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mrcowboysmovieroom · 8 months

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Compañeros (1970)

Directed by: Sergio Corbucci Genre: Western

CW: None

I love a movie that can get me to say things like, "And then they torture him with a guinea pig who's claws are reportedly strong enough to dig through solid ground."

Like what an interesting thought to have while watching a movie! It's exactly what happens in it. If that sounds too silly to be enjoyable- fear not! You are in good hands.

Compañeros starts at the end with Lola (Iris Berben) running through a mostly empty looking town to its train station where two men face off. Between them, a statue. One of them calls the other Penguin. Interesting. It's a good place to start. It has made me adequately curious.

The movie is set during the Mexican Revolution and right after the flash forward, we see one of our two men, Vasco (Tomas Milian), celebrating with his men in town after a successful revolt. They are drinking and shooting effigies of the president. Lola is there as well though she has much more hair than she did in the intro scene. She meets Vasco first and he assaults her which I must say felt completely unnecessary. She doesn’t need a reason to dislike him. She doesn't subscribe to his use of violence to win the revolution, and we later find out she leads a different band of rebels. Not to mention the fact that Vasco will soon cut off her hair which feels a far more appropriate reason for her to immediately dislike him.

Of note here is that I watched a slightly shorter version of this movie. I only know this because there is a boot shining scene where Mongo (José Bódalo), one of the antagonists, hires Vasco to his cause at about this point in the movie. It was not in the version I watched on Tubi. All things considered, I do think that such a scene is unnecessary for establishing the characters of Vasco and Mongo. I don't know if there were any other changes between the two versions but the difference in runtime was just about 5 minutes so I don't suspect a whole lot got cut.

At the train station a Polish mercenary is arriving in the same town. His name is Yodlaf Peterson (Franco Nero) but you probably won't remember that and it's frankly unimportant because his real name is the pet name Vasco gives him- Penguin.

Vasco and Penguin do not hit it off, in fact it seems Vasco was soon to kill Penguin if not for Mongo showing up shortly thereafter. Penguin is here to sell guns to Mongo after all.

Of course would you look at that? The money he's to be paid is being kept in a safe that no one can get into and the only man who knows the combination is another revolutionary named Xantos (Fernando Rey) who is currently in Texas. Xantos practices a no violence approach and it's implied at this point that Mongo really only cares about the money he could make from the revolution and not its values.

Penguin resolves that he will track down this Xantos entirely with the intention of charging Mongo more and Mongo makes Vasco go with him. So, now about thirty minutes in, our two have teamed up. I really like the beginning of this movie for the most part. In particular, Penguin has a lot of charming scenes where he worsens his relations with Vaso and is just generally entertaining.

Which on that- this movie is a very homoerotic western. It’s not Catlow (1971) levels of homoeroticism but by god it’s close! Granted, this genre is sort of built for homoeroticism. Your leads are almost always men so all your most important scenes and moments of character development are about, for, and between men. It’s incredibly easy to project a romantic interpretation onto that. But Compañeros seems unusually romantic at some points. For example, in the beginning of the movie Penguin gives a dollar to Vasco, and Vasco proceeds to wear it as a necklace the whole rest of the movie. And the coin comes back a lot! There is also the fact that save one another frequently. It does one well to remember that if this were any other genre and one of the two was a woman, they would be falling in love by the end of the movie.

Vasco and Penguin start their journey on horseback and then switch to the train. The scene is a little cute actually because they're just nestled together in the seat. Unfortunately these two cannot escape trouble for long and that comes in the way of Lola and her rebels. The pair get away and back on the train but then Penguin disconnects the cars from the engine, leaving Vasco on his own.

Now the meat and potatoes of this movie is a lot of fun! I haven’t encountered a western villain this hokey in awhile and I must say that Jack Palance as John, the man with a wooden hand, is utterly brilliant. He’s slimy, conniving, and somehow as sinister as he is silly. He wears a cape and has a falcon named Marsha as a familiar.

Him and Yodlaf have history. In a biblical sense you might say. And I mean that as both a suggestive joke about their relationship, but also as a pun on the actual events that transpired between them.You see, on their last job together Penguin left John for dead and John was literally crucified. He only managed to get away because Marsha ate through his hand. What a backstory!

Once Penguin gets off the train he sees Marsha and John. It’s here we learn of his amazing backstory and John leaves Penguin precariously hung from a post where he must balance on a barrel or choke to death. Marsha stands nearby waiting to eat him or something. So of course, because this is a movie, Vasco shows up in time to gloat and then save his life.

I really love this scene. It was used in some iterations of the posters. Giving very Spider-man and MJ. Vasco even comments on how beautiful and like the sky Penguin's eyes are.

Now without a train we have an excuse for this bumbling journey to last longer and for more chaos to ensue. This is your Midnight Run of cowboy movies if you will. The actual goal is straightforward but the progress our leads make is bumbling because of their clashing personalities and outside forces (John and both Mexican and American armies) wanting to thwart their efforts. I have a soft spot for movies like this.

In town, Penguin meets with a prostitute he knows. She helps them get into a military camp to break out Xantos but before she does that, Penguin suggests she sleep with Vasco. When Penguin goes to find Vasco later, he’s in a state of shock lying on the bed with his boots off and lipstick on his face muttering about how she’s blonde everywhere. When Penguin asks what happened, the prostitute replies, “It’s too much of a shock, I guess.” I do not know if Vasco will beat the allegations…

But hey, neither is Penguin because while saving Xantos he announces himself by saying “I’m the Swede, but they call me Penguin.”

