the sky... just like your sister, huh?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)

Brilliant! Corbucci's Finest?

This is one of the most beautiful westerns you will ever see. It's a true masterpiece and arguably Corbucci's finest.

Sergio Leone will always be the name everyone associates with spaghetti westerns but Sergio Corbucci's contribution to the genre deserves great recognition. People usually always mention Django and The Great Silence when talking about Corbucci's westerns but Companeros is perhaps his best work.

Companeros is a much lighter film than the aforementioned. Like most Corbucci westerns there is a political undertone to the film and the plot revolves around the Mexican revolution (similar to A Professional Gun which Corbucci directed 2 years earlier). Che Guevara look-a-like Thomas Milian is superb as the comical revolutionary Vasco and Corbucci regular Franco Nero is excellent as his ultra-cool Swedish mercenary partner. Add to the mix a marijuana-smoking psychopath played by Jack Palance and you have one explosive concoction of a western. Pulling all this together is another masterful score by the legendary Ennio Morricone. I guarantee you will still be singing the theme tune a week later!

I rate this as one of the best Westerns of all time. It's a really fun film and an absolute must for fans of the Spaghetti genre.