Hot 888 Mama . . . as in, an amusement park, with the title character carrying simple tunes by noted spaghetti western composer Ennio Morricone, as he cackles maniacally while gunning down legions of Mexican troops who put up LESS resistance than the target wooden ducks in a carnival midway shooting gallery. The lead characters here pull off more close escapes than John Dillinger and the Boston Marathon Bombers combined, no matter how hopeless their many predicaments appear to be. THE MERCENARY will work as a feel-good comedy, as long as none of your ancestors served in the Mexican Army. It also provides a chance to see actor Jack Palance in the buff, BEFORE he won an Oscar. (Palance is so busy stripping down in THE MERCENARY, he does not even have time for any of his trademark one-armed push-ups.) This flick packs so much action into its 106 minutes that you barely notice that the allegedly "Polish" title character looks as Latin as his co-stars. Though some guys probably would have preferred to see MORE of the mercenary ladies and LESS of Jack, this flick is about making War, not Love.

The_Void Two years after their success with Django, director Sergio Corbucci and lead actor Franco Nero teamed up again for this western which, to the best of my knowledge (and surprise) was never released with an alternate title including the word 'Django'. Rather than focusing on a coffin-towing gunslinger, this one features a story taking place around the time of the Mexican revolution. The film gets off to a good start with a great score conducted by Ennio Morricone. From there we are introduced to Franco Nero's character Sergei Kowalski; a Polish gunslinger, only out to better himself; and, it has to be said, is a little hard to understand at first. He hooks up with a Mexican revolutionary named Paco, and together they strike a bargain; The Pole will aide Paco in his revolution, for a slice of any profits that the pair and their army 'liberate' from the Mexican towns and villages. Naturally, it's not long before Paco is attracting attention from the Government; and the pair's different objectives soon lead to fights amongst themselves.This film works principally thanks to a good and interesting story, as well as the characters themselves which are intriguing and work well together. Franco Nero, of course, is the main star of the show and shows his versatility somewhat with the role. Of course, he played gunslingers in plenty of films; but here he manages to convince that he's Polish (although the accent does take a little getting used to). He receives good feedback from Tony Musante (who was the lead actor in Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) and the pair have a good, if somewhat awkward, chemistry together. There's also a 'guest star' role for Jack Palance who plays a rival gunslinger. The film is not all that well known today, and that is probably because it is rather derivative of other and better known westerns; most obvious is the climatic shootout sequence towards the end which directly 'borrows' from Sergio Leone's masterpiece The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Still, in spite of this; The Mercenary is a very well made and entertaining spaghetti western that should please all fans of the genre.

Steffi_P In the late 1960s the Spaghetti Western boom entered a new phase, in which the Zapata Western became very popular. The Mercenary was key spaghetti director Sergio Corbucci's main contribution to the sub-genre.Now that he was working with Alberto Grimaldi – producer of Sergio Leone's westerns – Corbucci was at last able to create a western with really lavish production values. The Mercenary features impressive sets, hundreds of extras and of course, being a Corbucci picture, plenty of huge explosions. He is also reunited with his Django lead man, Franco Nero (here speaking for himself rather than being dubbed, which is very welcome), as well as having prominent Italian actor Tony Musante and Hollywood veteran Jack Palance on board for his most high-class line up yet.Another plus point for The Mercenary is that it does not suffer from the messy plotting of Corbucci's previous westerns, having instead a very tight storyline from Franco Solinas with screenplay by another Leone collaborator, Luciano Vincenzoni. Like Bullet for the General and Big Gundown before, it's another political western in which the hero has to make a choice between material gain and revolutionary commitment. It's an example of this bizarre, almost puritan form of Marxism that seems to be in all Solinas' stories, and it does grate a bit. However the story is well constructed, and the dialogue isn't too bad when compared to Corbucci's previous efforts and the majority of spaghettis made at this time. Crucially there is greater subtlety and tautness, a good example being in the first scene at the mine where we cut from Tony Musante realising the gang boss's pistol is within reach straight to the scene in which he and his comrades are holding up the mine owners.On more solid ground as far as production and script go, Corbucci appears to have taken the time to work out ideas and plan shots. There is some great camera work here and again there is some nice subtlety in the way in which things are revealed to the audience. For example, in an early scene the camera focuses on Jack Palance's nonchalant mannerisms while his henchman is killing a man off screen. The old Corbucci would have shown the killing itself in full gory detail.There had also been a growing use of symbolism in Corbucci's pictures and by this point he was become almost arty. There's a very clever moment at Paco and Columba's informal wedding, in which Giovanna Ralli is shown behind a net curtain. When she and Musante kiss the camera moves so that she is no longer obscured by the net, referencing the lifting of the veil at a traditional wedding.One of the reasons Corbucci really stands out as a spaghetti western director is that he has his own very distinct style, rather than simply copying the master Sergio Leone. The Mercenary does however contain one very obvious Leone rip off – a drawn out, tense final duel, complete with a circular arena set and rhythmic editing between close-ups. But it's forgivable, since he does it so well – it is in fact one of the best sequences he ever filmed – and there's a great twist to it which I won't reveal. The Morricone piece which accompanies this stand off – a triumphant Mexican march which would later be plundered by Quentin Tarantino for Kill Bill – is also comparable to that composer's work with Leone.When you get down to it though, Corbucci is still really just a simplistic action director who likes explosions, last-minute escapes and indestructible heroes. Often the over-the-top abilities of the protagonists don't sit well with the more earnest moments, and it's actually profoundly un-Marxist to pretend that revolutionaries are some kind of invincible supermen. Some poor attempts at comedy don't quite get off the ground, and good actor as he is, Franco Nero is frankly (no pun intended) annoying as the obnoxious title character.Corbucci, Nero and Palance were to tread the same territory again in Companeros (1970), which is so similar as to be virtually a remake. The Mercenary however is fresher and stronger, by far the better of the two. While this was probably Corbucci's most finely crafted film to date, his next – The Great Silence – was to be his masterpiece.

washboard I recently got hold of the Japanese DVD print via ebay. This is of really high quality and I was amazed that this film is not more widely known or appreciated. What a brilliant film. In many ways it is similar to Companeros and if you liked that wonderful film you will also love this. The story is somewhat far-fetched but is very enjoyable and fast paced in a 'boys own' way. The machine gun makes its familiar appearance. Franco Nero, as always, delivers a superb performance and Jack Palance gives a very good performance as a very unpleasant killer. The music is brilliant and the duel in the bullring is incomparable and is perfectly choreographed to the wonderful music. If you are interested in westerns you have to see this film.