Rating: 
Summary: Spaghetti epic
Review: Spaghetti westerns are, in my opinion, generally the best fictional films about the American West. You can argue that John Wayne made a bunch of great movies about life in the Old West, and you would be right to say so, but for some reason the Italians captured perfectly the specific elements of the era that made their movies seem more realistic. The frontier was a dirty, violent place full of unsavory types trying to get rich quick. Italian westerns capture this mood expertly whereas American films portray characters whose outfits look like they just came back from the dry cleaners. Hollywood films also tend to apply a black and white dichotomy onto their characters, the old "good guys wear white, bad guys wear black" philosophy that obscures the reality of the time and place. Not so in Italian films, where even the good guys often have distinctly unsavory traits. It's too bad spaghetti westerns went the way of the dinosaurs a few decades back; I never tire of watching these films even though I am not an expert on the genre. "A Bullet for the General," part of the larger Anchor Bay "Once Upon a Time in Italy" spaghetti western box set, serves as an excellent example of how powerful the genre once was.
If you enjoy spag westerns, you're going to love "A Bullet for the General." Like many other spaghettis, the film takes place in Mexico during the raucous revolutions of the early twentieth century. Bandits roam the countryside robbing and killing under the guise of revolutionary armies seeking social change. One band, led by a scruffy looking Mexican named El Chuncho (Gian Maria Volonte), earns their living by stealing weapons and selling them to a powerful warlord named General Elias (Jaime Fernandez). El Chuncho's band preys on federal army patrols, trains, and any thing else that allows them to realize their goals. Along with his holier than thou former priest turned revolutionary brother El Santo (Klaus Kinski) and a beautiful woman named Adelita (Martine Beswick), El Chuncho and his thugs make a good living at what they do. When the group happens to rob a train loaded with armaments, they run smack dab into a dapper gringo named Bill Tate (Lou Castel), a mysterious man who initially poses as a prisoner so he can get into the good graces of El Chuncho's army. Amused by the American and thankful for his help in stopping the train, the group decides to take him on as a fellow bandit and revolutionary. Chuncho even nicknames him "El Nino" in the process because of his baby-faced good looks.
Tate's hidden agenda remains hidden for most of the movie, but in the meantime he earnestly joins the guerilla war in Mexico. El Chuncho's band takes the rifles off the train and holes up in a poor village until it's safe to transport the arms to Elias's headquarters in the mountains. Regrettably, the local villagers convince the desperados to dispatch the brutal local landowner, a truly revolutionary action leading to land redistribution amongst the poor. Since the federal government opposes such actions, the village is certain to encounter an invasion force of substantial size. Suddenly, and probably due more to the pretty local women than any altruistic reasons, El Chuncho and El Santo take an interest in protecting the village from annihilation. The rest of the gang decides money is more important than a heroic stand, and heads off to Elias's fortress with the weapons. The now former bandit leader cannot stand to miss out on any of the action (or the money), and before too long is off riding after Tate, Adelita, and the rest of his compatriots. The conclusion to the movie, with Tate's true mission in Mexico revealed and the subsequent bloodbath that follows, is classic spaghetti western grit. Until the very end, you're just not sure what's ultimately going to happen.
"A Bullet for the General" is most notable for its strident political themes. All spaghetti westerns engage in the old good versus evil debate, but by the late 1960s the directors and writers of the films in this genre began inserting left wing rhetoric and pro-socialist situations into the pictures, thus turning the Old West into a mirror image of the turbulent social movements of the 1960s. Whereas in earlier movies you might see good guys and bad guys battling over money, in films like "A Bullet for the General" you see the good guys protecting the poor from money-grubbing big business interests such as railroads, oil companies, and landowners. El Chuncho's conversion from a greedy bandit to a socially conscious revolutionary symbolizes the transformation the New Left hoped most members of society would eventually undergo in the real world. Even the Church takes a shot on the chin in the movie, as El Santo becomes more authentic when he rejects the passivity of the pulpit in lieu of a socially active gospel requiring violent action against the propertied classes.
