A quick draw gunfighter named Billy Kane (Venantino Venantini)
bests trick shot artist Richard Martin (Enrico Maria Salerno) in a duel, crippling
his hands in the process. Unable to
properly hold a gun, Richard trains a younger cowboy (Terry Jenkins) to get
revenge for him. He soon learns his
protégée has plans of his own.
Bandidos is an amiable variation on Django. The various gunfights and standoffs are slightly
better than the typical spaghetti western shenanigans. That’s largely due to the fact director
Massimo Dallamano (who was the cinematographer for A Fistful of Dollars) gives
us enough inventive camerawork to prevent the confrontations from getting
stale. (I particularly liked the cool
shot of a bottle being slid down a bar.)
The double-crossing back and forth between the characters is
interesting at first. Their motivations
for treachery are understandable, but they are doled out in a frustrating
manner. By the time the third act rolls
around, the ever-increasing plot twists begin to get in the way of the
action. Because of that, the film pretty
much runs out of steam before the final showdown even occurs.
It also doesn’t help that Salerno and Jenkins have very
little chemistry together. They almost feel
like a budget version of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. If only the movie had those guys in their
place, it might’ve been a winner.
AKA: Guns of
Death. AKA: You Die… But I Live.
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