100 Rifles (1969)

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em., 29 May 2006

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That would seem to be part of the thinking behind 100 Rifles. By the late 60s, the traditional American Western had been replaced by the Euro or Spaghetti Western with more emphasis on violence and blurred lines between bad and good. 100 Rifles was filmed in Spain and has that same raw, dirty look to it that most of the Westerns coming out of Europe had at the time. The biggest difference is that 100 Rifles is an American production. The film features an interesting storyline and several good action sequences with a couple of train shootouts being the highlight of the film for me. A lot of the action may seem over-the-top, but that's the way I like my Spaghetti Westerns.

100 Rifles actually has four main characters played by Jim Brown, Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch, and Fernando Lamas. Brown is by far the weakest of the four. To describe his acting as wooden would be an insult to trees everywhere. He's simply out of his league with the rest of the cast. Reynolds is surprisingly good as the half-breed Yaqui Joe Herrera. At first, he may seem to be little more than a mischievous drunken outlaw, but there's a definite intelligence behind the hyena like laugh. Besides being one of the most beautiful women who ever walked the planet, Welch throws herself into her role and is reasonably convincing. But Lamas is the real standout. His General Verdugo is a marvelous character more obsessed with personal revenge than in doing what is necessary to beat his enemies. Other than Brown, it's a solid cast.

While the story is good, if not predictable for this kind of movie, it runs on a little too long. Cutting about 20 minutes out of the film's 110 minute runtime and making it tighter would have gone a long way to making 100 Rifles a much better movie. One of the biggest draws of this film upon its initial release was the scandalous love scene between Welch and Brown. It has so little bearing on the plot that cutting it out would have been a good place to start with the editing scissors.

6/10