100 Rifles (1969)

As an action film this is pretty good fun. However, in terms of storytelling it was a bit of a let-down. I felt they set up some interesting (if a little cliched) characters with conflicting motivations – the black Sheriff (Jim Brown) looking to prove himself by bringing in the somewhat shady Indian bandit (Burt Reynolds) buying guns to defeat the Mexicans, and the committed Indian revolutionary who doesn’t really trust Reynolds (Raquel Welch) – and then proceeded to ignore their motivations to herd the characters from one action scene to another, forcing them to take decisions which did not hugely make sense with what we know of them.

On the plus side, there’s a budget is decent, the film is well shot and looks good throughout and the action scenes are excellent. It’s just a shame that the action seems to drive the story, rather than the other way round.