The Specialists

The copy of this movie that I have seen is not very good. It's grainy and has almost no color in some parts. It switches back and forth between English and French, often in mid sentence, and sometimes even in the middle of a word! To make matters much worse, there are no English subtitles during the French language parts, which I think make up at least one quarter of the film. But, amazingly, the movie is still very understandable and enjoyable, even in this condition, and I think that says a lot about how well-made this film is.

This is a top notch spaghetti western with great acting, an interesting storyline, and an excellent music score. It also has a cool protagonist, a beautiful dark-haired girl, some strange characters and events, and an overall feeling of melancholy. This film has "Euro" written all over it.

I hope there is a pristine negative or print of this film out there somewhere, because it deserves a quality DVD release, and when it comes out I will be one of the first in line to get it!

This Western is a superior outing because displaying thrills , shoot'em up , brawls , intrigue , riding pursuits and many other things . It stands out as one of the best late series genre Spaghetti Western . It deals with a gunslinger called Hud (French singer Johnny Hallyday) returns to Blackstone to find out why his brother was lynched . Meanwhile , Hud is relentlessly pursued by a sheriff (Gastone Moschin) and some henchmen (Sergio Marquand and Riccardo Pizzuti , regular in Terence Hill-Spencer movies) but he gets rid of his contenders . Later on , he along with the marshal are imprisoned by ¨El Diablo¨ (Mario Adorf) , and subsequently doublé-crossed by the beautiful bank owner (Françoise Fabian , who played in ¨Belle De Jour¨) . At the end takes place a curious duel between hippie outlaws battling Hallyday (including all the villagers naked similarly to many years later ¨The perfume¨) .

It's a thrilling western with breathtaking gunfight carried out by protagonist Johnny Hallyday who steals the show as a merciless revenger , executing thespian skills , bounds and leaps , twists and shooting and throughly enjoys himself ; as he faces off the heartless Mario Adorf and his hoodlums . It's an entertaining story with a touch of peculiarity , some great characters , an amazing music score and a lot of fun to watch . The picture also titled ¨ Gli Specialisti" is a tale of justice and revenge , as a man returns to a little town and looks for vengeance . The innovative as well as depressing script , which was co-written by Corbucci, and showed him edging close to the new type of offbeat Westerns he is best known for . The basic plot is typical spaghetti western fare , but what makes this movie stand out is its style . While 'A Fistful of Dollars' may have sparked the international popularity of the Spaghetti Western , this semi-successful movie follows its wake , including a lone hero , but here he has to confront strange characters as a weird Mexican outlaw and including four hippies . Johnny Hallyday is top-notch , he ravages the screen , shoots , hits , runs and kills . Here our hero moving through cold rather then heat and fighting in hills and mountains rather then sweat and dust . Support cast is pretty good , and the honor acting goes to the fantastic performance by the always great Mario Adorf as the slimy , menacing outlaw make up for , here in his ordinary role as bandit and in a cruelly baddie character , he is terrific , and bears a hysterical and mocking aspect , subsequently he would play similar characters . Besides , it appears as secondaries the habitual in Italian Western such as : Serge Marquand , Remo De Angelis , Riccardo Pizzuti and Gino Pernice . The good musician Angelo Francesco Lavagnino composes a charming Spaghetti soundtrack , well conducted and it's full of enjoyable sounds . Adequate cinematography by Dario De Palma who makes great use of mountain locations and desolate snowy outdoors , it fact , was filmed in northern Italy in the snow-covered area of Cortina d'Ampezzo , Belluno, Veneto similarly to ¨The great silence¨.

This motion picture , titled "Specialists" or ¨The Specialist¨ , was compellingly directed by Sergio Corbucci , it was well received by critics and public . Corbucci was a Western expert , as he made "Massacre at Canyon Grande" , starring James Mitchum , George Ardisson , his first Spaghetti Western to be distributed in the US under the director's own name and being co-directed by Albert Band . Corbucci's next film in the genre was ¨Minnesota Clay¨ (1964) performed by Cameron Mitchell . It was a moderate success , but Corbucci's next Spaghetti Western would break box-office records worldwide and brand his name in Western history alongside Sergio Leone , the ultra-violent masterpiece ¨Corbucci's Django¨ (1966) , considered by some reviewers as an "anti-Western" , it brought an entirely new level of stylization to the genre , not only signaled a move toward an even grittier and more nihilistic brand of Western , but it established a lasting relationship between Corbucci and Franco Nero . After the success of "Django" , Corbucci embarked on a trail of directing more Western films and quickly became one of the more prolific filmmakers in the genre . His subsequent Spaghetti Westerns , were ¨Johnny Gold¨ (1966) with Mark Damon , ¨Hellbenders¨ (1967) with Joseph Cotten and ¨Navajo Joe¨ (1966) with Burt Reynolds , all of them were filmed and released in quick succession . His next Western was "The Great Silence", (1968) , a cult movie starred by Jean-Louis Trintignant as a mute gunslinger and Klaus Kinski as a sadistic bounty hunter . His next Western films were ¨The mercenary¨, and ¨Los Compañeros¨ which re-teamed up with Franco Nero again with which would began his semi-genre with what he called the "Zapata-Spaghetti Westerns" married by racial stereotypes , proletarian fables and his political statements became more explicit . By setting the story in Mexico and fleshing out his characters with political awareness , they were his last box-office successes and deemed to be two of the most accomplished Spaghetti Westerns , with a combination of humor , pathos , comic book-style action, and political commentary . During the 1970s Corbucci made three more Westerns , but the popularity of the genre began to die out . As he made "Sonny & Jed" (1972) dealing with a peculiar couple , Tomas Milian-Susan George , in Bonnie and Clyde mold ; ¨What am I doing in the middle of the revolution !¨ (1972) with Vittorio Gassman and the regular Eduardo Fajardo and ¨The White , the Yellow and the Black¨ (1975) , both of them are almost a parody of his Zapata Westerns , and the latter a spoof to ¨Red Sun¨ .

