KILL THEM ALL AND COME BACK ALONE

WHOA, title!  Calm down.  You don't have to be so serious.  Can't some of those guys on the cover there live?  Heck, one of them commited suicide in real life.  Can't you give that guy a break?  What?  No answer?  You truely are a cold and cruel title. Damn you, title.  Damn you to hell!  That is an awesome title though.  I would argue that it's the greatest title ever.  Have you ever heard of a better title for a film? 

So KILL THEM ALL AND COME BACK ALONE is about Mac Kay (played by the Rifle Man himself, Chuck Connors.  I'm going to call him Chucky from now on because I am an A-hole) who recruits a bunch of hooligans who specialize in being bad and getting themselves into (and out of) crazy situations that involve a lot of jumping, punching, shooting, exploding and other volatile shenanigans.  This is a "men on a mission" movie.  Their mission is to steal a bunch of gold from a Union army fort for the confederates.  Chucky is given specific orders by Lynch (played by the great Frank Wolff) to kill his crew of cutthroats before returning from the mission.

The movie as a whole is pretty good.  Its not great though.  Despite how serious the tone of the title is this movie is a little more fun in nature but not too much.  There is a lot of action but it does get a little too repetitive especially when they use the same shots but from different angles.  Too many times you see the same guy fly into the air or twist and spin dead.  There is a lot of brawling in this movie too and those get to be a bore.  What makes this movie stand out however is the gun fights.  They are large with many extras dieing in over the tops ways.  Enzo G. Castellari directed this sucker.  He is the guy who directed the original INGLORIOUS BASTARDS.  He is a little more of a creative director when it comes to action.  I kind of think of him as the Italian John Woo with many stunts and explosions in his shootouts.

I think the only real disappointment I have with this film (besides the fact that there is a (sigh) acrobat in this movie) is the fact that ol' Chucky Connors doesn't try to kill his own men.  Even though he himself doesn't mind killing for the sake of gold Chucky has a slight honourable streak to him.  The second he gets the gold secure he leaves his men behind instead of killing them.  This leads to them all including Chucky being captured and discovering that Frank Wolff was going to steal all the gold for himself.  Instead of Chucky having to kill them all most of men die escaping the federal prison and the rest by each other.  I would have liked to have seen a movie where Chucky did kill them all and actually come back alone.  Its not like any of them are good guys.  It would have made for a slightly more darker film.

If you like Italian Westerns and are looking for something with a lot of action and not much story then I highly recommend this one.  Its not great like INGLORIOUS BASTARDS but its kind of close.  Its cool to see Chucky Connors in a lead role again. 

Jason