It Can Be Done Amigo

Ivan Coburn (Spencer) deflowered the sister of the fastest gun around, Sonny.(Jack Palance) Sonny wants Coburn to marry his sister so she wont live in shame, and then Sonny wants to kill Coburn. During all this Coburn has to take care of a small boy named Chip Anderson whos uncle died from a gun shot. I laughed alot during this movie....many fights and one liners....This movie was much better than I thought it would be. I think it's for Terence Hill and Bud Spencer fans only...or if you like the whole sphagetti western thing. There is something unusal in this film....there's a guy who pays 2 dollars for a bucket if dirt..and then he eats it!!??? (he's looking for soil with oil in it.) The start to this is also funny.....Coburn complains to his horse through the whole credits because it wont move, but when he sees a man with a gun the horse jumps to it's feet!

My vote is 6/10. A good movie for people who like "They call me Trinity" style movies!

Bud Spencer wanders the west, finds time to help a young orphan/landowner targeted by greedy villains, and keeps having his bacon saved by Jack Palance. However, Jack's motives are anything but altruistic, as he blames poor Bud for allegedly deflowering his sister and plans on marrying her off to him before making her a respectable widow!

Lots of Rowdy fights and amusing gags, including the hilarious oil-soaked climax, keep this breezy, lightweight spaghetti western moving along quite nicely.

It Can Be Done... Amigo features what is probably Spencer's best solo performance, apart from his films with frequent on screen partner Terrance Hill, though A Reason To Live, A Reason To Die, which featured him as part of an ensemble cast, was a better film.

Meanwhile, Palance portrays the same black clad, chuckling, chain-smoking weirdo you've come to know and love from a lifetime of similar western roles. Needless to say, fans of these two won't be disappointed.

One thing that I found odd though, was Palance's changing accents. Sometimes he talked using his own voice, other times he spoke with a southern accent, and still others with a Spanish accent!

Hiram Coburn is not the typical spaghetti western protagonist. He doesn't use a gun, instead opting to pound his opponents silly with his fists, and although he is as powerful as an ox, he is mellow and laid back to an annoying degree. He takes some getting used to, but by the end of the film I found myself liking this character. Jack Palance plays Sonny, an eccentric gunslinger (what Palance does best). He is very entertaining, and I would have liked to have seen more of him in the film. The weirdest thing about him is that his accent keeps changing. Sometimes he sounds like he is from the southeastern US, other times he sounds Mexican, and other times he sounds like he's from Chicago or something. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but it sure is odd, and odd is a good thing in a spaghetti western.

The music score by Bacalov is excellent. It reminds me of some of Morricone's work, which is pretty much the best compliment one could give.

The story is great, and just about the most original one I've ever seen in a spaghetti western. The movie is a comedy, but not to the extent that it becomes completely unbelievable. I may have given this movie a higher rating if I saw it in a more complete, widescreen version. The version I saw, which I assume is the most commonly available, is approximately 98 minutes long if I remember correctly, and it feels like it's been edited somewhat to shorten its length.

All in all, this one's a must-have if you are a spaghetti western nut like me.

Coming too late in the Italian Western cycle to get a significant American release, this tiresome Bud Spencer vehicle tries to be picaresque, as the big lug wanders around having borin on-adventures. A cute young boy is thrown in for sentimental value.

In a parallel world where Hollywood big-screen Westerns had not gone out of style, it could have been perhaps a homegrown vehicle for Dan Blocker to provide old-0fashioned family entertainment following his meteoric success starring on tv in "Bonanza". But as ersatz cornball entertainment it comes up as zero.

Despite having a great cameraman Aldo Tonti, who shot epics like "Barabbas" and classics like Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria", it's a mess, with annoying, inappropriate music and even some dubbed dialog that echoes.

For a Spaghetti Western It Can Be Done...Amigo is neither among the best or worst. While less than perfect, it was entertaining if in a strange way.

While it does deserve a much better DVD with a more expansive widescreen and sharper picture quality, It Can Be Done...Amigo is not a bad-looking film at all. In fact, the scenery is very evocatively beautiful and the camera work is well-placed and doesn't try to be too ambitious or simplistic. The energetic, rousing, haunting, stylish and beautifully and cleverly orchestrated music score is the best thing about the film, plus it fits very well, while the songs are a good memorable fit. It Can Be Done...Amigo is well-directed and the acting is also not bad although the child actor is a little annoying and the dubbing is unnecessary and poorly utilised. Bud Spencer is a charismatic and imposing lead with a good flair for comic timing and Jack Palance is lots of sinister yet hammy fun despite his accent rarely staying the same. Dany Saval brings charm to her role as well.

Regarding the script and story, both are a mixed bag. A good deal of the humour is very entertaining, a couple of the running gags like with the cans and the reading glasses do really work and give off a fun vibe. but some of it does fall flat when it does get a bit too silly and bizarre. The dialogue has its moments and is appropriately good natured, but also gets too silly and awkward-sounding. The story is problematic, credit is due for it trying to do something different for a Spaghetti Western, the interaction between Spencer and the child mostly engages and the final fight is oddball but amusing and tense. Also despite how it sounds reading a synopsis it is thankfully easier to follow than you think. However the film does start very sluggishly and feels like you're riding on the shell of a snail for a lot of the first half of the film, and it ends on an abrupt note.

Overall, flawed but strangely entertaining. 6/10 Bethany Cox