Companeros (1970)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) paired two of America’s most handsome and profitable stars and became the template for buddy-action-comedies everywhere. Meanwhile, the Italian film industry, always quick to cash in on a trend, released Companeros (1970) the very next year, teaming up their hottest homegrown western stars - Franco Nero and Tomas Milian – for a similarly playful adventure set amidst the chaos of the Mexican Revolution.

Actually, Companeros lifts a lot of material from a lot of different movies, especially the political-minded Spaghetti Westerns of Damiano Damiani like A Bullet for the General. Heck, it even recreates the slow-motion machine gun finale from The Wild Bunch not once but twice! But even though it’s built from a lot of spare parts, director Sergio Corbucci’s film seems to have only stolen from the best. Which makes for a familiar but always entertaining collection of greatest hits.

Drifting into the middle of a war zone between a capitalist general and rival student-led revolutionaries, Yodlaf Peterson (Franco Nero), better known as “The Swede”, is an arms dealer who doesn’t care which side benefits from his business…as long as he makes a profit. El Vasco (Tomas Milian) is the scruffy second-in-command who is assigned to accompany The Swede on a mission over the Rio Grande to bring back the leader of the opposition (Fernando Rey) who just so happens to have the combination to a safe full of riches.

Along the way, the pair runs afoul of a one-armed, pot-smoking bounty hunter (Jack Palance) and his trained bird-of-prey who has been hired by the Americans to protect their oil interests. With no loyalties on either side, our two anti-heroes find themselves in the role of freedom fighters almost by accident. These once opportunistic outlaws have the chance to change the country…if they don’t kill each other first!

Much of Companeros feels just as manufactured as that last line. But there’s no denying that the Nero / Milian pairing is a Spaghetti Western fan’s dream come true, with both actors sticking to their strengths: Nero as the well-coiffed, cocky man of the world and Milian as a scruffy, semi-ignorant man of the streets. Corbucci makes sure each performer gets an equal amount of time in the spotlight and sets a relentless pace that never goes without an shootout, fistfight or explosion for very long.

The plot is needlessly complicated for a film that’s really about as deep as a ‘60s Bond film. And like 007’s adventures, most of the details don’t matter. Companeros is just as enjoyable as a straight-up, shoot ‘em up blessed with two of the most charismatic leads around. They may not be Butch and Sundance, but at least the soundtrack ditches Burt Bacharach for a rousing Ennio Morricone theme song Vamas a matar, companeros!

Previously released by Anchor Bay and included in their Once Upon A Time In Italy boxed set, Blue Underground takes the material to another level on Blu-ray, giving the resolution a hi-def boost and adding a commentary with journalists C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke, who also did a great job with The Grand Duel last year. The other extras are ported over from the previous release, including interviews with Milian, Nero and Morricone along with trailers, posters and stills. The main feature is broken up into an English language or full-length Italian language presentation that adds a few extras minutes.