User Reviews

Rugged famous gunslinger Richard Martin (an excellent performance by Enrico Maria Salerno) has both of his hands shot in a brutal hold-up on a train by ruthless former student Billy Kane (a perfectly nasty turn by Venantino Venantini). The bitter and vindictive Martin joins forces with amiable and mysterious escaped convict Ricky Shot (a solid and engaging portrayal by Terry Jenkins) to exact revenge on Kane and his men. Director Massimo Dallamano relates the complex and absorbing story at a steady pace, maintains an appropriately harsh and gritty tone throughout, stages the plentiful exciting shoot-outs with rip-roaring aplomb, and tops things off with a nice sense of deliciously dry dark humor. The sound acting from the capable cast rates as a substantial asset: Salerno and Jenkins display a pleasingly natural chemistry as the appealing protagonists, Venantini makes for a suitably hateful villain, Cris Huerta is amusingly scuzzy as slimy bandito Vigonza, the lovely Maria Martin adds considerable sass and sexiness as Martin's loyal lady friend Betty Starr, and ubiquitous character actor Victor Israel has a neat bit as an ill-fated train conductor. Emilio Foriscot's expansive widescreen cinematography offers a wealth of sweeping panoramic shots of the dusty and desolate landscape. Egisto Macchi's moody'n'twangy score likewise hits the harmonic spot. An attempted ambush in a bar is a definite stirring highlight. The tense final confrontation between Kane and Ricky also totally smokes. An extremely worthwhile and entertaining oater.

Bandit and his gang make it a habit of leaving no survivors for any of their robberies so that they never end up on wanted posters. The expert shooter who taught the head bandit, is spared during the massacre of a train full of people. But he isn't just let go, he is shot through his hands. Years later the teacher trains a man convicted of the robbery to take on the bad men. The pair travels around the country doing a sharp shooting act looking for the gang. Mean nasty and ugly spaghetti western is very well done. Its one of the few westerns from Europe where there really is a dividing line between the good guys and the bad guys (there is none of the usual gray) and the film plays so much better for it. Here at last is a bad guy who's villainy you really can despise because you know that short of drowning a wagon full of nuns and orphans no one is worse than him. This is a satisfying western in its battle between good and evil, but at the same time, its so mean nasty and even sleazy that odds are you may want to take a shower after watching it. Recommended for fans of Euro-westerns and darker westerns in general.

Richard Martin (Enrico Maria Salerno, who is Jesus in Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew and the inspector in The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, but perhaps just as importantly the Italian voice for Clint Eastwood in Leone's movies) is a master of shooting guns whose hands are ruined when he ends up on a train that's robbed by his former student Billy Kane (Venantino Venantini, City of the Living Dead).

Now, Martin is left to only be a drunken huckster, taking is traveling carnival to dusty small towns in the hopes of just surviving. He was once a sharpshooter but his mangled hands mean that he can only train others and now that his latest student has been killed, he doesn't have much hope left. That's when he meets Ricky Shot (Terry Jenkins, who was only in one other movie, the doomed western musical Paint Your Wagon), the man who was framed for the train robbery. Together, they both have plans for revenge.

Massimo Dallamano is a director that I love that doesn't get the praise that other Italian genre directors receive. Starting as the cinematographer on Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, his films are all standouts in their subgenres, like the giallo masterwork What Have You Done to Solange? And the cops vs. Mad bombers poliziottescocraziness of Colt 38 Special Squad (recently release by Arrow in their Years of Lead box set). Sadly, Dallamano died in a car accident after that film, robbing the world of what might have been.

Seasoned Spaghetti western cinematographer Massimo Dallamano who lensed both Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For A Few Dollars More" with Clint Eastwood as well as Ricardo Blasco's "Gunfight at Red Sands" with Richard Harrison settles into the director's chair with this rugged, violent Euro-western about revenge. "They Paid with Bullets: Chicago 1929" cinematographer Emilio Foriscot's evocative, widescreen camera work and "The Assassination of Trotsky" composer Egisto Macchi, who provides a traditional Ennio Morricone style orchestral soundtrack complete with vocals, make "Bandidos" both look and sound good. Scenarists Luis Laso and Juan Cobos have penned a fairly gripping outlaw opus about revenge. A grown-up student betrays his older mentor in this bullet-blasting Italian western about revenge. The villainous student maims his mentor permanently, but the stubborn mentor never relents in his efforts to square accounts with his murderous pupil. Laso and Cobos insert a surprising revelation about an hour into this lively horse opera that gives it a deft twist. "Bandidos" takes a cynical approach to issues involving life and death typical to most spaghetti westerns. Namely, life is as cheap at the bullet it takes to kill you. The only real flaw is that Cobos turns the tentative hero from the first hour into a hopeless victim and a secondary character emerges as the true hero.

