Vamos a matar, compañeros (1970)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

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:

Lola: We fight for the cause of liberty and justice!
Yolof Peterson: I've heard those words in every country where I've sold guns.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)

Jack Palance is the standout in this whimsical spaghetti western

Not really a comedy western per-se, but it doesn't take itself too seriously, either.

Takes place in revolutionary Mexico during WWI. The Swede (Franco Nero) agrees to sell guns to guerrilla general Gen. Mongo but first they have to break into a safe in order for him to get paid and only the professor (Fernando Rey) knows the combination. Or so we are led to believe.

The professor also leads a rival rag-tag army of students who are fighting both the Mexican Army as well as Mongo's men with Lola (Iris Berben) as the professor's second in command.

It turns out the professor is being held by the Americans in Texas and the Swede and El Vasco (Tomas Milian), Mongo's right hand man, has to accompany him north to free him. However an ex-partner of the Swede's, John (Jack Palance) show up and has other plans for the Swede. The psychotic John like to smoke a lot of dope and has a pet falcon named Marsha (?) who lands on John's prosthetic hand after every scouting mission.

This is one of Corbucci's better westerns in spite of the ridiculous political overtones he gives it. The story is entertaining and moves swiftly along for 2hrs. without me getting bored by any of it. I don't rate it as highly as the Leone's similarly themed DUCK YOU SUCKER (1971), but it's well worth watching all the same.

The standout here for me is Jack Palance and I wish his part was bigger. He really does chew up the scenery and the part where he tortures Milian with a rat in a basket tied around his stomach, is a hoot. Ever notice how one of Palance's sidekick, the little oriental guy, has an old telephone receiver strapped onto his ear as a hearing aid? Nice touch. And the ending where Nero throws a large cross under the boxcar filled with explosives and a detonator, blowing up Palance in the process, is a welcome end to one of the main baddies of the film.

The lighthearted Morricone score fits this film very well and I like the musical cues that are sprinkled throughout that alternate between that familiar fuzz guitar and whistling banjo playing that happens while the action has quieted down.

Anchor Bay is up to it's usual standards using an excellent widescreen anamorphic print with nary a hair or scratch through it. It looks like it was made yesterday. Some of the dialog is in Italian with subtitles because it was taken from a Euro print and was never dubbed into English. However the transitions between Euro and American versions are seamless. There's also a fairly interesting 15 minute interview with Franco Nero, Tomas Milian and Ennio Morricone where they recount their experiences while they were involved in this film.

7 out of 10

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