JasparLamarCrabb One of the great spaghetti westerns. Franco Nero & Tomas Milian team up to rescue pacifist revolutionary Fernando Rey from US custody and run afoul of crazed Jack Palance as well as loony general José Bódalo. Sergio Corbucci's explosive film features a lot of suspense, a lot of humor and a lot of violence. Nero & Milian have a lot of chemistry; friends and enemies at the same time. Palance is decidedly creepy as a pot smoking, one-handed creep with a very sadistic streak (note his attempt to kill Milian using a very hungry rat). This is a remarkable film with one of Ennio Morricone's oddest scores, a combination of reggae and Gregorian chants that is both bouncy and highly charged. In Corbucci's THE MERCENARY, Nero played "the Polish," here he plays "the Swede." Nero & Rey appeared in Buñuel's TRISTANA around the same time (no two films could be more different)!

Claudio Carvalho In times of revolution in Mexico, the ignorant Vasco (Tomas Milian) is promoted by the corrupt General Mongo (Francisco Bódalo) to lead his men in the invasion to San Bernardino. Meanwhile the arms trader Yolaf "Swedish" Peterson (Franco Nero) arrives in the village to deal with Mongo; however the money to buy the weapons is locked in a bank safe. The only man that knows the combination to open the safe that was not murdered by Mongo's men is the pacifist Professor Xantos (Fernando Rey) that is prisoner in Fort Yuma in the United States. Swedish offers to release Xantos but the suspicious Mongo asks Vasco to go with Yolaf. The twosome is chased by the followers of Xantos led by the beautiful Lola (Iris Berben) that want to convince the duo to join the revolution; and by the mercenary John (Jack Palance) that lost one of his hands in a betrayal of Yolaf to save his life and uses his smart hawk Marsha to get Xantos to deal with Mongo."Vamos a Matar, Compañeros" is a funny spaghetti-western of Sergio Corbutti that has a story very similar to Sergio Leone's "Duck, You Sucker" of 1971 and plays with "Blood for a Silver Dollar". Franco Nero, Tomas Milian and Jack Palance are hilarious, and I laughed a lot with the scene when Marsha becomes a toasted barbecue. The music of Ennio Morricone is excellent, as usual. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Compañeros"

ma-cortes Fate brought them together, greed made them inseparable, violence made Compañeros¡ . Weapons dealer Peterson (Franco Nero) directs to do a sale to Guerilla commanded by general Mongo (Jose Bodalo), but the money is locked in a bank safe, and the combination is only known by commie Professor Xantos (Fernando Rey), a prisoner of the Americans in Fort Yuma , beyond Rio Grande. Xantos is a pacific revolutionary who advocates lookalike Gandhi non violence against the dictator Porfirio Diaz. Then Peterson agrees to free Xantos, accompanied by reluctant rebel named El Vasco (Tomas Milian). However a former business partner of Petersen named John (Jack Palance ), a slant-eyed mercenary with an artificial hand and a hawk pet has other ambitious plans.It's an exciting western with breathtaking showdown between the protagonists Nero and Milian and the enemies Palance and Bodalo. The Cuban Tomas Milian, as usual, puts faces, grimaces, crying and overacting, but he plays splendidly. Enjoyable appearance of beauties as Iris Berben and Karin Schubert. Furthermore, appears usual secondaries Italian Western as Gino Pernice, Jose Canalejas, Gerard Tichy,Lorenzo Robledo, and of course Eduardo Fajardo, Corbucci's ordinary. The highlights of the film are the Franco Nero's burying edge neck , the confronting at the village and the Swedish gunrunner wielding a machine gun and shooting though with anachronism because is a 'Maxim model' that was made in 1880 and isn't utilized the usual 'Gatlin'. The film blends violence, blood, shootouts , humor and it's fast moving and quite entertaining. This film belongs to the numerous group that are set during the Mexican revolution, called ¨Zapata Western¨ , like are the Italians: ¨ Duck you sucker, The mercenary ,Tetepa, What am I doing in middle of the revolution¨ and the Americans : ¨The wild bunch and The professionals¨. There are many fine technicians and nice assistants as the cameraman Alejandro Ulloa who makes an excellent photography with barren outdoors, dirty landscapes under a glimmer sun shot on outskirts of Madrid and of course Almeria. The musician Ennio Morricone creates a good soundtrack and well conducted by his habitual collaborator Bruno Nicolai. Sergio Corbucci's direction is good ,he made several Spaghetti classics: ¨ Django¨, ¨The great silence¨, ¨Hellbenders¨ , ¨The specialist¨ and the ¨Mercenary¨ , the latter bears special resemblance to ¨ Compañeros¨ ; furthermore Sergio directed other inferior S.W. as ¨Far West story¨ ,¨Johnny Oro¨, ¨The white the yellow an the black¨, and ¨Navajo Joe¨.

merklekranz "Companeros" is a disjointed tale of Mexican revolutionary factions enlisting the aid of a pair of double crossing mercenaries. Sound familiar? Probably, because it's all been done before and far better by Sergio Leone. This movie is very derivative, using "The room is free now" from "For a Few Dollars More", safe opening problems from the same movie, hanging precariously balanced as in "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" cemetery, and lastly substituting a nose for Kinski's hunchback in a match striking scene. The erratic script is lighthearted almost to the point of being cartoon-like. There is even a pot smoking Jack Palance character doing a pretty good imitation of the crazed "Indio" from "For a Few Dollars More" The only originality is Ennio Morricone's choral score, which will stay with you long after this very average "spaghetti western" is long forgotten. - MERK