Holy Shit!

The Hellbenders (1967, Sergio Corbucci)


This isn't your normal Eastwood western, this is entirely something different. The director Sergio Corbucci was the man who brought "Django" to life. I haven't seen Django but after seeing this film I'm sure to watch it very soon. Don't go into this film thinking that your going to get a stylized beautiful film. This is as dirty as they come, which in a way gives it its own style.

We get a band of brothers out with their Father who massacre an army convoy to retrieve money so they can invade the north. Have you ever seen a cowboy film where they throw grenades at soldiers? Go get this film now! That is literally in the first 10 minutes of the film. An all out battle between 6 guys against a small army. The film has so many little cool twist and turns that fit just perfect. These guys think they got it made but the film itself is just trying to stop them. These guys are ruthless, they actually lie to people saying that their dead brother is in the casket. That's pretty fucked up if you ask me.

The film goes everywhere from there, we have a great shoot out between the brothers and the Mexican outlaws and also a face off between them and those gosh darn Indians. These shoot out scenes are filmed so simple with wide shots to let the viewer choose to pick out which fight he wants to see. The reason for this is because the star of the film isn't really revealed until the end. All these guys are bad guys and we are left with them. It's not like the Eastwood films where he's an Anti-hero. These guy's aren't Anti-hero's, just bad mother fuckers.

The Hellbenders does one thing that takes itself completely out of the western genre and actually out of any genre. The Mexican stand off is in nearly every western but we always see it play out the same way. He get them standing around each other, take a long pause and then shoot. This film basically says Fuck that and they shoot. This is a film that doesn't know it's a film. It's completely unaware of itself and that's the reason why i loved this film so much. It's amazing fun with great storytelling and the actors are great. Everything is perfect.

Grade A+