Black Jack

Gianfranco Baldinelli's Italian western Black Jack (1968) is hauntingly dark and violent tale of a bank robbery and revenge. A bunch of thieves rob a bank but feel their leader / mastermind Jack divides the money for his own good. This results some sudden bursts of violence and torture as their ways apart, leaving Jack to wait for his payback time. The premise is quite good, as the theme of vengeance has often been exploited in (these) films, making it look something much safer and more positive than it actually is. Margheriti's film Vengeance is interesting but never manages to express anything worthwhile about revenge and its possible results. Hossein's Cemetery Without Crosses has a great potential and characters, but ends up in rather typical and unsatisfying ending, albeit the film being very interesting visually (scripted by Dario Argento).

Black Jack has several intense and disturbing moments, and the storytelling is very effective, making the 90 minutes pass incredibly fast. There are some segments of fantastic photography in the desert, some poetic images of irreversible violence (mostly the thickening flame on front of the picture) which all make the film little closer to the masterpiece of spaghetti western, Il grande silenzio by Sergio Corbucci, and from the same year. Black Jack certainly doesn't show violence in a good or positive light (unlike Fulci's Four of the Apocalypse, for example) and it must be said it hasn't lost much of its power during these years. Some "infamous" and "shocking" westerns like Cutthroarts Nine (Joaquim Luis Romero Marchent) seem rather pathetic in front of these much more visual, also mentally violent and effective works of the genre.

Django (aka "Black Jack" Murphy in the original dubbing) plans a bank robbery which is brilliantly executed, but when it comes to sharing the loot, his partners rape and kill his sister, almost kill Django and run with the money. You guess it: only "almost" killing him was a bad mistake. The injured Django - with a walking stick! - goes after them for revenge, killing them one by one in interesting ways and enjoying it more than he should.

For many years, I only knew a censored version with a different ending, and believed this was just another violent western. Now I had the opportunity to watch the uncut original version, and this has a lot more quality and impact to offer. Only a few westerns of that period went as far as 'Black Jack' in showing how revenge destroys a man. Jack/Django only lives for revenge like one of The Walking Dead, and from the sympathetic character at the beginning turns into a sadistic monster, laughing when his enemies die. And with the different ending (no spoilers here, of course) the uncut version makes a lot more sense than the old edit. Recommended (except for the squeamish).

Black Jack (1968), directed by Gianfranco Baldanello, who also made the interesting "This Man Can't Die" (1967) is one of those rare films: A movie where the main-character is a evil and sadistic being who wants total revenge on a group of bandits who double-crossed him over a bank robbery and then tortured him. Jack Murphy, known to his enemy's as "Black Jack" is a completely unlikeable anti-hero who would be the villain in any other movie. The fact that we care what happens is down to Robert Woods astounding performance as Murphy. His role in the picture is crucial: if he is weak, the film is weak. Anything but brilliant will do in a role like this. And he pulls it off with flying colours. Woods is fantastic: He doesn't make Jack a good guy, he makes him so totally horrible that we're strangely fascinated by his actions and fate. The direction, photography and music are all fine, but Robert Woods is the true stand out here.

I did not know a lot about this film when I finally got the chance to watch it on an old Dutch VHS tape. It turned out to be excellent.

The plot concerns a band of bank robbers who decide to betray their leader, Jack. They torture and nearly kill him while his sister gets brutally raped by one of the men and is subsequently scalped (!) and murdered by an Indian who was hired by the villains. But leaving Jack alive was a grave mistake because after getting better his saddles up and goes for bloody revenge.

I usually prefer Italian westerns to those from the US because most of the latter are too tame for my tastes. There is a nastiness about BLACK JACK that is quite powerful and disturbing. Even on the used VHS the cinematography was great and the same has to be said about the effective score. The acting is good for this kind of film, though Jack's grief and madness sometimes border on the comical - especially when he bursts out laughing like a loon during one fight. Still, this is powerful and effective cinema and should be of interest to anyone who likes the genre or revenge films in general. It's a pity that the film is near impossible to find at the time of this writing. I hope it will get a DVD release soon. This 35 year old gem is overdue for rediscovery.

Black Jack 1968 starring Robert Woods was a fascinating SW and I agree with other posters it belongs on a top 20 list. I saw a full screen DVD copy of it with the edited ending and then saw on youtube the unedited ending. If you watch the edited version you will say "WTF" at the ending and then feel cheated like when you order fast food after seeing a commercial showing a hug full hamburger then you go in the drive thru and its half the size like that lol. Okay back to the flick... I like this movie because there is no hero only a bad guy, who gets wronged by his crew because he is greedy and double crosses them only to get hunted down and those closest to him gets hurt and murdered being left for dead Black Jack sets out for revenge badly maimed and is half crazed. It really is a great revenge flick and with amazing ending. Robert Woods really has grown on me since seeing My name is Pecos and Black Jack he is really a great character actor for the genre. The directing was great even though Baldenello is considered not a very good director but he did impress me with this one.