Unfortunately, a few problems plague "A Bullet for the General." First, the filmmakers failed to utilize the full potential of the volcanic Klaus Kinski. There is an intriguing scene where we see El Santo roaring biblical quotations from a rampart while tossing grenades into a mass of troops, but for most of the movie his character simply disappears. Second, the dubbing is awful--truly, ear achingly awful. But the good outweighs the bad. Anchor Bay performed miracles with the pristine picture transfer, the story is intriguing, and there's plenty of good shoot 'em up action. The DVD unfortunately only contains two trailers as extras, but the movie's good enough that you won't miss the behind the scenes stuff and interviews usually included on most discs. "A Bullet for the General" is must see viewing for spaghetti western aficionados, and a good introduction to the genre for the beginner.
Rating: 
Summary: Reccomended spaghetti western in spite of many flaws
Review: The Bad:
The sound quality on the DVD is flat and lacking dynamics and the sound seems out of sync (or is it just bad dubbing?)
The film opens with an inappropriate "Untouchables style" narration that devastates a good opening sequence and annoyingly hangs over the beginning of the film.
Most dubbing actors emote with voices that are too loud. (Will dubbing actors ever learn to talk softly?)
Gian Maria Volente overacts and upstages just about everyone in a very uneven performance. Klaus Kinski is miscast in an non-essentail role as a Mexican bandito and dubbed with a ludicrous and cavalier voice that totally ruins his performance.
Shooting deaths seldom appear credible.
There are continuity errors galore: Train passengers intermittently look the wrong direction when talking to people outside the windows. A well-meaning lieutenant is inexplicitly shot in the belly even though he is lying flat on his stomach.
Characters make too many illogical decisions.
There is a feeling of hurriedness and sloppiness in the filmmaking.
Mexicans are portrayed as one of five familiar stereotypes: lackey solders, addlebrained peasants, and murdering banditos, corrupt officials or overly-idealized revolutionaries.
The film is very uneven as it jumps from political allegory to action film.
The writer and director ruin almost every scene that could contain credible moving drama by instead choosing to bludgeon us with one-sided and sophomoric political and social metaphors.The Good:
Strangly many parts of the film are very rewatchable.
The film print is very very good if a bit soft.
Like many spaghetti westerns ABFTG boosts a great music score that perfectly fits the locations and action.
There are a multitude of similarities to the Wild Bunch just begging for comparisons.
The film is full of great western costumes props, backdrops and landscapes.
There is great atmosphere - especially arid deserts and extreme heat.
There are two good action scenes - banditos attacking a train and a gunfight in the desert with an old machine gun.
One truly great vignette - a Mexican commander is chained to the train track crucifixion style, as banditos pick off the train occupants one by one. Watching the helpless and doomed lieutenant and his soldiers (even though poorly dubbed and full of continuity errors) is one of the most memorable and atmospheric scenes of any western.
Two very good performances - Martine Beswick although given some bad dialogue is otherwise excelent as the female member of the Mexican banditos.
Lou Castel is perfectly cast as a resourceful, courageous but cold-blooded hitman. Castel's "Nino", looking like a very young twenties-style-ganster, riding with bandits, all the while orchesrating an assasination is the most compelling aspect of the film. It is very convincing that his calculated innocent voice and facial expressions could con anyone. Unfortunately the film-makers choice of forcing Castel to go out of character as an artless dandy in a sloppy political metaphor of an ending almost ruins Castel's otherwise perfect performance.
Its a shame that the film makers did not chose Beswick and Castel for the center of the film - they would have really had something. Recommendation All in all I recommend this film to spaghetti western fans. Fans of the American western may enjoy the film for it more closely resembles an American Western style along the lines of the Wild Bunch or The Treasure of Sierra Madre rather then a Leone film. But understand the film is uneven, sloppy, sometimes illogical, tragically dubbed and like most veiled propaganda films this one's silly, and one sided political metaphors get in the way of the entertainment. Note:
Good Spaghetti westerns are known for their terrific music and sounds effects. But the great music and ambiance are almost ruined by the flat sound quality on the DVD. A sweetened soundtrack would have added immensely to ABFTG. Anchor Bay cleaned up one minute of music for the main menu - that minute is beautiful, and full of potential. If that had been done for the rest of the film I would have given this DVD version of ABFTG 4 stars.
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