Compañeros
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Compañeros (original release title: Vamos a matar, compañeros) is an Italian Zapata-themed spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Corbucci in 1970. The film stars Franco Nero, Tomas Milian, Jack Palance and Fernando Rey. The soundtrack for the film was written by Ennio Morricone, and the orchestra was conducted by Bruno Nicolai.
Compañeros is one of Corbucci's (Django, Il grande silenzio) best-known westerns, as well as one of the best-known spaghetti westerns altogether. The film has been compared to Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo ("The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", 1966), as it intertwines the paths of several characters in the middle of a conflict, but takes place during the Mexican Revolution instead of the American Civil War. Due to the setting and Nero's and Milian's characters, it is similar also to Corbucci's earlier Zapata western, Il mercenario ("The Mercenary"), which was released two years earlier. Alejandro Ulloa was the cinematographer for both films.
Compañeros is the only film in which the two stars of Italian genre films, Franco Nero and Tomas Milian, acted together. Nero later complained that Corbucci concentrated too much on Milian, and refused to act in ¡Viva la muerte... tua! ("Long Live Your Death", 1971), if Corbucci was to direct it.