MartinHafer "A Professional Gun" (aka, "The Mercenary") is an oddly paced film that is mostly enjoyable--but highly uneven. Some aspects of the movie are quite good (such as the Ennio Morricone score) but the plot itself often seems contradictory and confusing. Mostly, the motivations and behaviors of Franco Nero's character make little sense and change almost randomly.The film begins with a small-time bandit (Tony Musante) in revolutionary Mexico (about 1915). He talks about 'the revolution' but mostly is just a leader of some opportunistic thugs. When he meets up with a cool mercenary (Nero), he pays through the nose to have the mercenary tutor him on warfare. As the film progresses, the bandit slowly evolves into a revolutionary hero, whereas the mercenary seems interested in one thing--money. But, as I said above, this guy's motivations inexplicably change--and this change left me cold. It just seemed formulaic and nothing in the film seemed to explain this change. In addition, a smaller and somewhat unrelated subplot involving a nasty Jack Palance is sprinkled throughout the film.A few things to look for in the film include Nero's revolver that shoots SEVEN times when he's taking a shower as well as Palance's butt. Not a brilliant and occasionally a confusing film--but enjoyable nonetheless provided you don't try to think too much as you watch.Finally, the casting is ironic. Musante plays a Mexican, while he's American born and bred. Nero plays a Polish-American, while he's an Italian!

JasparLamarCrabb Sergio Corbucci's often violent, often comic western is a classic. Franco Nero (as the Polak) is a self-serving gun for hire who finds himself aligned with Mexican rebels circa 1910. Tony Musante is the Simon Boliva wannabe who pays Nero to help him & his motley band stave off a pursuing army. Also in the mix is ruthless hired killer "Curley," played by Jack Palance. A fast paced, extremely well made spaghetti western with all the accoutrements of the genre: it's produced by Alberto Grimaldi; scored by Ennio Morricone; the supporting cast includes the likes of Giovanna Ralli and Eduardo Fajardo. Nero and Mustante have a lot of chemistry and Palance, looking oddly fey with black curly hair and perpetual grimace, is very menacing.

The_Void Two years after their success with Django, director Sergio Corbucci and lead actor Franco Nero teamed up again for this western which, to the best of my knowledge (and surprise) was never released with an alternate title including the word 'Django'. Rather than focusing on a coffin-towing gunslinger, this one features a story taking place around the time of the Mexican revolution. The film gets off to a good start with a great score conducted by Ennio Morricone. From there we are introduced to Franco Nero's character Sergei Kowalski; a Polish gunslinger, only out to better himself; and, it has to be said, is a little hard to understand at first. He hooks up with a Mexican revolutionary named Paco, and together they strike a bargain; The Pole will aide Paco in his revolution, for a slice of any profits that the pair and their army 'liberate' from the Mexican towns and villages. Naturally, it's not long before Paco is attracting attention from the Government; and the pair's different objectives soon lead to fights amongst themselves.This film works principally thanks to a good and interesting story, as well as the characters themselves which are intriguing and work well together. Franco Nero, of course, is the main star of the show and shows his versatility somewhat with the role. Of course, he played gunslingers in plenty of films; but here he manages to convince that he's Polish (although the accent does take a little getting used to). He receives good feedback from Tony Musante (who was the lead actor in Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) and the pair have a good, if somewhat awkward, chemistry together. There's also a 'guest star' role for Jack Palance who plays a rival gunslinger. The film is not all that well known today, and that is probably because it is rather derivative of other and better known westerns; most obvious is the climatic shootout sequence towards the end which directly 'borrows' from Sergio Leone's masterpiece The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Still, in spite of this; The Mercenary is a very well made and entertaining spaghetti western that should please all fans of the genre.

Phildo_The_Way_of_Phil This is probably one of the first spaghetti western's I ever saw, and whilst I made sure that I watched many, many more (the good, the bad and the naff) over my youth and early adulthood, what it did most was give me a great appreciation of Ennio Morricone, whose score made the film the masterpiece it is.The film has everything you want in it: solid protagonist, creepy bad guy, entertaining side kick and kicking action sequences, all rounded off with a score so good that has been reused in Kill Bill.Like many early spaghetti's its probably never going to be shown on the telly again, and DVD's probably don't exist, but if you can get hold of a copy its well worth the effort.