StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Uriah43 "Sergei Kowalski" (Franco Nero) is a mercenary who wanders around Mexico selling his services to anybody who can afford him. In one specific case the owner of a silver mine is having problems with some bandits and hires Sergei to ride to the mine and bring a shipment of silver to the United States. However, when Sergei gets there he is taken prisoner by the bandits and discovers that the silver cannot be extracted because the tunnels have collapsed. About this same time the Mexican army arrives with the intent upon retaking the silver mine from the bandits. Heavy fighting ensues and this prompts the leader of the bandits, "Paco Roman" (Tony Musante) to offer Sergei a job in helping them in their fight against the army. Since the bandits have money Sergei agrees. Soon one thing leads to another and Paco gradually morphs into a revolutionary due mainly to the influence of an attractive woman named "Columba" (Giovanni Ralli) who they meet during a successful bank robbery. What follows is a funny yet bizarre tale set in a "spaghetti-western" environment. Now, for the most part I liked the performance of Franco Nero and I certainly didn't mind the presence of Giovanni Ralli. But some of the scenes were simply too unrealistic and lacked any noticeable depth. Along with that I thought the wig that Jack Palance (as "Curly") wore made him look totally ridiculous. In any case, I rate this movie as about average.

christopher-underwood Very fine spaghetti western with much variety. There are sweeping landscapes and massed shoot outs but also more intimate wrangles, moments of humour and tight hand to hand fighting. Big and somewhat sprawling though the plot may be there is always time given to sly asides and intimate exchanges. There are times to cheer and times to smile as this well made movie unfolds with much style. Central performances of Franco Nero, Jack Palance and Tony Musante are all first rate and all help to fully engage the viewer. And, having said all that, even if all the above had been less than it is, then surely the Morricone score would carry it anyway. As with the rest of the film, this is a very varied score, soaring one minute, clattering at another and then spine tinglingly effective at others. Very watchable.

wmjahn ... just another GOOD, BAD, UGLY clone, in fact (which seemingly nobody notices ...). But let's start where things start: 1966 was an important year, simply because one of the best movies ever made saw the light of day then: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY is a rare piece of motion art, where really everybody involved gave his absolutely best and also succeeded in doing so. There has so much praise been said regarding this movie, that I actually don't have to add any more lines, except maybe this one: Clint Eastwood is maybe the most important director today and was certainly one of the most important and influential actors in the 60ies and 70ies and although he has made more great movies in recent movie history than anybody else, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (GBU) still shines as the absolutely and by far best picture he was ever involved in. Quentin Tarantino calls GBU rightly the best picture ever made and IMDb-voters have voted it # 2 of the all-time-best-list (it should be # 1, but I'm sure that will happen some day, smile).When GBU hit the screens in 1966 it was a major success in Europe, but had a somewhat slow start in the USA, but word-of-mouth got around and finally made this a HUGE hit worldwide.In Europe the narrative potential of GBU was immediately recognized and multiple clones were made in the years to come, IL MERCINARIO being one of the earlier ones.But ... well ... Sergio CORBUCCI is not Sergio Leone (despite their sharing their first name), Franco NERO is not Clint Eastwood, Tony MUSANTE is not Eli Wallach and well, Jack PALANCE is probably as good as Lee van Cleef, but his hairdo in this movie having him play a gay (?) gunfighter makes the role of the "BAD" he has to take in IL MERCINARIO somewhat ridiculous (and still this movie isn't a comedy ...). And yes, Ennio Morricone is of course Ennio Morrcione, turning in another major achievement, not as good as in GBU but also not very far from that.But Corbucci not only copied the three lead roles from GBU, there are in fact many more similarities, from the storyline of hunting stolen (!) gold up to even a scene in which Franco Nero takes bath in the desert, simply lifted and slightly changed from the GBU-scene in which Eli Wallach does the same in front of the short-from-dying Clint Eastwood. Not to mention the shoot-out scene between Nero, Palance and Musante in the bull-fighting arena with camera-shots to their hands in the very same way as on the cemetery in GBU ... anyone who's willing to watch IL MERCINARIO with GBU in mind will find more similarities. IL MERCINARIO is certainly an above-average Italo-western (which doesn't mean that much, considering the low average Italo-westerns have "achieved"), but it's still just a GBU-clone.But as said above, simply copying main elements of another movie does not necessarily lead to the same outcome although Corbucci still did it much better than many other minor directors. This also shows, how much of the enormous grandeur of GBU is owed to Sergio Leone's fantastic direction, his eye for detail and feeling for timing.This is what IL MERCINARIO is lacking most in my humble opinion: appropriate timing. Actually the screen is practically permanently crowded with too many people and there's action going on for most of the time, where in fact less would have been more. The cool scenes in between and any better-than-average characterization of the leading men is completely missing as is the dialogue seldomly on the point.A few months after seeing the GBU one will still remember many scenes, a few days after watching IL MERCINARIO one will most likely only remember the gun pointing out of the pig's head and hardly any more.

washboard I recently got hold of the Japanese DVD print via ebay. This is of really high quality and I was amazed that this film is not more widely known or appreciated. What a brilliant film. In many ways it is similar to Companeros and if you liked that wonderful film you will also love this. The story is somewhat far-fetched but is very enjoyable and fast paced in a 'boys own' way. The machine gun makes its familiar appearance. Franco Nero, as always, delivers a superb performance and Jack Palance gives a very good performance as a very unpleasant killer. The music is brilliant and the duel in the bullring is incomparable and is perfectly choreographed to the wonderful music. If you are interested in westerns you have to see this film.