The Mercenary (1968)


I'm a big fan of those spaghetti westerns that were shot in Spain and Italy in the late 1960's.  The Mercenary is one of those films that is pretty fun to watch.  Franco Nero stars as Sergei ‘The Polish’ Kowalski  who gets involved in the Mexican revolution.  The film is written and directed by Sergio Corbucci who gave us films such as Django (1966) , Companeros (1970), and The Great Silence (1968) . 

The movie is one big flash back as our Franco Nero's character explains to us how he and his revolutionary friend meet played by Tony Musante.  Musante gives a hilarious performance in the film, and he and Franco make an interesting pair.    Sergio Corbucci
does a good job keeping the audience entertained.  It is not one of Corbucci's best films, but he has fun here, and the film shows it.    Eduardo Fajardo and the ever nasty Jack Palance play the two villains in the piece, and Palance seems to have a ball doing so. 

For a spaghetti western the film shows restraint on the violence.  Corbucci deliberately averts the camera from the horror and by doing so he heightens the violence in an impersonal and more chilling fashion.

Finally, it is impossible to discuss the merits of this film without mentioning the outstanding musical score delivered by Ennio Morricone.  Everyone know his music from "the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", but Morricone does here an excellent job in marrying both the image and sound together.  

The Mercenary is a film that is fun and well produced.  It stands the test of time, and should be enjoyed by many who see it.

It's currently on Xfinity, and is listed in the free movie section.

Comments

Neil Sarver said…
I liked this one, too.

My only issue, such as it was one, was how much of a parallel to Corbucci's later Compañeros, which I love a lot. It did lead me to wonder how I would feel if I hadn't seen Compañeros first, but it's such a favorite of mine that I can't imagine I wouldn't always prefer it.

It is great fun, though!
9/27/2012 3:36 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Megan (2022)

Image
The film Megan is a sci-fi/horror film with a lot of dark humor, which makes the movie so interesting to watch.  I had to say this was not on my radar to see.  I thought maybe one day on cable or streaming, but my youngest wanted to see it and so I was game.  I'm glad I did see this and I was pleasantly surprised how good it was.  I should also say seeing this at he movies was a treat.  The direction, the cinematography, and the whole feel of the film gave me an appreciation of this film that I would not have gotten otherwise. To label this a horror film would be a mistake.  It has horror elements in it but it's science fiction more than anything else with a dash of horror.  I do like that the film takes the old Frankenstein myth and updates it to the digital era.  I think because of this the film is a better for it.  The graphic violence is played off screen which works.  If you're a gore hound you will be disappointed, but it does not ...
Read more

Avenger's EndGame (2019)

Image
Okay you've heard by now this movie is doing fantastic business.  The studio has passed the two billion mark worldwide, and it's still growing. I'm also sure you've heard all the spoilers now.  Amazing now that we have to contend with "spoiler" alerts now.  I mean what would Hitchcock of done with "Psycho"?  I remember the campaign back then had people NOT to tell the ending to the people coming out of the theater.  Now you're a tweet away from making that happen. But I digress.  So how is the film?  One word "FUN!" If you're a fan of Marvel, and you've seen most if not all the movies you'll love this film.  I can only imagine the box-set coming out for this.  It would be huge.  Now if you're not a fan then this is not the movie for you.  Clocking in over a little over 3 hours long it certainly does not feel like 3 hours, and that's a good thing.  The filmmakers Anthony Russo , and Joe Russo do an extraor...
Read more

Laundrea Thomas

Image
I just found out that Ms Laudrea Thomas died on August 9th of this year in Los Angeles California. It seems that she took her own life. She was 32 and she was way too young to leave this earth. I'm not going to say that I knew Ms Thomas very well. She was in my movie "Deadly Obsessions", and she was a pleasure to work with. I had hoped some how that someday we would work together again because it's so hard to find real good talent who have a passion for what they do. To say that I was taken a back by this news of Laundrea's death is an understatement. I can still remember Laundrea's first day of shooting Of "Deadly Obsessions" it seems that she had car problems and her car broke down on the PA Turnpike on the day she was suppose to check in to shoot her scenes. Her father managed to rescue her, and drive her to the hotel where I had some of the cast & crew staying. Laundrea still made it on time and even brought some props that she thought we cou...
Read more