ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Matialth
Good concept, poorly executed.
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
Wizard-8
I have found that spaghetti westerns that chose to film in Israel instead of the usual stomping grounds of Spain tend to have some very interesting touches to them even if they don't work overall. But "Black Jack" is one example that works very well for the most part. It is an incredibly dark and bleak spaghetti western in many aspects, not just with the amoral bad guys, but also with a "hero" who doesn't seem to be any better than the men he hunts down in a quest for revenge. The scenes of revenge are very memorable, having violence and brutality that will make viewers wince at least a little. Even when the movie is not showcasing violence or revenge, the atmosphere is dripping with dread, in part due to the dusty and haunting Israeli desert backdrop. Robert Woods acts appropriately mean-spirited for the most part, though he does overact a few times when his character gets into a bout of insane laughter. Another quibble is that the movie takes a long time (almost half of the running time, as a matter of fact) to set everything up before Woods starts on his path of vengeance. And the pacing does remain kind of slow at times in the second half of the movie. Also, it's not made clear how Woods' character manages to track down his former criminal partners. But those minor shortcomings should not prevent spaghetti western fans from enjoying this western. Though considering the REALLY harsh tone of the movie, maybe I should pick a better word than "enjoying".(Note: Watch the movie on YouTube instead of DVD, because as one other IMDb user pointed out earlier, the ending on the DVD has been edited in a way to be pretty incomprehensible.)
JohnWelles
Black Jack (1968), directed by Gianfranco Baldanello, who also made the interesting "This Man Can't Die" (1967) is one of those rare films: A movie where the main-character is a evil and sadistic being who wants total revenge on a group of bandits who double-crossed him over a bank robbery and then tortured him. Jack Murphy, known to his enemy's as "Black Jack" is a completely unlikeable anti-hero who would be the villain in any other movie. The fact that we care what happens is down to Robert Woods astounding performance as Murphy. His role in the picture is crucial: if he is weak, the film is weak. Anything but brilliant will do in a role like this. And he pulls it off with flying colours. Woods is fantastic: He doesn't make Jack a good guy, he makes him so totally horrible that we're strangely fascinated by his actions and fate. The direction, photography and music are all fine, but Robert Woods is the true stand out here.
johnboy1
Of all the Spaghetti Westerns I've seen, this is among the top 5 in my estimation. The acting, photography, and story are all exceptional. Robert Woods has never been better than he is in this film, IMHO.I love surprise endings, and the darker the better. This film really has no good guys, per se, so it helps the film to standout, among so many other standard spaghetti westerns.For what it's worth, my other top 5 films are: Deguello, White Apache, The Hills Run Red, and Hate Thy Neighbor, with Adios Hombre as a close runner-up.If you've never seen this classic, do so, if you can. It's well-worth the effort. Too bad these classics have yet to appear on DVD, in widescreen color.
Wetbones
I did not know a lot about this film when I finally got the chance to watch it on an old Dutch VHS tape. It turned out to be excellent.The plot concerns a band of bank robbers who decide to betray their leader, Jack. They torture and nearly kill him while his sister gets brutally raped by one of the men and is subsequently scalped (!) and murdered by an Indian who was hired by the villains. But leaving Jack alive was a grave mistake because after getting better his saddles up and goes for bloody revenge.I usually prefer Italian westerns to those from the US because most of the latter are too tame for my tastes. There is a nastiness about BLACK JACK that is quite powerful and disturbing. Even on the used VHS the cinematography was great and the same has to be said about the effective score. The acting is good for this kind of film, though Jack's grief and madness sometimes border on the comical - especially when he bursts out laughing like a loon during one fight. Still, this is powerful and effective cinema and should be of interest to anyone who likes the genre or revenge films in general. It's a pity that the film is near impossible to find at the time of this writing. I hope it will get a DVD release soon. This 35 year old gem is overdue for rediscovery.