"Bandidos" opens with a train conductor shouting: "We're doing you a favor," after he has thrown a man without a ticket off a Southern Pacific Company train. The conductor confiscates the guy's saddle for the company. Scrutinize this scene if you haven't watched "Bandidos" before because it figures prominently later in the plot. Yes, this is an example of an Italian western worth seeing twice! The conductor's triumph is short-lived. A trigger-happy outlaw, Kramer (Marco Guglielmi of "The Battle of El Alamein"), stabs him to death in the stomach not long afterward. The same gunman shoots both the locomotive engineer and the fireman in cold blood. Kramer halts the train. A lean, mean, unshaven Billy Kane (Venantino Venantini of "The Killer Likes Candy") and his cronies show up but show no mercy. They rob the passengers and then massacre them all without a qualm. Incidentally, the train is another of those Spanish engines modified to resemble an old West relic and the producers forgot to put a tender filled with either wood or coal behind the locomotive to fuel it.

One passenger gives them more grief than they had expected. He is a well-dressed individual in a white hat, Richard Martin (a mustached Enrico Maria Salerno of "Hercules and the Captive Women"), that we earlier saw polishing his Smith & Wesson revolver. He steps off the train to face Billy in a showdown. Billy surprises Richard and shoots his holstered six-gun off his hip with surgical skill. This amounts to Billy's calling card. The outlaw leader explains his indiscriminate homicidal urges, ". . . only beginners leave witnesses. I never do. Ain't wise. I don't like to have my picture up on walls and have people shoot me in the back to get a reward." Clearly, the train massacre distinguishes "Bandidos" from an American western where the villains would have worn bandanas. "Bandanas" wouldn't have made as commanding a title as "Bandidos." Nevertheless, despite this self-avowed philosophy, Billy lets Martin live. Instead, he shoots his mentor in both hands, crippling him so that he cannot wield a gun again. The chief problem here is that the hero behaves foolishly when he acquiesces to Billy's demand for a trackside showdown.

After an unspecified number of years, Richard Martin reappears, looking drastically different. An unshaven, cigar-smoking entrepreneur, he owns an itinerant, one-wagon, Wild West sharp-shooting sideshow. Since he cannot fire a six-gun, he relies on his fists in close quarters combat with his opponents. Martin has experienced his unfair share of woes. The first time that we see him after the train massacre, he is boasting to his crowd about his latest sharp-shooting sensation Ricky Shot. An armed spectator casually guns down his sharp-shooter without the least provocation. This is another example that sets "Bandidos" apart from the conventional Hollywood western. Martin attacks the gunman in a saloon brawl with his bare hands and an unidentified hombre pitches in on Martin's side. Later, the man (Terry Jenkins of "Paint Your Wagon") signs on as Martin's next sharp-shooting attraction Ricky Shot; Martin calls each sharp-shooter Ricky Shot. Later, we learn that the new Ricky is a fugitive on the lam.

Anyhow, Martin teaches him how to shoot, and they split the concession money fifty-fifty as they travel from town to town. Meanwhile, Kramer defects from Billy's gang, and Billy is hot on his trail. At the same time, Martin has tried to get money out of the treacherous Mexican bandit Vigonza (Chris Huerta of "Ursus, Son of Hercules") so he can kill Billy for him. Billy shows up in town and wounds Kramer in a saloon shoot-out. After Billy leaves town, Ricky arrives at the saloon where the wounded Kramer flaunts his six-shooter and talks defiantly. Ricky plugs him and then rejoins Martin. On their way to another town, Ricky proves that his marksmanship has improved when Martin and he happen upon three Mexicans that have just robbed a stagecoach. Ricky wipes them out with his swift, accurate shooting and they rescue Betty Star (Maria Martin of "Dr. Zhivago") and her saloon girls.

Director Massimo Dallamano and company have crafted an entertaining oater on a low budget. One famous Hollywood producer has been quoted in a book about "The Virginian" TV series as saying that a low budget western usually can afford to have only four horses drawing the stagecoach while an expensive western always has a six horse team hauling the stagecoach. "Bandidos" relies on a four horse team, but it doesn't look cheap. Nevertheless, this leather slapping saga belongs in the top 50 Italian oaters. Dallamano stages several neat shoot-outs. Altogether, "Bandidos" qualifies as an above-average Spaghetti western.

