While a Mexican revolutionary lies low as a U.S. rodeo clown, the cynical Polish mercenary who tutored the idealistic peasant tells how he and a dedicated female radical fought for the soul of the guerrilla general Paco, as Mexicans threw off repressive government and all-powerful landowners in the 1910s. Tracked by the vengeful Curly, Paco liberates villages, but is tempted by social banditry's treasures, which Kowalski revels in.
Franco Nero Tony Musante Jack Palance Giovanna Ralli Franco Giacobini Eduardo Fajardo Franco Ressel Álvaro de Luna Raf Baldassarre Joe Kamel Lorenzo Robledo Ugo Adinolfi José María Aguinaco Simón Arriaga José Canalejas Juan Cazalilla Remo De Angelis Alejandro de Enciso Tito García A. Jiménez Castellanos Guillermo Méndez Enrique Navarro Francisco Nieto Ángel Ortiz Julio Peña Milo Quesada Herman Reynoso José Riesgo Vicente Roca Show All…
A Professional Gun, Revenge Of A Gunfighter, Il Mercenario, Die gefürchteten Zwei, Le Mercenaire: La vie est bon marché...la mort ne l'est pas !, Salario para matar, A zsoldos, Mercenario - Der Gefürchtete, Le mercenaire, Žoldnéř, Наемникът, Os Violentos Vão para o Inferno, Наемник, 豹/ジャガー, 无情职业快枪手, مزدور, Zawodowiec, El mercenario, Σκιά Θανάτου, Profesyonel Silah, שכיר החרב, 표범 황혼에 떠나가다
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Finally watched this Sergio Corbucci zapata spaghetti western
classic. (Zapata is another name for spaghetti westerns that take place in the Mexican Revolution.)
Good featurette on the 88 Films Blu-ray with historian Eric Zaldivar that goes in to detail on the film's shoot.
Hard to keep your eyes not glued to Giovanna Ralli in every scene she's in.
After having seen only 3 Corbucci films, I still think I must accept that the cold brilliance of The Great Silence is not the maestro's usual game but rather an incidental (not accidental though) outlier in his filmography that also happens to be his masterpiece.
That said, The Mercenary was a blast. Overt, loud, without much depth, but a blast nonetheless. It achieves what it sets out to and doesn't actively strive for anything big or life-changing, which roots it in the well-balanced realm of organic entertainment.
Unlike The Companeros, it ends realistically, with the characters going through a minor arc but never deviating from their core personalities and values. Franco Nero offers Tony Musante a partnership at the end;…
Action! - Spaghetti alla Sergio: Il West violentemente divertente di Corbucci
In the same vein as Eastwood, Franco Nero seems to have built a career for himself by playing a type of outsider and anti-hero reminiscent of his most famous role, Django. This is complimented with his weapon of choice, a machine gun, that has certainly made me a fan of this weapon to the point where I wish more cowboy movies were made to duel and battle with this weapon.
As for the picture itself, it feels almost like Corbucci's rendition of The Big Gundown, with Nero playing a Polish mercenary who, in the midst of the Mexican Revolution, starts up a relationship with an unscrupulous but somewhat patriotic…
“The Mercenary” is an anarchic blast of revolution from director Sergio Corbucci.
A Zapata Western that leans heavy on the ‘zap(py),’ “The Mercenary” uses peasant uprising less as a political statement and more as an excuse for a bit of silly sadism.
Corbucci contributes a slight variation on the Spaghetti Western recipe with his story about a Mexican revolutionary that partners with an American bounty hunter. It’s a leftist/capitalist buddy-up that Corbucci’s contemporary Sergio Sollima employed to a bit more serious effect in “Face to Face” and “The Big Gundown.”
Sollima cast the fortune hunting white gunslinger roles as a commentary on the impuissance and narcissism of American liberalism in the face of fascism. His peasant characters were meanwhile…
Franco Nero striking a match lit on his sleeping friend's foot and using the naked flame to wake him up is my last remaining brain cell. And has ruined the chances of any other Western antihero looking half as baller in my head in the process.
