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Authors: Howard Hughes
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(1966)
Directed by: Damiano Damiani
Music by: Luis Enriquez Bacalov & Ennio Morricone
Cast: Gian Maria Volonte (El Chuncho), Klaus Kinski (Santo), Lou Castel (Bill Tate), Martine Beswick (Adelita)
114 minutes
Story
During the Mexican Revolution, a young gringo called Bill Tate joins a band of Mexican gunrunners working for the revolutionaries. The band is led by Chuncho (who’s in it for the money) and his half-brother Santo (a believer in the cause). They steal guns from the government to sell to General Elias, whose hideout is in the hills. On the way, the gang stop off at San Miguel and help the peasants kill their rich, exploitative boss. But after their liberation they want Chuncho to stay on as mayor. Chuncho seems keen, but Tate is determined to get to Elias and convinces the rest of the gang to leave with the guns.
Eventually, Chuncho abandons the peasants and rejoins his gang, but, in a battle with government troops, the gunrunners are decimated. Chuncho and Tate survive and continue alone to Elias’s headquarters, though the Mexican has to nurse the gringo when he catches malaria. At the headquarters, Chuncho sells the guns but General Elias sentences him to death – San Miguel has been attacked, the peasants massacred, but the armaments could have prevented it. Santo escaped and is about to kill Chuncho when Tate intervenes and kills Santo and Elias. Weeks later, Chuncho and Tate meet up in Cuidad Juarez and Tate tells him that he is a hired assassin and that their whole relationship has been an elaborate ruse to complete his contract. With that, Chuncho shoots Tate as they are boarding a train to the US – the Mexican is no longer a bloodthirsty bandit, but a revolutionary.
Background
This is the only Spaghetti Western to deal with the Mexican Revolution with anything remotely resembling incisiveness. Corbucci’s imaginative political Westerns were much more light-hearted in their commitment, while other attempts, like Tepepa (1968), Run Man Run (1968) and Leone’s Duck You Sucker (1971), either didn’t have the power to convey the key issues of the Mexican people or got lost in star-laden, overblown scenarios – films that existed purely to blow up trains, bridges and extras as elaborately as possible. Most forgot what the word revolution actually meant.
Damiani didn’t and A Bullet for the General , based on an excellent screenplay by political writer Franco Solinas ( Salvatore Giuliano [1961], The Battle of Algiers [1966]), was much more than a succession of over-the-top set pieces. Carefully constructed, the film featured plenty of action (filmed in Almeria), but the story was a strong element in the film. The relationships between the main characters highlighted the revolution’s differing perspectives. Chuncho is a bandit, seeing the war as an opportunity to make a few pesos. Santo is a priest, devoutly observing his twin beliefs – God and the revolutionary people. Tate, a character who for much of the film seems quite sympathetic, is the ultimate betrayer (a government assassin), and Adelita is a peasant girl who rides with Chuncho’s hombres , but finds that, through the gringo’s manipulation, she has lost the thing she holds most dear (her lover, another of Chuncho’s band). Along the way, this gang encounter various groups (the army, peasants, political prisoners and revolutionaries) and their presentation in the film is utterly convincing.
There are certain things that make it obvious this is a Spaghetti Western, like the golden bullet Tate carries around in his valise (to the accompaniment of a riff on the soundtrack that sounds as though it has come straight out of The Good , the Bad and the Ugly ), which hammers home its significance to the story. But, for the most part, Damiani has succeeded in his aim, which was to make a serious statement about the Mexican Revolution. Even the usually excessive Kinski is more subdued than normal as the monastically clad,
Directed by: Damiano Damiani
Music by: Luis Enriquez Bacalov & Ennio Morricone
Cast: Gian Maria Volonte (El Chuncho), Klaus Kinski (Santo), Lou Castel (Bill Tate), Martine Beswick (Adelita)
114 minutes
Story
During the Mexican Revolution, a young gringo called Bill Tate joins a band of Mexican gunrunners working for the revolutionaries. The band is led by Chuncho (who’s in it for the money) and his half-brother Santo (a believer in the cause). They steal guns from the government to sell to General Elias, whose hideout is in the hills. On the way, the gang stop off at San Miguel and help the peasants kill their rich, exploitative boss. But after their liberation they want Chuncho to stay on as mayor. Chuncho seems keen, but Tate is determined to get to Elias and convinces the rest of the gang to leave with the guns.
Eventually, Chuncho abandons the peasants and rejoins his gang, but, in a battle with government troops, the gunrunners are decimated. Chuncho and Tate survive and continue alone to Elias’s headquarters, though the Mexican has to nurse the gringo when he catches malaria. At the headquarters, Chuncho sells the guns but General Elias sentences him to death – San Miguel has been attacked, the peasants massacred, but the armaments could have prevented it. Santo escaped and is about to kill Chuncho when Tate intervenes and kills Santo and Elias. Weeks later, Chuncho and Tate meet up in Cuidad Juarez and Tate tells him that he is a hired assassin and that their whole relationship has been an elaborate ruse to complete his contract. With that, Chuncho shoots Tate as they are boarding a train to the US – the Mexican is no longer a bloodthirsty bandit, but a revolutionary.
Background
This is the only Spaghetti Western to deal with the Mexican Revolution with anything remotely resembling incisiveness. Corbucci’s imaginative political Westerns were much more light-hearted in their commitment, while other attempts, like Tepepa (1968), Run Man Run (1968) and Leone’s Duck You Sucker (1971), either didn’t have the power to convey the key issues of the Mexican people or got lost in star-laden, overblown scenarios – films that existed purely to blow up trains, bridges and extras as elaborately as possible. Most forgot what the word revolution actually meant.
Damiani didn’t and A Bullet for the General , based on an excellent screenplay by political writer Franco Solinas ( Salvatore Giuliano [1961], The Battle of Algiers [1966]), was much more than a succession of over-the-top set pieces. Carefully constructed, the film featured plenty of action (filmed in Almeria), but the story was a strong element in the film. The relationships between the main characters highlighted the revolution’s differing perspectives. Chuncho is a bandit, seeing the war as an opportunity to make a few pesos. Santo is a priest, devoutly observing his twin beliefs – God and the revolutionary people. Tate, a character who for much of the film seems quite sympathetic, is the ultimate betrayer (a government assassin), and Adelita is a peasant girl who rides with Chuncho’s hombres , but finds that, through the gringo’s manipulation, she has lost the thing she holds most dear (her lover, another of Chuncho’s band). Along the way, this gang encounter various groups (the army, peasants, political prisoners and revolutionaries) and their presentation in the film is utterly convincing.
There are certain things that make it obvious this is a Spaghetti Western, like the golden bullet Tate carries around in his valise (to the accompaniment of a riff on the soundtrack that sounds as though it has come straight out of The Good , the Bad and the Ugly ), which hammers home its significance to the story. But, for the most part, Damiani has succeeded in his aim, which was to make a serious statement about the Mexican Revolution. Even the usually excessive Kinski is more subdued than normal as the monastically clad,
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