Why So Blu?

Compañeros / Vamos A Matar (Blu-ray Review)

Sergio Corbucci is a legendary director of Zapata Westerns, or more commonly known as “Spaghetti Westerns”.  He most notably directed the debut of the character of Django played by Franco Nero.  That film has spawn thirty some sequels over the years and drove Nero to stardom.  However, today’s film, Compañeros would be their last.  Nero wasn’t happy with how much Compañeros focused more on another character.  Though they had history and had made classic films with one another to this point it seemed to be a deal break for Nero.  He’s on record for having turned down some movies if Sergio Corbucci was attached to or in talks to direct.

Film 

El Vasco starts a revolt in his hometown during the Mexican Revolution.  He gets noticed by rebel leader General Mongo, who puts Vasco in his gang.  “The Swede” arrives in town to supply Mongo with guns.  However, the vault is locked and the only person with the combination is Xanto, the leader of a big student count-revolution.  Vasco and “The Swede” are at odds, but Mongo forces them to pair together to retrieve Xanto.  Meanwhile they are also hunted by The Swede’s former business partner John, who wants revenge for being left for dead.

Aside from being a Spaghetti Western, this film really reminded me a lot of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.  The sort of mission, characters and plot beats were all reminiscent of the Sergio Leone masterpiece (and the fact that Moriconne did the score too).  The Swede isn’t The Man With No Name, but he’s very much like that in that he’s this outsider that gets into the mix.  And that he’s sort of a wild card.  And then Vasco is very much Tuco with Jack Palance’s John serving the Angel Eyes role in the store.  Their missions are pretty different, but the idea of it and the essence can’t help one but not think of the other film when watching this.

What it has that Leone’s film doesn’t is that it trades Clint Eastwood for Franco Nero.  Both are badasses, but in their own ways.  Nero’s “The Swede” actually takes a more comedic route to his clever tactics.  He’s much more loose and more of a smart alec.  I was very much thinking that Quentin Tarantino was very likely inspired by this or other Nero characters when coming up with Schultz in Django Unchained (After all, Nero was one of the original Djangos).  The scene where he clobbers a guy for his hotel suite is straight up iconic.  Its funny that in America, Franco Nero is probably most notable for being a villain in Die Hard 2, but internationally and big time in Italy, he was a larger than life celebrity.  This guy was huge over there and even during some of his hey day would be a “who?” in America.

If you’re a fan of Spaghetti Westerns, Compañeros comes as an easy recommend as its one of the better ones.  While this has a fun enough plot, Nero almost carries this thing himself with his charm and humor.  As is par for the course, there’s some cool action and plenty of blood here to fill the exploitation standard.  Overall, this is a solid Western.  I only viewed the Italian version, so I can’t tell you what the differences were or if it was better, but I was satisfied just find with this longer version of the film.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Clarity/Detail:  This isn’t a very pretty image and looks to have been tampered with in this transfer.  The image is pretty soft featuring a lot of smoothness.  Detail is less than average.  There are some still shots and close ups in this film that look pretty impressive, but for the most part this is a weaker transfer.

Depth:  More on the flat side of things.

Black Levels:  Blacks look natural and can be a little grainy when they consume.

Color Reproduction: Colors show through as much as they can.  The nature of A) the transfer and B) the condition the film is in prevent them from bursting through as they might like to.

Flesh Tones:  Flesh tones looks to be a little warmer, but there is some flickering that happens throughout.  Facial detail is okay in close ups and nonexistent as you move out, looking too smooth.  Sweat and dirt can be made out in close ups.

Noise/Artifacts:  Grain, specs and some film streaks are noticeable.

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 2.0 DTS-HD MA, Italian 2.0 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: English, English SDH, French (English Version Only), Spanish (English Version Only)

Dynamics:  Unlike the video, this turns out quite nicely.  It must be noted that the subtitles basically have the same idea of what’s going on, but are way off from being verbatim to what’s on screen.  The gunshots, score and vocals all are balanced quite nicely here.  For what it is, this is a pretty clean track, that feels rather loose and energetic.

Low Frequency Extension:  N/A

Surround Sound Presentation:  N/A

Dialogue Reproduction:  Relatively clean considering the condition the film is in and how old it is.  The audio is clean and audible at all times.  There is very minimal analog hissing.

Extras 

Compañeros comes with an additional promotional image on the reverse side of the cover art.  It also features the chapter listing.

Two Versions Of The Film; Italian & English – The Italian language version runs 4:18 longer than the English.

Audio Commentary

• With Journalists C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke

In The Company Of Compañeros (HD, 17:00) – Actors Franco Nero, Tomas Million and legendary composer Ennio Morricone give their account of making the film.

International Trailer – English (HD, 3:00)

International Trailer – Italian (HD, 3:00) 

TV Spot #1 (HD, 1:00)

TV Spot #2 (HD, 1:00) 

Poster & Still Gallery – Features posters, lobby cards, VHS covers and soundtrack art.

Summary 

Blue Underground brings Sergio Corbucci’s Compañeros to Blu-ray with some unbalanced results.  The video transfer leaves a lot to be desired, where on the other hand, the audio sounds pretty great.  The bonus material is full of knowledge and has a commentary with some great well-rounded expertise.  At this juncture in the Blu-ray game, its highly doubtful this film sees another release.  This is the best its gonna get.  And its a film that may be forgotten in the next physical format.  If you’re a collector, this is pretty much it, so you’ll need to pick this one up.