Vamos a Matar, Compañeros (1970)

A fun, if slightly confused, Mexican revolution film with Franco Nero as a Swedish mercenary who is in Mexico to sell arms and Thomas Milian as a Mexican peasant who starts out as a bandit but eventually takes an actual interest in the revolution. The political “message” comes from the pacifist Professor Xantos and his students: the professor sticks to his pacificism but the students find it ineffectually and eventually resort to violence. It isn’t 100% clear what Corbucci’s message is here – my reading is that the message is that the pacificism is ineffective but that the professor is still a sympathetic character. I think the film needs to be enjoyed for what it is (it’s action, characterization and music, mainly) rather than trying to read too much into its muddled political message.

One of the highlights for me include the villain of the piece, Jack Palace, who plays an over-the-top, perpetually stoned mercenary who has history with Nero’s hero, a pet hawk, and a wooden hand (for hawk related reasons). He is, of course, ridiculous, but he is also enormous fun which is precisely the point of Companeros.

I’m not always a huge fan of Thomas Milian – frankly he has something of a tendency to overact in a way that feels unnatural and mostly just attention seeking – but this is far from his worse role, and again some amount of exaggeration is what the film calls for.

Finally, it’s worth comparing Companeros to The Mercenary, which had much of the same cast and crew, and a pretty similar story. It’s almostl certainly true that The Mercenary is objectively the better film, but I personally prefer Companeros (possibly because I saw it first and so it seems fresher to me).

In summary, great fun and a favourite of mine, provided you don’t overthink it. The Japanese DVD which I have is by now looking a little ropey with visible print damage and a widescreen image in a 4:3 box. Some of the opening segment is only in Italian with no English subtitles available (although it’s moderately clear what’s going on). I think better versions are now available.

Addendum May 2018: Watching the 50s Western “Terror in a Texas Town” I was struck by some of the elements that Companeros seems to borrow (despite having quite a different plot): the Swedish hero, the villain with a prosthetic hand, and the majority of the film being a flashback from the final gunfight.

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