A great time-capsule of the kinds of mildly subversive escapism you could enjoy at the movies, back in 1970. Revolution was in the air, and (Cuban-born) Tomas Milian adds the necessary Castro/Che/Bob Dylan charisma as a peasant turned freedom fighter. Franco Nero is the super cool James Bond-like foreign agent. The two form a wary partnership to rescue the Professor (Fernando Rey) from the clutches of various bad guys, including Jack Palance at his twitchy best playing a cartoonish psycho, who feeds his beloved hawk the flesh of the peasants. A seriously attractive radicalized woman leads up her own gang of rebels. More a Mel Brooks, or Mad Magazine, spoof than a serious political tract, this Italian Western nonetheless has a lot of style, and much to recommend it. Morricone's music is like his Leone scores, but in comic overdrive...and satisfying. There's much inventive (mild/comedic) cruelty: Franco Nero maintaining his cool while buried up to his head and threatened by horses' hooves is both disturbing and very, very funny. And, director/writer Corbucci riffs expertly on Spaghetti Western conventions. You get the pleasure of a director who knows his genre, and knows that you do, too.
Review of Compañeros