THE MERCENARY is buoyant with a lot of flam on top. It’s a tale of Mexican revolution but that’s just the impassioned excuse to watch shit blow up with gas-actuated machine gun turrets and enjoy rowdy scuffles with friendly rivals (or is it rivalling friends) after landing in a pile of pig shite. Sure, Sergio Corbucci’s Zapata Western comes loaded with a leftist stance and the bullets to rain lead on whoever dares disagree.…
There is a moment in Sergio Corbucci’s The Mercenary when I realized that this Spaghetti Western is going to be something special. Earlier in the film inside a crowded saloon, there’s a poker game going on and the camera’s focused on the table. It pans to the hand of the first player, four jacks, so it’s favorable. The other player shows his and it’s a losing set but it has a pair of queens. “Two ladies...” he glibly replies then the shot immediately cuts to the speaker, chiseled face Jack Palance, “Plus two more makes four...” he smugly mentions and two women randomly appear standing by his side, “And in case of emergency there’s this...” he finally says revealing a…
"Never ask questions of someone who pays well."
Financing a revolution vs. selling one out
Paco works in an exploitative silver mine. He and his compatriots are fed the same soggy beans every day—even Sundays, when they're supposed to get something special, something extra. But one Sunday the "something special" they get with their beans is a live lizard slithering through their soupy mush, so they decide enough is enough. They take the lizard to their boss and feed it to him instead, feasting themselves on the boss's succulent roast pork.
Generations of Paco's family died in this mine and he doesn't want to be stuck with that same fate—and it's not just this one silver…
Franco Nero explaining what making a revolution means using rear female nudity to an idealistic and brute Mexican revolutionary is one of the most hilarious and gracious events ever filmed in Italian western history.
When Corbucci ventured into the territory of Zapata Westerns, he did not only turn funnier, but also more political, hyperactive, playful and culturally accurate! All details about the Mexican Revolution, including the most repressive and shameful ones, are represented in their most faithful fashion, almost as true as the Golden Mexican cinema itself did. Leone might have conquered masses with a style (an unequalled one to be sure), but Corbucci, by this point in time, had made a significant amount of social statements that were not…
So four films into my Spaghetti Western odyssey and I encounter my first Sergio Corbucci film, and given that this is among Tarantino's favourite films, how could it possibly go wrong? Now one of the things that is already starting to confuse me is the various title changes of certain films, even here on LB? This one is also known as A Professional Gun and Revenge of a Gunfighter, as well as all the Italian, German, and differing French monikers, and although I'm trying to keep on top of my purchasing for this challenge, those title differences are making me scratch my head? So I bought Acquasanta Joe, which is known here as Holy Water Joe, The Stranger's Gundown, which…
letterboxd.com/mondocinema/list/a-plate-of-spaghettimondo-cinemas-italian/
The Mercenary (Il Mercenario)
Sergio Corbucci is a maker of great westerns, The Mercenary is no exception.
Sergei Kowalski (Franco Nero) is an arms dealer in Mexico during a time of revolution.
Kowalski's only concern is making money, not getting involved. He sells his wears to both sides of the fight, he's not evil or sadistic but he doesn't have anything to fight for either.
He gets roped into helping the rebellion by Paco (Tony Mustane) a peasant turned revolutionary leader.
Not only does Kowalski have to contend with the Mexican army, but also rival arms dealer Curly. (Jack Palance in a great role.)
How's a guy going to make it out alive and have some cash in his…
Cult Movie Challenge 2024
Week 10, March 3 - 9
Spaghetti Western Week
Back on the Cult Challenge with another Sergio Corbucci feature, this one back in the good ol’ Wild West! Fuck, I love spaghetti westerns lol!
And The Mercenary is a real fun one!! It’s a film that takes full advantage of its Mexican revolutionary setting, delivering a chaotically fun picture of the Zapata Wild West!
Franco Nero stars as the titular mercenary, Sergei Kowalski, giving what might be his most diverse performance. Tony Musante is also great here as the Mexican Revolutionary General Paco Roman. They have such a fun dynamic relationship and ya loved to see it play out here. Character actor Jack Palace plays a…
