TeenzTen An action-packed slog

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Catherina If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Bezenby Yet another Spaghetti Western full of double crosses, tenuous alliances, and stubbly greasy looking fellows laughing at nothing. This one has Klaus Kinski, and he's kind of doing a Kinski (i.e He's in the film sort of but seems to come and go as he pleases).During a train robbery where Gian Marie Volonte is obtaining guns from the Mexican Army, he meets a sneaky gringo who wants to join his gang. Being a sucker, Volonte lets him in, and from then on out starts a kind of road trip/bromance with the guy. For the record Klaus is Volonte's brother somehow even though...you know..Kinski looks like a blonde goblin.After various encounter with the army and the obtaining of a machine gun, things settle down for a game of 'this film is two hours long...get to the point'. Will Volonte favour the green and sell his ammo and guns to the General leading the revolution or will he keep them and defend a town from the army? Will the sneaky guy use the gold bullet he keeps for whatever reason? Will Klaus Kinski actually play himself in the final scene or will it be a body double as I think it is (you may want to check that out).Spaghetti Westerns are hard to get wrong and this one doesn't fail at all. It's kind of draggy in places and has a very different kind of ending to what you're used to, but then again it is one that you may come away from thinking about. Gian Marie Volonte surely didn't look so filthy in real life, eh?

FightingWesterner In the late 1960's, the radical sentiment of the times spurred many an Italian filmmaker to make like Ambrose Bierce and get lost in the Mexican revolution, blissfully unaware (or uncaring) that it ended with an outcome best described by a lyric from The Who, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." and prompting Sergio Leone (a political moderate) to preface his own addition to the revolutionary sub-genre, A Fistful Of Dynamite, with a quote from Mao, reminding the viewer that a revolution was an act of violence, lest we forget.Still, this exuberant, violent leftist fantasy is impossible to resist, thanks to breakneck pacing, a zesty performance by Gian Maria Volante (who was kicked out of Italy's communist party for being too radical!), excellent production values, direction, and cinematography.Also, Martine Beswick is nice to look at and it's always great to see Klaus Kinski in anything he's in. However, paired with Volante, he seems more restrained than usual.One real flaw in the film's ideology (at least in my opinion), is that often times the heroes here seem to act as fascist as the villains, executing people without trial, killing an unarmed priest, sexual assault etcetera, all the things that make the movie interesting, that would now be categorized as human-rights abuses!Interestingly enough, director Damiano Damiani went on to make Amityville II: The Possession!

Coventry I realize it's quite a challenging promise, but Damiano Damiani's spaghetti western "A Bullet for the General" can easily compete with the best works of eminent Italian directors such as Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci. It's a superbly scripted and amazingly fascinating adventure with class-A acting performances and masterfully choreographed action sequences. The screenplay easily ranks among the most ambitious ones ever written in the genre, blending the atmosphere of the infamous Mexican Revolution with the more typical western-themes like brotherhood, gunslinger gangs and personal vendettas. Being a lot more politically engaged than the other contemporary euro-western efforts, Damiani's "A Bullet for the General" is definitely required viewing for all the fans of vintage cult cinema. The movie opens with a brilliant and extended sequence in which El Chuncho's gang of bandits ambushes a train full of soldiers and civilians. The notorious posse kills military men and robs them off their guns in order to support the revolution led by Mr. Elias. During their raid on the train, El Chuncho's gang receives unexpected help from a young American who pretends to be a military prisoner. He, Bill "Gringo" Tate, requests El Chuncho to become a member of his gang and to ride along as they rob trains and liberate villages. The obstacle-packed journey slowly brings the posse to Mr. Elias' secret hideout place, where they plan to sell the stolen armory. The young Gringo is loyal to the gang and never turns down a fight, yet his suspicious behavior reveals that he has other intentions for tagging along all the way through Mexico. Most summaries – including the one of the DVD cover I watched – carelessly reveal the reason for Gringo's odd interest in El Chucho's gang, but I'm convinced the film is a lot more compelling and involving if you don't know, so you won't hear it from me! It's much more exciting to hunt for clues and hidden messages yourself, and I assure you there are plenty of them! The plot is marvelously developed and only at the end you'll notice how effective and important all the little details in the script are. Despite an enormous body count and the displaying of several executions, "A Bullet for the General" isn't the violent spaghetti western I anticipated to be. The massacres nearly aren't as nasty or explicit as in any of the numerous "Django" clones, for example, and Damiani merely creates a suspenseful atmosphere through intelligent dialogs and suggestive situations. The filming locations and set pieces are simply breathtaking and every member of the cast performs his/her role impeccably. Gian Maria Volonté is even greater here than he was in Sergio Leone's "For A Few Dollars More" and "Fistful of Dollars". He receives excellent supportive feedback from Lou Castel ("Orgasmo") and Martine Beswick ("Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde"). My only real complaint is that the legendary Klaus Kinski only briefly appears – despite his top billing – as El Chuncho's deeply religious brother. Kinski is an amazingly charismatic actor, and I secretly hoped his role would have been larger. Other than that, "A Bullet for the General" comes with my highest possible recommendation!

