How the Polak almost won the Mexican revolution

The Mercenary (1968)

First of all I have to say that Sergio Corbucci is probably the second best spaghetti western director, right after Sergio Leone himself. This was an action packed comedy about a Polish mercenary, played by Franco Nero, who lends his skills to anyone who has the money. He gets mixed up in the rising Mexican revolution, lead by a mine worker called Paco who surely needs his help. Before that he manages to piss off a guy called Curly, played brilliantly by Jack Palace, who takes it as his life mission to seek revenge. The story is quite far fetched but that doesn't matter much as the movie is fast paced and there's plenty of things to keep you entertained. The comedy ranges from very poor to freaking funny and even at it's worst I still had a bit of a grin on my face as it's quite a feel good movie. The action was sometimes over the top but it fit the story so no problem there and always a big plus for Rambo style usage of machine guns. Giovanna Ralli plays Paco's loved one who is most of the time tougher than Paco himself. All in all the cast was quite good. The score by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai is magnificent and it's used very nicely. So it was great fun, not the best spaghetti western out there but still very enjoyable entertainment. The ending standoff between Paco and Curly is quite brilliant, even in the scale of spaghetti western standoffs.
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