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 Franco Nero is a sheriff down in Texas who heads off to Mexico to bust the guy
that murdered his dad years ago. He takes his brother with him and while down
there, they "uncover a shocking family secret". They note that this one was
also known as The Avenger and this is "packed with all the explosive action,
epic locales and remarkable music that came to define the Spaghetti Western
genre." 1966, 92 minutes, Widescreen DVD
A sturdy, but unremarkable spaghetti western that will probably satisfy fans of
the genre, but leave everyone else wondering what the big deal is. Franco Nero
stars along with his five o'clock shadow and blue eyes as a dude out to avenge
his father's death years ago. There's one or two bumps in the road along the
way, but that is basically your movie. It is a rather simple premise that is
rather simply executed, but I knew I was going to like this one as soon as the
menu popped up. Anchor Bay usually has these nice animated menus
on some of their releases and this one was no exception. I was caught though,
not by
the graphics on the menu, but the music. This song begins playing that is
certainly the theme song to the movie. Some guy starts singing about "when I
was a boy" and sings about his thoughts and how love and hate are really the
same and before he could finish I was hitting play as fast as I could, not
because
I couldn't take anymore of this grown man singing
this painfully serious sensitive song about his thoughts, but because I wanted
to hear the song in action during the movie. The movie started and sure enough
this song started and played out over the credits while a gun fight was going
on. By the time this guy is warbling "goodbye Texas" and all the pain he's
hidden away for years and years is coming out in the chorus, I was wiping a
tear away, much as I did during the infamous "shed a tear Running Dear, don't
look back Billy Jack" number in The Trial Of Billy Jack . Why is it, that the greatest movie songs are secreted away in the movies
that you would least suspect? And yes, they play the song again at the end of
the film, and yes I sat there until the word "Fine" popped up onto the screen
and after a song like that, I can think of no better word to follow it.  The gunfight, which up until now had clearly been playing second fiddle to the
theme song, takes center stage once the credits (and song) have finished and
just when it looks like one of these guys is going to be ventilated for good,
Franco Nero shows up. Franco is dressed
for success with his trademark hat pulled down over his head and wearing his
long,
casually dirty overcoat like some type of lone-wolf-cool armor and he tells the
guy that was winning the gunfight that he will take over things from there.
The other guy says he's a bounty killer and that he don't need no help with
nothing and that's when Franco flashes his silver star. Franco is the sheriff
in these parts and he's out to clean up these parts (but who will clean up
Franco?), it's just that sometimes he don't mind letting some dumb bounty
killer do all the heavy lifting. He also tells the bounty killer that he'll be
taking the reward for himself. Not too long after this, word gets out that
Franco has corralled himself another bandit (well, he does what he can, right?)
and his younger and much less cool (He has blonde hair and doesn't wear a
cowboy all the time!) brother gets the news and goes racing back to town to do
something. I don't know why he would care - he was just making out with some
floozy out near the river or something. Anyway, as he rushes back Franco is
back in town resigning his commission as sheriff. He plans on leaving without
telling his younger brother and we all know that that's because he's going on a
treacherous mission to dispense some long overdue justice for some ancient wrong
and that it will be dangerous and perhaps suicidal so he doesn't want his
precious and quite un-manly brother within farting distance of this revenge
plot. We also all know that his brother will find out, want to go along, that
Franco will reluctantly allow him to, and that he'll get his gringo ass shot
off by the end of the movie, leaving Franco with his revenge, but also with an
empty life, thus showing us that in life there really isn't such a thing as
pure revenge and that violence only begets violence and that all life is
suffering or meaningless or some existential combination thereof. We know all
this, just from the squinty looks Franco is shooting at everyone.  Before he can get too far into his adventure, Franco's brother catches up with
him to find out where's he's going and to join up with his little one man
posse. Franco is playing a guy named Burt Sullivan and if it's difficult to
imagine Franco playing a guy named Burt, then just try and imagine him playing
a guy named Sullivan. His little brother is Jim and Burt tells him that he is
headed down to Mexico to bring the guy to justice that killed their father back
when Burt was a little kid and before Jim was born. The man's name is Cisco
Delgado and he turns out to be a powerful and corrupt landowner over the border
who delights in torturing people's children in an effort to get them to sell
their land (Well, okay, but I'm not paying any points here!). Burt gives Jim
the obligatory "it's going to be dangerous and you're just a dumb blonde kid"
speech, but both Burt and the audience know how it's going to end up, so he
doesn't put up much resistance to Jim joining him and it's off to Mexico for
some good old fashioned western flavored revenge! After a pit stop at the bank
to change some dollars into pesos, it becomes apparent that this Delgado
character is someone that everyone fears. It isn't long before Burt and Jim
are in a local watering hole and Jim is getting his ass kicked by some local
yokel for asking too many questions. After ignoring the fact that his dumb
butt brother just got whupped, Burt goes over to this dude and pulls a chair up
beside him. This guy gives him some lip, so Burt takes this guy's cigarette
out of his mouth, takes a puff on it and then puts it out on the guy's hand!