Saving Xantos is an easier task than some of the other events that befall our leads and so about an hour in we are on our way back to Mongo. Xantos is very steadfast in his beliefs and during their ride repeatedly tries to talk to Vasco and convince him that Mongo doesn’t have his best interests at heart.

Xantos doesn’t try to convince Penguin because Penguin will literally join anyone’s side for whichever slice of the pie is bigger. He’s consistent to say the least, and in a way perfectly reliable because of it.

Penguin tries to abandon Vasco overnight and this time it seems to work! Vasco gets caught by John and this is where we see the vile, contemptible guinea pig that is said to render flesh. It is put in a basket tied to Vasco’s bare chest. At first Vasco laughs because it’s ticklish, but then he begins to scream and call out for Penguin. Xantos refuses to go onward without saving Vasco and so Penguin goes to get him back.

Back on the road again, Xantos finds baby turtles. He remarks how unusual it is for this breed of turtle to be here and begins to collect them all. This seems like a really odd scene but actually it is hilariously relevant because when Xantos gets captured by John while running away from our two boys, he starts to leave the turtles like bread crumbs. This movie has a lot of things in it that are so beyond expectations.

Now with the aid of Lola, our team goes to get Xantos. Following that, John makes a move on Mongo and suggests they team up and bait Xantos in to kill him. John is hoping to get the Penguin with him.

So thus we are led into our final confrontation! Or well sort of. It sort of feels like this movie ends ten times but we’ll get to that. Xantos goes alone to confront Mongo and Penguin and Vasco both follow. Penguin takes a different route so he can spot John’s trap for Xantos and fires on the supports of the tower he’s in. Mongo’s men come all running out and basically Vasco and Penguin take down the lot of them. During this scene Vasco gets fatally shot, but what do ya know? THE BULLET HIT THE DOLLAR COIN HE WEARS AROUND HIS NECK.

Something about this scene is like what I imagine seeing a unicorn would be like. Rapturous and euphoric, and at the same time I cannot believe it’s happening and that my eyes and ears beheld it.

At the end of the fight Mongo gives up. He’s alone anyway so, yeah he better. Xantos convinces Vasco not to kill him, though the effort is moot because Mongo proves to be treacherous again. He’s about to kill Xantos when he is fired upon by all of Xantos’ other rebels who've finally shown up. Xantos then gives Penguin the combination for the safe and it turns out it didn’t have any money in it. Just the promise of money. Penguin looks like he’s about to finally snap but he soon reconciles the loss in a different way.

You see all the while Vasco and Lola have been falling in love. Or I mean I guess? Vasco is suddenly far more appealing when he’s on the write side of the revolution and yeah it sucked when he cut off her hair, but it was really romantic when he revealed he’d been storing it under his hat to remind him of her.

I expected this turn of events from the movie, but it doesn’t really justify it. I think the actors do fine together and convince me this matters, but the events that transpire between them leave a lot to be desired. I mentioned how Vasco and Lola meet and that’s sort of a huge vibe killer for their relationship to me. I really think the movie would have made way more sense if that scene just wasn’t in there at all. Vasco doesn’t really seem the type of person to act that way for the entire rest of the film and his removing her hair worked better on its own.

But I digress, they are in love now and Lola will only be with him if they get married. They have no priest but they instead will use a statue of San Bernardino. As they are finishing their vows, from the roof Penguin steals the statue and cackles. You see, it was the only thing of value in the town and he could never leave empty handed and now we see our character back in the beginning. They are about to have a duel but then John and his couple remaining men catch up to them, and Vasco and Penguin shoot them instead of each other.

Xantos is killed by John and Vasco invites Penguin to fight with him. Penguin declines but as he’s leaving he sees the Mexican army on its way so he rides back into town to join them for an incoming fight, shouting “Compañeros! Vamos a mator, Compañeros!” Vasco smiles, beautifully I might add, and the movie ends.

Really good stuff. Really great stuff! This was an absolutely blast of a good time. I did enjoy myself a lot while watching it. I don’t know if the movie will hold up as well on rewatches though. This movie is just under two hours and sometimes you can really feel that runtime. Most of the time you don’t feel it, but it does have moments that drag. Like the ending. Additionally some of the scenes, as mentioned already, are unnecessary. They don’t destroy my overall enjoyment of the movie but they are things I might skip when I rewatch it.

I really loved the acting, especially from Nero, Milian, and Palance. They are a blast to watch and captivated me the whole way through. The interactions between Vasco and Penguin are just full of chemistry and are very entertaining.

The score was done by Ennio Morricone whom I generally always love. This was not my favorite score by him. I liked the main theme but not so much some of the other tracks. They reminded me of scores of his I liked better from My Name is Nobody (1973) and Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970).

All in all I’m feeling this movie has earned a 6.7/10.

#gay af if you ask me #western #Spaghetti western #western movie #70s #70s movie #Compañeros #Compañeros 1970 #franco nero #Tomas Milian #Jack Palance #Fernando Rey #Iris Berben #José Bódalo #Ennio Morricone #Sergio Corbucci

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