The Mercenary
1968 ‘Il mercenario’ Directed by Sergio Corbucci
Synopsis
He sells death to the highest bidder! Buy or die!
While a Mexican revolutionary lies low as a U.S. rodeo clown, the cynical Polish mercenary who tutored the idealistic peasant tells how he and a dedicated female radical fought for the soul of the guerrilla general Paco, as Mexicans threw off repressive government and all-powerful landowners in the 1910s. Tracked by the vengeful Curly, Paco liberates villages, but is tempted by social banditry's treasures, which Kowalski revels in.
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There is a moment in Sergio Corbucci’s The Mercenary when I realized that this Spaghetti Western is going to be something special. Earlier in the film inside a crowded saloon, there’s a poker game going on and the camera’s focused on the table. It pans to the hand of the first player, four jacks, so it’s favorable. The other player shows his and it’s a losing set but it has a pair of queens. “Two ladies...” he glibly replies then the shot immediately cuts to the speaker, chiseled face Jack Palance, “Plus two more makes four...” he smugly mentions and two women randomly appear standing by his side, “And in case of emergency there’s this...” he finally says revealing a…
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Dream, Paco, but dream with your eyes open.
-Sergei Kowalski (AKA: The Polish)Franco Nero starred in Sergio Corbucci's original cult classic, Django, a film that has spawned a ludicrous amount of unofficial sequels and homages. Two years later Nero returned under Corbucci's direction in Il Mercenario (aka: The Mercenary, aka: A Professional Gun), the director's first Zapata Western, and the first film in his Mexican Revolution Trilogy.
While Django was more of a traditional Spaghetti Western, here is one of Corbucci's many films where the protagonists go beyond being anti-heroes and are no better then the antagonists of the film. Nero's character, Sergei Kowalski, goes beyond simply doing things for money and truly has an evil streak within him.…
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Another brilliant Sergio Corbucci movie with as lead Franco Nero accompanied by Jack Palance and Tony Musante.
Despite being a very cynical capitalist mercenary (under fire he refuses to fight unless he is being paid in cash upfront) Franco Nero cannot help but ooze charisma and win your heart over.
Tony Musante is excellent as the charming yet quite inapt revolutionary leader Paco Roman, who has a dream but little knowledge and ideas how to run a revolutionary.
Jack Palance, although he is only present in a few scenes, is excellent as the vengeful Curly and has a lovely way of winning at poker.Highly recommend for any Sergio Corbucci movie lovers!
PS:Again a excellent music score from Mr. Morrione
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Very cool Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Corbucci starring Franco Nero, Tony Musante, and Jack Pallance...similar in vein to Companeros, there is lots of action, and a few comedic moments. The duel near the end it great. Great Morricone score as well.
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Manuprāt, ļoti labi parādīts darba/dzīvesveids - algotnis. Bez emocijām, pieķeršanās, bez bailēm, tikai nauda un dara tikai par ko samaksāts, ne cik vairāk.
Beigas parāda, ka visi ir cilvēki ar emocijām.
"Django" patika nedauz vairāk. -
In this movie Franco Nero lights matches on a guy's face, a boob, some dude's teeth, a bullet, a bare foot and his boot-heel. Also, Franco Nero totally looks like Viggo Mortensen in this movie.
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Showering in style
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There's a three-way standoff between a man dressed as a cowboy, a man in a tuxedo, and a clown. Hard to argue against that being awesome.
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Not the best movie from Corbucci but still highly enjoyable spaghetti western. Great score from Morricone once again.
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The Mercenary is "fun" in the sense that it doesn't try to be anything other than what it is. The plot, to the extent that the movie is even interested in it other than as a mechanism to align tropes borrowed from better spaghetti westerns, is pretty predictable and light, even though it could've said something more incisive about revolutions and their revolutionaries. I'm being silly, though, because The Mercenary is all about Franco Nero lighting his matches on people's teeth, faces, etc., while either staring them down or acting like they don't exist. (Nero plays a Pole in Mexico who speaks English with an Italian accent, so take that for what's it worth.) Don't expect anything great, but if you're not expecting anything great, then why bother?
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Spaghetti Cinema film 3
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A very enjoyable and very well made spaghetti western! Interesting characters and relationships shine in the gritty, stylized west. There are many stand out scenes including a pretty cool shoot out in a bull ring.
All three main characters are great. Franco Nero rivals Eastwood's man with no name but a bit silly and it's good to see Jack Palance give an eccentric yet bold performance. I wouldn't mess with any of them!
Great Morricone score adds another dimension you can't get many places.
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Another brilliant Sergio Corbucci movie with as lead Franco Nero accompanied by Jack Palance and Tony Musante.
Despite being a very cynical capitalist mercenary (under fire he refuses to fight unless he is being paid in cash upfront) Franco Nero cannot help but ooze charisma and win your heart over.
Tony Musante is excellent as the charming yet quite inapt revolutionary leader Paco Roman, who has a dream but little knowledge and ideas how to run a revolutionary.
Jack Palance, although he is only present in a few scenes, is excellent as the vengeful Curly and has a lovely way of winning at poker.Highly recommend for any Sergio Corbucci movie lovers!
PS:Again a excellent music score from Mr. Morrione
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There is a moment in Sergio Corbucci’s The Mercenary when I realized that this Spaghetti Western is going to be something special. Earlier in the film inside a crowded saloon, there’s a poker game going on and the camera’s focused on the table. It pans to the hand of the first player, four jacks, so it’s favorable. The other player shows his and it’s a losing set but it has a pair of queens. “Two ladies...” he glibly replies then the shot immediately cuts to the speaker, chiseled face Jack Palance, “Plus two more makes four...” he smugly mentions and two women randomly appear standing by his side, “And in case of emergency there’s this...” he finally says revealing a…
-
Dream, Paco, but dream with your eyes open.
-Sergei Kowalski (AKA: The Polish)Franco Nero starred in Sergio Corbucci's original cult classic, Django, a film that has spawned a ludicrous amount of unofficial sequels and homages. Two years later Nero returned under Corbucci's direction in Il Mercenario (aka: The Mercenary, aka: A Professional Gun), the director's first Zapata Western, and the first film in his Mexican Revolution Trilogy.
While Django was more of a traditional Spaghetti Western, here is one of Corbucci's many films where the protagonists go beyond being anti-heroes and are no better then the antagonists of the film. Nero's character, Sergei Kowalski, goes beyond simply doing things for money and truly has an evil streak within him.…