Tag: Sergio corbucci

The Cruel Ones

The Cruel Ones is a 1967 Italian Western directed by Sergio Corbucci.

The Cruel Ones, aka I crudeli, aka The Hellbenders tells the story of Jonas, a Confederate officer who is attempting to raise an army and continue the Civil War. Along with his sons, he steals Union money and hides it in a coffin – with the rouse that he is escorting his “daughter’s” husband’s remains.

Within the filmography of Sergio Corbucci, The Cruel Ones holds a unique position. It’s sandwiched between Django, Navajo Joe and The Great Silence – three of Corbucci’s most recognized works. It also predates his later “revolutionary period” titles The Mercenary and Companeros.

In a fitting nod to such an artistically rich sub-genre, The Cruel Ones is unlike any of Corbucci’s other Westerns. There is no mysterious drifter or overt political message to be found. It’s reliance on family and Civil War themes are more representative of American Westerns. Yet, The Cruel Ones features Corbucci’s trademark style, sounds and splashy violence.

In short, this is an impressive offering from a vastly underrated director.

The story’s concept – transporting stolen money in a coffin – is the perfect vehicle for a corrupt family to tear themselves apart. Greed and power emerge as potent forces. The family patriarch, Jonas – savagely played by Joseph Cotten – has a grand vision of restoring the defeated Confederate Army. He commands his sons in a vicious attack against Union troops, stealing millions of dollars.

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Companeros

Companeros is a 1970 Italian Western directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Franco Nero.

Companeros tells the story of Yodlaf Peterson, a Swedish arms dealer who forms a shaky alliance with El Vasco, the leader of a Mexican revolutionary group. They aim to protect Professor Xantos, the intellectual head of a student resistance group, from military leader General Mongo and mercenary John, the Wooden Hand.

Companeros is a fun, stylish Italian Western that essentially represents the greatest hits of Sergio Corbucci. It’s a vivid, cleanly shot movie that is equal parts violent and campy.

The characters follow the formula created in earlier Corbucci movies – Franco Nero is the suave foreign mercenary who reveals a soft heart, Tomas Milian is the hardened gunslinger turned revolutionary, Eduardo Fajardo plays a boisterous Mexican general and Jack Palance takes another turn as a warped but quirky villain. There’s also yet another female revolutionary who plays the love interest.

And of course, it just wouldn’t be a Corbucci movie if Nero doesn’t let a machine gun rip….

Nero basically plays his role from The Mercenary, only he swaps Polish roots for Swedish. He’s suave, self-assured and playfully stoic. Again, he arrives in town to sell weapons, then gets mixed up in a revolution. Along the way, his professional lone wolf persona gets assimilated into a buddy comedy. There’s a fun running joke between his character and Milan’s El Vasco regarding a silver coin.

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Navajo Joe and The Mercenary

Navajo Joe (1966) and The Mercenary (1968) are each Italian Westerns directed by Sergio Corbucci and scored by Ennio Morricone.

Sergio Corbucci is often referred to as “the other Sergio” when movie folk discuss Italian Westerns. He is certainly less famous and commercially, his movies can’t rival Sergio Leone in terms of revenue and prestige.

However, while Leone makes epics – Corbucci makes unique, stylized, enjoyable Westerns – several of which are likely unappreciated. While Django and The Great Silence have recently earned a reputation for their gritty, dark quality, Navajo Joe and The Mercenary are two of his best – or at least, most entertaining movies.

Besides Corbucci’s direction, the common link between the two movies are the outstanding scores created by Ennio Morricone.

If you enjoyed Kill Bill, Volume 2, you’re in for a treat.

The Mercenary tells the story of Sergei “Polack” Kowalski, a hired gun whose robberies lead to a revolution against Mexican authorities. Kowalski makes a series of deals with Paco, a silver mine worker, and the pair steal money and weapons from the Mexican Army. Throughout their adventures, they are tracked by Curly, an American mercenary. In the process, Paco becomes a famed revolutionary.

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The Tarantino Influences: The Rankings

The goal of this Tarantino project is to explore the movies that inspired the director. What I quickly realized is that this project could be infinite – given that thousands of movie references color Tarantino’s works. I’m stopping at 15 direct influences – fully knowing that these movies may not even be the best representations. Kill Bill alone likely features over 30 kung fu movie influences.

