Review of Compañeros (1970) by Hunter D — 10 Apr 2011

COMPANEROS has that totally crazy over-the-top attitude that the best mid-period spaghetti westerns have, you could put this one right up there next to Sergio Leone's delightfully bonkers DUCK, YOU SUCKER! Directed by Sergio Corbucci hot off of his masterful THE GREAT SILENCE, COMPANEROS is not the somber tale its predecessor was.

Set during the upheaval of the Mexican Revolution, the film is about a Swedish arms dealer named Yolaf (genre icon Franco Nero) who is about make a big sale to a rebel general named Mongo (not the one from the planet Zambodia I'm afraid). Unfortunately Mongo's funds are locked in a safe, and the man with the combination, a peacenik intellectual leader named Xantos, is being held hostage by the Americans. Yolaf teams up with one of Mongo's underlings, a fiery soldier named Basco (the incredible Tomas Milian), and the two set out to kidnap Xantos, leading to a series of shenanigans that make this the closest thing the genre has to a buddy cop movie.

Unfortunately for them, they are being hunted by Yolaf's old jilted business partner, John, who is one of the most bizarre villains in the movie history. John is a dapper American who is always seen with a doobie in one hand, and his flesh-eating pet hawk on the other, which is made of wood. Why is his hand made of wood? Because Cubans crucified him after a bad arms deal, and his pet hawk saved him...after it chewed his hand off. Oh, and he's played by insane actor Jack Palance, I imagine the only direction he received from Corbucci was "be yourself.".

COMPANEROS is an underrated gem of the spagetti western genre, full of colorful characters, lived-in locations and scenery, and wacky, drawn-out action sequences. The final shoot-out is like the finale of THE WILD BUNCH, minus the whole "everyone dies" thing, this ain't a dark movie, it's just crazy fun.