Companeros I thought to be a very jolly enjoyable spood western from Sergio Corbucci, who here pulls off much the same trick as he did in the almost equally enjoyable A Professional Gun a little while ago. I adopt the slightly defiant tone because I sense a degree of disapproval among my colleagues of the amount of violence in the film; it seems to me that, though there is rather a lot of killing, it’s all of the fantasy, bang-bang-you’re dead variety, far removed from the rather sadistic dwelling on details familiar in the works of some other Italian Westerners [sic].
Also, Companeros does boast a particularly appealing cast. Since our first unfortunate contact with him in Camelot, I find Franco Nero increasingly lovable (ever since, though not of course because, he shut Vanessa Redgrave in the deepfreeze in A Quiet Place in the Country), and in here, playing a Swede – in A Professional Gun he was a POle – selling himself and his guns to the highest bidder, he has an irresistable sense of fun. Especially when combined with Tomas Milian as his unwilling Mexican sidekick. Tomas Milian is also very lovable, even though he has the most spectacular teeth on screen, a legitimate cause for the dentist-haunted to dislkie anybody, and here the edgy, whimsical relationship between the two is beautifully sustained. Not to mention Fernando Rey (of Bunuel and Tristana fame), Jack Palance and a beautiful hawk which eventually gets eaten by miniature turtles. Companeros does go on a bit, as is the way with Italian westerns, but it is worth the trouble.
John Russell Taylor, The Times, Friday, Jan 14, 1972
[note: I’m amazed by how much space they gave over to the film and how positive the review is; I thought just about all the critics hated spaghetti westerns.]
Also, Companeros does boast a particularly appealing cast. Since our first unfortunate contact with him in Camelot, I find Franco Nero increasingly lovable (ever since, though not of course because, he shut Vanessa Redgrave in the deepfreeze in A Quiet Place in the Country), and in here, playing a Swede – in A Professional Gun he was a POle – selling himself and his guns to the highest bidder, he has an irresistable sense of fun. Especially when combined with Tomas Milian as his unwilling Mexican sidekick. Tomas Milian is also very lovable, even though he has the most spectacular teeth on screen, a legitimate cause for the dentist-haunted to dislkie anybody, and here the edgy, whimsical relationship between the two is beautifully sustained. Not to mention Fernando Rey (of Bunuel and Tristana fame), Jack Palance and a beautiful hawk which eventually gets eaten by miniature turtles. Companeros does go on a bit, as is the way with Italian westerns, but it is worth the trouble.
John Russell Taylor, The Times, Friday, Jan 14, 1972COmpaneros I thought to be a very jolly enjoyable spood western from Sergio Corbucci, who here pulls off much the same trick as he did in the almost equally enjoyable A Professional Gun a little while ago. I adopt the slightly defiant tone because I sense a degree of disapproval among my colleagues of the amount of violence in the film; it seems to me that, though there is rather a lot of killing, it’s all of the fantasy, bang-bang-you’re dead variety, far removed from the rather sadistic dwelling on details familiar in the works of some other Italian Westerners [sic].
Also, Companeros does boast a particularly appealing cast. Since our first unfortunate contact with him in Camelot, I find Franco Nero increasingly lovable (ever since, though not of course because, he shut Vanessa Redgrave in the deepfreeze in A Quiet Place in the Country), and in here, playing a Swede – in A Professional Gun he was a POle – selling himself and his guns to the highest bidder, he has an irresistable sense of fun. Especially when combined with Tomas Milian as his unwilling Mexican sidekick. Tomas Milian is also very lovable, even though he has the most spectacular teeth on screen, a legitimate cause for the dentist-haunted to dislkie anybody, and here the edgy, whimsical relationship between the two is beautifully sustained. Not to mention Fernando Rey (of Bunuel and Tristana fame), Jack Palance and a beautiful hawk which eventually gets eaten by miniature turtles. Companeros does go on a bit, as is the way with Italian westerns, but it is worth the trouble.
John Russell Taylor, The Times, Friday, Jan 14, 1972
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