Witchfinder General 666 Damiano Damiani's masterpiece "El Chuncho Quién Sabe?" aka. "A Bullet For The General" of 1967 is a very political Spaghetti Western set in the Mexican Revolution. A quite brutal tale about ideals, greed, friendship and selfishness, is not only a very entertaining Spaghetti Western, but also a unique study of an idealistic man's struggle between his greed and desire for wealth on the one hand, and his beliefs and ideals on the other hand.El Chuncho (Gian Maria Volontè) is a bandit and revolutionary with a strong fondness for women, alcohol and cigars. Along with his slightly insane, but religious and very idealistic brother El Santo (Klaus Kinski), he leads a gang of bandits with beliefs, who help the poor and rob the government's army to sell the weapons to the revolutionary army. When the gang is joined by Bill Tate, an American who, due to his youth, is just referred to as "El Nino" by El Chuncho and his fellow Mexican bandidos, the gang leader starts to befriend with the gringo. El Nino, however is basically almost the opposite of El Chuncho, he doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke and he doesn't waste his time with women, and neither does he believe in any causes or ideals, the only thing he is interested in is quick and good money. His friendship to the baby-faced but selfish and cold-blooded Nino, becomes a breaking test for Chuncho, who is torn between his greed and his ideals.Although Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci are two of my favorite directors of all-time, and their movies "Giù La Testa" ("Duck You Sucker", Leone) and "Il Mercenario" ("The Mercenary", Corbucci), are two awesome movies, and furthermore there are quite a few more excellent Mexican Revolution Spaghetti Westerns , I would name "A Bullet for the General" as my favorite of the Mexican-Revolution-themed Spaghetti Westerns. The acting in this movie is superb. Gian Maria Volontè played in four Spaghetti Westerns and each one of them is a masterpiece. After his excellent performances in "A Fistful Of Dollars", "For A Few Dollars More" and Sergio Sollima's "Faccia A Faccia"/"Face To Face", Volontè is superb as El Chuncho, the most lovable Spaghetti Western character he played. Klaus Kinski is great as always, the character of the rather crazy but idealistic El Santo is quite unusual, since Kinski's roles in Italian Westerns were, with a few exceptions, normally those of extremely cold blooded and selfish killers, who didn't think of anybody but themselves. Lou Castel perfectly fits into the role of baby-faced El Nino, and he manages to point out his character's cleverness and selfishness in a very good way. The directing by Damiano Damiani is brilliant and so is the cinematography. I would have rated this 10/10 if it wasn't for he one minor flaw: The score by Ennio Morricone and Louis Bavalov is good, but it is no quite as great as it could have been as it can't compete with the brilliance of other Morricone scores. Nevertheless, an excellent film! A brutal, witty and very political Spaghetti Western, "A Bullet For The General" is an excellent film that genre-fans, and film buffs in general should not miss!