Let's kill, companeros

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Movie
German title Let's kill, companeros
Original title Vamos a matar, compañeros
Country of production Spain , Italy , Germany
original language Italian , Spanish
Publishing year 1970
length 115 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Sergio Corbucci
script Sergio Corbucci
production Antonio Morelli
music Ennio Morricone
camera Alejandro Ulloa
cut Eugenio Alabiso
occupation

Let us kill, Companeros (Alternative title: compañeros , actually: two compañeros; Original title: Vamos a matar, compañeros) is a spaghetti westerns of Sergio Corbucci from the year 1970 with Franco Nero in the lead role. The original German theatrical version of the film was shortened by over 15 minutes and - common practice when dealing with the spaghetti western genre - was turned into a comedy by a very free dubbing. The second dubbed version from 1977 is, except for a few seconds, complete and largely true to the original; it is commonly used in today's television broadcasts.

content

General Mongo, who hides his personal greed behind the facade of the revolution , rules and sucks a Mexican village. He appoints a shoeshine boy, "the Basque", to be in command. When Yodlaf Peterson, "the Swede", comes to San Bernardino, he allies himself with the Basque in order to get money. To do this, they have to get the political leader of the nonviolent opposition, Professor Xantos, out of an American prison. A hired killer is supposed to prevent them from doing so. After successful liberation they can wipe out the traitorous General Mongo and his troops (with the help of a group of young, “real” revolutionaries, among others), but Xantos loses his life in the process. Peterson stays in Mexico to help the revolutionaries.

background

  • It's about a revolutionary western by Sergio Corbucci, a kind of remake of Il Mercenario . The most striking people are the native Mexican Tomás Milián in the lead role, Franco Nero with a mercenary mentality and a new nationality and the marijuana smoking Jack Palance as a professional killer with a hawk. The film was shot in southern Spain ( Almería ).
  • After Mercenario and Let's kill, Companeros , more films of this kind were planned, but they could not be made due to Franco Nero's cancellation. It remained the last collaboration between director and lead actor.
  • The title song was interpreted by the group I Cantori Moderni .
  • In the 1998 Simpsons episode Do You Know Famous Stars? a humorous scene from Corbucci's film was adopted.

criticism

  • “Numerous good action scenes, perfectly staged by Corbucci,” said Ulrich P. Bruckner, but stated: “'Il Mercenario' just seems to be more entertaining”.
  • “You can only say good things about the actors; Direction and editing leave no room for boredom, ”says H. J. Weber.
  • Dietrich Kuhlbrodt, on the other hand, considered the film to be a complete failure and described it as "just boring".
  • At the start of the film, Der Spiegel criticized “milky telephoto panoramas, rough jokes and exquisite tortures”.
  • Joe Hembus judged the puns of the dubbed version by Rainer Brandt , they belonged "to the dubbing category of Berlin pub jargon."
  • Phil Hardy notes that the film's political symbolism, such as when Palance feeds his hawk (representing America) with the meat of his Mexican victims (representing the Third World), seems "lost in view of the ridiculousness of the presentation."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Ulrich P. Bruckner: For a few more corpses. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 2006
  2. H. J. Weber, in: Filmecho / Filmwoche , Issue 32, 1971
  3. D. Kuhlbrodt, film review 07/1971
  4. quoted in: Joe Hembus: Western-Lexikon - 1272 films from 1894-1975 . Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich and Vienna 1977, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-446-12189-7 , p. 342
  5. Joe Hembus: Western Lexicon - 1272 films from 1894-1975. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich and Vienna 1977, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-446-12189-7 , p. 342
  6. ^ Phil Hardy: The Encyclopedia of Western Movies. Woodbury Press, Minneapolis 1984, ISBN 0-8300-0405-X , p. 324