The Mercenary – 1968 Corbucci

Clearly meant to challenge (or capitalize) on Leone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly from 1966. Corbucci’s film isn’t as strong (few films are) but it features a great Morricone score (parts seem just ripped from the 1966 masterpiece), three characters (one good, one bad, and one in-between) who square off in a great set-piece duel near the end (instead of a graveyard it’s a rodeo arena)
Corbucci’s films typically explore an even darker side of human nature than Leone (which is hard to imagine)
Franco Nero is the “Pollock”—Eastwood figure, blonde, blue eyes, beard. He’s out for himself and money. Jack Palance plays the bad guy- his name is Curly (used again in City Slickers) and sports a nice perm
Corbucci does great work with camera zooms. The opening desaturated orange stills in the opening titles—Corbucci even zooms in on them- using the camera style in the titles.

Spaghetti Westerns- dubbed voices, an Italian like Nero playing a Polish immigrant in America’s west
voice over here with flashback
Greed and cruelty—the protagonist here is lighting his match off a woman’s chest
Nero- “I’m a professional. No cash, no work” (while he’s getting shot at)
Great zoom through a bugle at 30 minutes, shot at 57 minutes of Nero and two others who are in the background and bed post separates them
The rodeo arena finale—a three-pronged standoff with Morricone (yep, sound familiar)- haha