The French Elvis, Johnny Hallyday is excellent, physically well-cast and impressive as the recurring main character in hundreds of Italian westerns: the lanky, silent stranger with supernatural shooting skills, and for the most part, not particularly interested in having sex with any of the gorgeous girls that filled the Italian westerns.

"The Stranger" character is more interested in dollars or gold but it's rarely explained in most films what his goal would be once he gets said dollars. The prototype was Clint Eastwood followed by Franco Nero, Terrence Hill, Anthony Steffen, George Hilton, Mark Damon, John Phillip Law, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Giuliano Gemma, Gianni Garko, Chuck Connors, Robert Woods, Charles Bronson, Tony Anthony and other actors. Abstract and surreal, the one-dimensional characters in Italian westerns have nothing in common with the more complex characters in American western films and, especially, TV shows that presented westerners faced with the problems and challenges of daily life. An example of this is the character Connors played in Castellari's Kill Them All and Come Back Alone compared to the single dad Lucas McCain raising a son in The Rifleman, a violent show yet filled with great humanity.

Hallyday gives a measured performance, much cooler than the explosive Law was in Death Rides A Horse, lighting the ever-present cigarillo and protecting a beautiful girl from harassing proto-hippies who enjoy rolling in mud holes while dealing elsewhere with a beautiful lady crime boss. Gli Specialisti also includes Mexican banditos, white townspeople (in Nevada), and a closing massacre that wipes out the town. His casting is as unusual as Trintignant's was in The Great Silence, an actor not associated with westerns like Hilton and Steffen were.

As realized in his The Great Silence, and Django, Corbucci had a great eye for scenic and unusual locations that elevated his films from the many Italian westerns that all shared the same geography. His locations are an important part of his westerns. Gli Specialisti never struck a major chord in audiences and Euro western fans but it's well worth repeated viewings.

In the late sixties director Sergio Corbucci made four spaghetti westerns in a row--the classics THE MERCENARY, THE GREAT SILENCE, THE SPECIALISTS, and COMPANEROS. Three of these, all except THE SPECIALISTS, are constantly turning up on ten best lists when spaghetti westerns are rated. Until recently all I had seen was a very poor quality compilation with some English, some Italian, a fuzzy picture, and it was nearly incomprehensible. Now, having seen a beautiful widescreen version with subtitles (still in two languages, however), I can safely include THE SPECIALISTS in that group of four classics. Johnny Halliday is very good as the charismatic Hud, a notorious hand with the gun returning to Blackstone to investigate the death of his brother, who was lynched by the townspeople for losing their savings. It involves a voluptuous beauty who owns the bank, a Mexican bandit leader, El Diablo, who was once friends with Hud, an honest sheriff who dreams of better days, and a small band of hippies--well, it was the late sixties, and hippies were everywhere, even apparently in our westerns. It's not a desert western, shot in the alps somewhere, and is lovely to look at. There is a bit more nudity than I expect in a western, but that's not a bad thing. Sylvie Fennec is lovely as Sheba, who may be Hud's niece, or dead brother's girlfriend...that's never made clear. This film deserves to be seen, and once again, we plea for a nice DVD with all the trimmings--I think THE SPECIALISTS would be as well known as any of Corbucci's other westerns, and that's high praise indeed.

The Specialist 1969 (Sergio Corbucci ) yey another revenge based Spaghetti Western, of particular interest in this one is its not directed by Sergio Leonne or features a soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone. What it does contain is French Singer Johnny Halliday, who was France's biggest rock pop (The French Elvis) star throughout 60s/70s and into the 80. He was known as much for his hell raising as his singing (there is a great documentary about him, made just after he died in 2017, if you able to find it) What about the film, well its a decent western, like most of the genre, there is a reason for all the carnage, in this case its, the return of the gunslinger Hud Dixon, to avenge the death of his brother by the town's folk of Blackstone . This Dead Man's Shoes but with cowboy boots and chaps. There's villain's El Diablo, the Mexican with one arm, crooked businessmen and politicians (aren't they all) and the love interest Sheba played by actress Sylvie Fennec who I've never seen in anything before who is drop dead gorgeous.

There are also some random hippies and a pacifist sheriff who has flowers in the barrel of his pistol (it was film in 1969 after all) great stuff but not a great film. 6/10 . If you want to try a Corbucci film, try The Great Silence, at least it features a Morricone score, and is based in the snow, I'm sure Tarantino got ideas for Hateful 8 from this.