Can you say, "bar fight"? I knew you could. Burt beats this guy down, avoids
thrown knives and shoots a few people with his patented "behind the back"
gunslinging move that makes him the Jason Kidd of the old west. After the bar
fight suitably announces there presence in town, they go meet with a guy who
has some info on this Delgado guy. We know this dude is a bad guy because he
drinks creme de menthe and offers two gold nuggets to Burt if Burt will tell him
why he's looking for Delgado. Burt pretty much says "I got two of my own
nuggets for ya" and puts his cigarette out in one of those prissy green drinks.
Someone should really introduce Burt to the concept of ashtrays. 
While the Sullivan boys were inside on their social call, their horses get
stolen and the mayor appears to tell them that they need to get out of town.
Then a little later, they almost get run over by some guy on an uncovered wagon
and get involved in a gun battle. Don't know where they were headed, but they
end up in the marketplace where Burt buys some horses and Jim hits on the bar
maid from the bar they (well, Burt) busted up not too long before. Jim gets
info from her about how to find Delgado and they head off to some shepherd that
has the lowdown on this Delgado. I was a little unclear what the shepherd
really did for them, because it just turned out that Jim and Burt joined up with
some of Delgado's prisoners that were being transported to his estate. Once
there, Burt goes in to meet with Delgado and we get the
flashback where Delgado killed Burt's daddy. Burt's take on things is that
Delgado has eluded justice long enough, so he was there to take Delgado back to
Texas to face the law for what he done all those years ago. Delgado declines
this offer, citing the really sweet and powerful life he's built for himself in
down in Mexico. The plot takes a mildly interesting twist as
Delgado reveals that he is in fact Jim's father. This causes Burt to have a
flashback of Delgado coming out his mama's house and then she appears looking
very distraught. Delgado tries to guilt Burt into leaving him be, saying that
he didn't want Jim to know what a scummy father he has and Burt doesn't really
have much of a response except to leave. Delgado goes and visits Jim whom he
is holding prisoner and gives him the "I'm your real dad" speech. Jim, who by
this time, we've grown to loath because he doesn't have the steely resolve and
confident indifference his older and tanner brother has, responds by throwing a
tantrum. Of course he throws his tantrum with a six shooter, so it's a little
more exciting than the usual family feud. Later Delgado throws a party for
these two Sullivan kids and I was trying to send Burt a message in squint Morse
Code that he needed to get back on track with his revenge scheme. I mean, this
guy killed your dad and raped your mom - you shouldn't be drinking his liquor
and pawing his women until after you've riddled his body with bullets. The party ends with Delgado holding Jim prisoner and sending Burt off under
armed guard back to the Texas border. Along the way, the peasants finally get
organized by the corrupt mayor's lawyer into a revolutionary force and rescue
Burt from his predicament. Burt gives them some pointers on how to set up an
ambush for the guys that Delgado is sending after them and there's a big shoot
out. Burt goes back to Delgado's to get his brother and to take Delgado into
custody. Uh, and if you think this is the kind of movie that ends with Burt
reading Delgado his rights and saying something like "Book'em Jimmo" then we
need to cut you off from your creme de menthes. There's a battle and Burt's
brother is gutshot by one of Delgado's men and dies in Burt's arms (where else
would you expect him to expire?) and then Burt shoots Delgado several times nice
and slow like and rides off into the sunset with the body strapped to his
horse, the number one pop hit "Goodbye Texas" playing in the background. How
come none of those American Idols never choose that song? I think it would
have been perfect for Justin. This one isn't really in the same league with
Franco's Django, but I don't suppose that this one was aiming for anything more than what it
delivered. Django was inventing a genre and a look, and Texas, Adios is just one of a billion follow ups. This one was played a lot straighter
than Django, which sometimes veered into cartoon territory with its casket and machine
gun toting loner, and doesn't have any of the gimmicks, style or symbolism that Django gleefully lathered on. That said, taken on its own, Texas, Adios is a good
looking movie, making excellent use of the rocky Spain countryside that seems
permanently sun-drenched and there are several scenes that benefit from the
widescreen presentation on this disc. Franco isn't required to do much more
than squint convincingly and exude the disconnected toughness that allows him
to react the same whether he's fighting some guy in a bar or he's fighting some
guy outside of a bar (he does look a little sad when his bro croaks, but once
he puts his hat back on, his grieving is backburnered so he can deliver an ass
kicking). That's not really a criticism in a movie like this. Franco is
completely watchable in this as he usually is (except for that Django Strikes Again hernia) and you couldn't build one of those Italian westerns starring
taciturn and black clad heroes around anyone more suited for the role. The six
minute interview with Franco on the disc contains some interesting anecdotes
about John Wayne and some other tidbits that make it worth viewing after you
get done watching the movie. Overall, this is a good looking western with a
fair amount of violence and little down time, all expertly handled by Franco
Nero so that you don't really mind the thin story and lack of style that marked
the earlier Django. And there is that theme song...
Reviews © 2004
MonsterHunter
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