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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Novelist Alistair MacLean, whose normal area of expertise is World War II thrillers such as "Where Eagles Dare" and "The Guns of Navarone", took a break from his wartime suspense novels to write an American western.
Here Charles Bronson plays a mysterious man held captive on board a train rolling through the bleak winter wilderness towards Breakheart Pass. Accused of a crime, all is not as it seems for Bronson's character Deacon, is he really a criminal or an undercover agent? With gun runners, government agents, deceitful officials and Indians, this action thriller really thrills and one could do worse than watch this on a rainy afternoon.
Highly recommended.
Here Charles Bronson plays a mysterious man held captive on board a train rolling through the bleak winter wilderness towards Breakheart Pass. Accused of a crime, all is not as it seems for Bronson's character Deacon, is he really a criminal or an undercover agent? With gun runners, government agents, deceitful officials and Indians, this action thriller really thrills and one could do worse than watch this on a rainy afternoon.
Highly recommended.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A Bullet for the General comes to UK dvd in an edition that beats the Blue Underground dvd in the US. The transfer is 16:9 (2.35:1)with some nice extras including an interview with director Damiano Damiani, introduction by Alex Cox, the theatrical trailer and trailers for other westerns released by argent films.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Following the unlikely alliance of an opportunistic American (Lou Castel) and a Mexican bandit (Gian Maria Volonte) who sells arms to the rebels, the first half hour or so of Damiano Damiani's cult classic is more than a bit ropey. The director has difficulty establishing the relationship between the two leads and resorts to a succession of shoot-em-ups. Thankfully, these are better handled than the drawn out opening attack on the train carrying Castel's enigmatic gringo, in which too many of the ideas are in the script and too few in the execution.
If the first half is the usual running with the rebels territory, the film becomes more complex as it progresses. It is clear from the beginning that the gringo is working to his own agenda, and throughout the course of the film he steers the group towards it. Not interested in women, he professes to be interested only in money, yet at one point kills a rebel paymaster and throws away his cash. Yet even after his objective and the bandito's part in it become clear, the film manages to take the characters even further in an intriguing epilogue.
Both may be mercenary, but finally choose their own executioners, although in very different ways. Castel inadvertently because, despite ruthlessly killing those on both sides to achieve his end, he is ultimately not ruthless enough, Volonte voluntarily, passing judgement on himself when he realises the consequences of his actions.
Castel is a fairly anonymous lead as the 'ugly American', a potential flaw which the director manages to turn to the film's advantage. A moral void, he has no ideals and no scruples but is instead a remorseless pragmatist. The real undercurrents in their relationship are brought out by Volonte; his bandito, first seen literally banging his own drum, manages to avoid caricature. His growing politicisation is convincing, as is his spellbound look of (largely sexual) confusion at the gringo during a confrontation with a landowner. The audience's sympathies are never directly engaged, our involvement with the character more covert and accidental en route.
Hailed as the best of the political spaghetti westerns, A Bullet For the General doesn't quite live up to the epithet but is still a remarkable example of the genre. Co-writer Franco Solinas also wrote Battle of Algiers and Quiemada, and his revolutionary fervour is very visible in the film's parallels with America's covert overseas operations and the presence of a militant priest throwing hand grenades in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (a less wired than usual Klaus Kinski as Volante's half-mad half-brother). The film even ends with a call to arms - "Don't buy bread, buy dynamite!"
If the first half is the usual running with the rebels territory, the film becomes more complex as it progresses. It is clear from the beginning that the gringo is working to his own agenda, and throughout the course of the film he steers the group towards it. Not interested in women, he professes to be interested only in money, yet at one point kills a rebel paymaster and throws away his cash. Yet even after his objective and the bandito's part in it become clear, the film manages to take the characters even further in an intriguing epilogue.
Both may be mercenary, but finally choose their own executioners, although in very different ways. Castel inadvertently because, despite ruthlessly killing those on both sides to achieve his end, he is ultimately not ruthless enough, Volonte voluntarily, passing judgement on himself when he realises the consequences of his actions.
Castel is a fairly anonymous lead as the 'ugly American', a potential flaw which the director manages to turn to the film's advantage. A moral void, he has no ideals and no scruples but is instead a remorseless pragmatist. The real undercurrents in their relationship are brought out by Volonte; his bandito, first seen literally banging his own drum, manages to avoid caricature. His growing politicisation is convincing, as is his spellbound look of (largely sexual) confusion at the gringo during a confrontation with a landowner. The audience's sympathies are never directly engaged, our involvement with the character more covert and accidental en route.
Hailed as the best of the political spaghetti westerns, A Bullet For the General doesn't quite live up to the epithet but is still a remarkable example of the genre. Co-writer Franco Solinas also wrote Battle of Algiers and Quiemada, and his revolutionary fervour is very visible in the film's parallels with America's covert overseas operations and the presence of a militant priest throwing hand grenades in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (a less wired than usual Klaus Kinski as Volante's half-mad half-brother). The film even ends with a call to arms - "Don't buy bread, buy dynamite!"
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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I've been watching quite a few old spaghetti westerns recently, and while some of them were quite entertaining, none of them had come anywhere near to competing with Sergio Leone. Read more
Published 13 months ago by D. Milne
The Wild West Meets Murder Mystery.
Breakheart Pass is a good film about a train journey to a remote military outpost which starts to go awry when the passengers start to go missing or are killed. Read more
Published 22 months ago by HBH
Typical Maclean Nonsense.
Not even the great Charlie B, Ed Sauter , Ben Johnson and scenery can salvage this ridiculous yarn. Jill Ireland is actually bearable in this film but the music and story are just... Read more
Published 24 months ago by MrViewer
ALISTAIR McLEAN'S BOOK ADAPTATION
Breakheart Pass [DVD] [1975]
Many would have read Alistair Mclean's Best seller, "Breakheart Pass". Read more
Many would have read Alistair Mclean's Best seller, "Breakheart Pass". Read more
Published on 29 July 2009 by JESSICA'S DAD
All aboard for a ride into danger.
"Breakheart Pass" is based in a novel by Allistair MacLean, and is one of the better adaptations of his books to screen. Read more
Published on 20 July 2009 by T. Spitzer
Charles Bronson and Yakima Canute make an exciting movie where the...
Something's not right at isolated Fort Humbolt and diphtheria may be the least of the problems. Breakheart Pass is based on the adventure thriller by Alistair MacLean, who also... Read more
Published on 9 May 2009 by C. O. DeRiemer
They don't make'em like this anymore!
Breakheart Pass must be one of the best action/thriller/western movies ever made!I have seen this movie at least 50 times,and i am still thrilled then i hear the opening seen. Read more
Published on 29 May 2008 by B. Hanssen
A train worth catching
Anyone who's ever had to slog through his soul-destroying ITC or Cannon-years output will find it hard to imagine that there was ever a time when Charles Bronson was a half-decent... Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2003 by Trevor Willsmer
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