The dreaded two

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Movie
German title The dreaded two
Original title Il mercenario
Country of production Italy , Spain
original language Italian
Publishing year 1968
length 107 minutes
Age rating FSK 16 (previously 18)
Rod
Director Sergio Corbucci
script Luciano Vincenzoni
Adriano Bolzoni
Sergio Spina
Sergio Corbucci
production Alberto Grimaldi
music Ennio Morricone
Bruno Nicolai
camera Alejandro Ulloa
cut Eugenio Alabiso
occupation

The feared two (original title: Il mercenario , alternative title Mercenario - The Feared ) is a spaghetti western by Sergio Corbucci from 1968. The German-language premiere took place on April 22, 1969.

action

The Polish mercenary Kowalski is supposed to carry out a silver transport to Texas on behalf of the mine owner Garcia. When he reached the mine, however, it was occupied by the insurgent workers under the leadership of Paco Roman, and the silver spilled into the tunnels that were blasted by the owners.

In return for payment, Kowalski helps the badly armed revolutionaries against the government troops that are soon afterwards and is then recruited by them for the cause of the revolution. He builds Paco into a freedom hero by successfully teaching the revolutionaries guerrilla tactics so that they can survive in the fight against the government units led by Garcia and the mercenary Ricciolo . At the same time, however, he receives a princely reward from Paco for every stroke of his hand.

Under the influence of the idealist Columba, who was freed from prison, Paco finally questions the friendship with Kowalski, who, among other things, demands baths, while the revolutionaries hardly have enough water to drink. Kowalski is imprisoned, but a little later the inexperienced revolutionaries are overwhelmed and crushed by an army offensive without the military adviser.

Paco, who has been hiding as a clown in a circus since then, is tracked down by the mercenary Ricciolo, but Kowalski, who is also present, helps him to a fair duel, only to then hand him over to the officer Garcia for the reward he was offered, who in turn arrest both of them leaves (Kowalski was not aware that there is also a bounty on him). With the help of Columba, who managed to get into the fort of Garcia by means of a feint, they manage to escape again. Paco then declines the offer of another mercenary partnership from the Pole. Both split up as friends.

reception

“The year Il mercenario came out in 1968 was the year in which the reviewers demanded clear attitudes from the cinema and the audience, and the agony of becoming conscious themselves. Corbucci's film was definitely welcome because it provided cues. Il mercenario is a film not so much about the causes as about the conditions of a revolution. Corbucci doesn't make it easy for himself. In contrast to all previous films, this one has to be called chatty: the dialogue dominates so much, extremely accurate, sarcastically shimmering and exorbitantly smug, which is visually unbelievable at times. Who has ever come up with the idea of ​​explaining the capitalist system using a naked woman's body? The head - the ruling class of exploitation, the ass - the proletariat; Cardinal question: why don't head and ass come together? "

Wolf Lepenies in “The Italo-Western - Aesthetics and Violence” about the unusual multiple endings with which “Corbucci shot a film against traditional dramaturgies”: “In Sergio Corbucci's film Il mercenario, which is not an Italo-Western, but a Film, the subject of which is the genre to which it belongs, gives the final sequence an inkling of how closely enjoyment and compulsive behavior are linked in cinema - and in all of today's consumer culture. Corbucci does not show a showdown, as it is usual for the classic US-American and also for most Spaghetti Westerns, he films a film ending that consists of a lot of endings, like Il mercenario an Spaghetti Western is made up of lots of Italo-Westerns. "

The lexicon of international film describes it as "carefully constructed, cynical spaghetti westerns."

Der Spiegel No. 19 from May 5, 1969: ... This time director Sergio Corbucci is relaxed and ironic: He lets the blond gringo Kowalski (Franco Nero) shower with water from the canteens of thirsty revolutionaries in the midst of the uprising of Mexican silver miners (1910) , and the mercenary explains the revolutionary ideology very vividly: "The rich are the head, the poor are the ass, the back is the middle class." But from the "vortex of joke words" from the rabid swing of many vitally arranged exhibition fights between insurgents and government troops emerges again a noble key figure: the Mexican Paco has "a dream" to realize; but without his partner Kowalski ("idealists are fertilizers of the cemeteries"), who shoots him out of every precarious situation, he can neither win nor survive. For director Corbucci this is reason enough to end his perfectly staged film with a resigned message to all revolutionaries on earth: "Dream on, but dream with open eyes."

Remarks

  • The film songs are interpreted by I Cantori Moderni .
  • In 1970 Sergio Corbucci shot a quasi-remake, Zwei Companeros , again with Franco Nero as a mercenary and Jack Palance as an opponent.
  • The original release of the film was 18 and over. Since the re-examination in 2009, the film has been released from the age of 16.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Certificate of Release for Mercenario - the Feared . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2009 (PDF; test number: 40 517 DVD).
  2. quoted from Joe Hembus: Das Westernlexikon p. 407 (Hanser 1976)
  3. quoted from Karsten Witte (ed.): Theory of the cinema p. 15 (Suhrkamp 1972)
  4. The Dreaded Two. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used