A train is attacked by a massive outlaw gang led by bloodthirsty criminal Billy Kane.Onboard the train is famed gunslinger and successful wild west show entertainer Richard Martin(ENRICO MARIA SALERNO).After the passengers, conductors and engineers have all been killed, Kane recognises Martin and confronts him. Kane mercilessly shoots Martin in both hands, leaving him incapable over using a gun ever again. Several years later, Martin is living in poverty and struggles to survive. The success of his wild west show is also fading. One day he gets into a brawl with some thugs and a young stranger named Ricky Shot(TERRY JENKINS),helps him fight them off. The grateful Martin sees potential in Ricky and adopts him as his protégée. Ricky proves to be adept at using a gun and learns quickly how to shoot.However,the fatherly Martin has a darker motive. Crazed by revenge and embittered by the fact he can no longer shoot, he hopes Ricky will hone his gunfighting skills and kill Billy Kane. Although Ricky has his own reasons for being interested in Kane's gang.

BANDIDOS is a story of revenge and retribution, but it isn't as dark as other Spaghetti westerns. It's still quite dark, but the story is told in a sensitive and thoughtful manner. The film does have a few moments of quick(but mostly ungraphic)brutality, and the opening slaughter of the train passengers and the subsequent aftermath are indeed very chilling. However the film ends on a sad but positive note. The Italians and Spanish could pen a script a hundred times stronger than any American screenwriter in the employ of a top Hollywood studio.Here,the script and plot are the best things about the film, it's definitely more story driven than most Spaghetti westerns. The script is one of the most robust in the genre with great dialogue and thanks to concrete built characters, the film succeeds . Unlike other Spaghettis, where the "avenger" is just as corrupt and immoral as the villains he hates, the "avengers" in this film(Richard Martin and Ricky Shot)are decent and upstanding. Martin is a gentleman,albeit a lonely one,with chivalrous morals and a genuine respect for others, including the law. Even when thirsting for revenge, he upholds these characteristics. He becomes an affectionate father figure to Ricky, which I found quite heart warming. At one point he even urges Ricky to give up on killing Billy Kane, whereupon Ricky suggests to Martin that he come and live with him on his ranch. Ricky is an appealing character, one innocent mistake in his past forced him onto the wrong side of the law. It is fate that brings himself and Martin together and this is worked cleverly into the script.He's not a bad man and in the end carries out Martin's will. Enrico Maria Salerno gave a fantastic performance as Martin. Terry Jenkins was solid as Ricky. Jenkins was a British actor and it was nice to see a new face. There is fine chemistry between Salerno and Jenkins which is reflected in the scenes in which Martin is teaching Ricky to shoot,it is in these scenes that the brilliance of the script shines through. The script has a couple of unexpected twists and surprises which made the film even more engrossing.

BANDIDOS benefits from amazing cinematography.The film is stylishly shot with some sequences filmed in first person view.There is a scene in which Billy Kane enters the saloon and I felt as if it was me who was walking in.The camera also pans around in a lot of scenes,a technique favoured by cameramen and directors in many Spaghetti westerns,therefore the film is not reliant on awkward cuts. Another point of interest is the camera following a bottle of Whisky as it slides down the bar, which I thought was rather incredible. The shootouts are also extremely well lensed, enabling the viewer to witness the action from a more interesting perspective.Egisto Macci's soundtrack, although not one of the best compositions to feature in a Spaghetti western, is really atmospheric and evokes the film's tone excellently. After the attack on the train, haunting vocals are added to a scene as the camera pans over the lifeless bodies of the victims. These vocals were really effective and made this scene suitably grim. As I've mentioned previously, the film is driven more by it's characters and story rather than by action scenes. The action is tightly restrained, with short bursts of violence only exploding when truly necessary. The film begins on a thrilling high with outlaws chasing the train accompanied by a shootout. The stuntmen also do their thing awesomely in the final shootout. Although it was rather drawn out, the climatic showdown between Ricky and Billy Kane was absolutely gripping with the director squeezing out every last drop of tension.

At times the film moves at a slow, but satisfying pace. The quality of the DVD print that I watched could have been better but it was alright.The picture was good but the audio could have been revamped to give some scenes more of a staunch oomph.BANDIDOS is not one of my favourite Spaghetti westerns, but it's definitely on the best side of westerns as a whole.Overall,it is a filling plate of Spaghetti Bolognaise skilfully directed by Massimo Dallamano.8/10.