I think at the least, I represented enough different genres to make the project meaningful.

More importantly, I’m excited that these movies will naturally lead to further discoveries. For instance, I was not a huge fan of Branded to Kill – but I do want to explore more Japanese New Wave movies. Likewise, after watching The Great Silence and Django, I’m fully invested in Spaghetti Westerns. The next phase of this project will ultimately lead to a new writer/director, but for now I want to chase down the movies, directors, actors and genres that stem from this original group.

As for this collection of movies, here are my ratings – which again are based on my own preferences and personal enjoyment. I take into account technical aspects but I am unqualified to judge such things. But I also know that Kowalski is the most boring anti-hero in movie history and the Ecstasy of Gold scene is exhilarating. All fifteen of these movies offer something exceptional and likely shaped some small part of a Tarantino movie.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – 4.5/5

Band of Outsiders – 4.5/5

These are two movies that essentially changed movies. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was the best of a classic Sergio Leone series that proved the traditional American Western could be revitalized under a European lens. Yet in doing so, the movie created an American icon in Clint Eastwood and probably the most copied movie of its genre and time. Leone creates a beautiful, expansive atmosphere to drop his classic, archetypal characters into and they represent a struggle for morality that is brilliant and layered.

Band of Outsiders continues the guerrilla, self-referential ethos Jean-Luc Godard established with 1960’s Breathless. Godard’s story of would be teenage robbers is both an inventive homage to American crime movies and photograph of the existential confusion of youth. It’s a tongue in cheek critique of the narrative form, which gives us beautifully odd sequences such as the dance scene, moment of silence and running through the Louvre.

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The Tarantino Influences: Django

Django is a 1966 movie directed by Sergio Corbucci. The music, themes and style were inspirations on Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Hateful Eight, Reservoir Dogs and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Django tells the story of a mysterious drifter who drags a coffin through town and ends up in the middle of a bloody feud between Southern confederates and Mexican revolutionaries. He battles both groups, using his secret weapon of destruction. Along the way, Django rescues a prostitute and attempts to leave with a bounty of gold.

The main influence on Tarantino can be found in the most glorious theme song of all time.

Behold the grandeur….

Django has a lot going for it but this introduction is the clear high point of the movie. The song is hypnotic – it’s a grand, soaring, even powerful presentation of a mysterious drifter dragging a coffin through mud. Take the song away and you still have an intriguing visual but it loses its potent flavor. This theme is strictly reserved for a dynamic hero – which defines Django for most of the movie.

Tarantino borrows the theme song and gives it to his Django, who proves to be a more worthy hero than the original. We also see the great lettering and font in Tarantino’s version and clearly there is an homage to mud. Of course, mud isn’t exclusive to either movie – but in Django, its presence fills the background similar to snow drifts in other spaghetti Westerns.

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The Tarantino Influences: The Great Silence

The Great Silence is a 1968 Western directed by Sergio Corbucci. Considered to be his finest work, the movie appears to have influenced Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained.

The uniqueness of a Western in a snowstorm is striking – the movie’s opening is an expansive shot of a snowy trek, which illustrates the struggle of all involved. The horse can’t find its footing and both animal and rider are defeated by the conditions. It’s a gorgeous opening not in a majestic way but rather because it signals a gritty, unpolished tone to follow. There is both a bleakness and beauty in the landscape – something that Tarantino emulates in The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained.

For a movie that’s ultimately defined by its viciousness, the opening is campy. A newly hired sheriff encounters a group of hungry bandits that have been pushed into the wilderness. The sheriff appears hopeless from the start – first in an odd one-off scene with the Governor of Utah and then as the bandit crew spares the sheriff’s life in exchange for his horse – which they solely want to eat. The bumbling, freezing sheriff is then picked up by a carriage, which carries the movie’s protagonists in Silence and Loco.

The plot’s origins are a bit convoluted as Loco and the town’s Justice of the Peace are engaged in a shady murder for bounty scheme. Silence arrives in town due to a letter sent to him by a young widow who wants to exact vengeance for her husband’s death at the hands of Loco. It’s a bit comical to see the protagonists in such close proximity and makes the movie’s first 30 minutes far-fetched. However, we know we’re headed for a showdown between the two leads.

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