I think they are not allowed too.
Especially not with English audio options.
I wonder why though? Is it something with German laws? Seems every other company releasing these genre blu rays are region free releases now days
So after a long number of years, I revisited the movie
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Retrospective_review_of_Companeros_on_BluRay
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First of all, I hesitate to describe war films set in 20th century Mexico as “westerns”. (Unlike The Wild Bunch, which is still recognisably a western despite the Mexican Revolutionary backdrop). But Companeros and its ilk are clearly part of the Spaghetti Western canon, so…
I haven’t watched this or A Professional Gun/Il Mercenario for a while, so caught up with them both on YouTube. A Professional Gun is in HD and looking as good as I’ve ever seen it. I think now it’s Corbucci’s most spectacular and accomplished film, with a decent budget which is all up there on the screen - airplane and all.
I think Companeros suffers by comparison. Oddly, considering the success of Corbucci’s previous films and the fact that it has funding from three countries, it seems to have a smaller budget than its predecessor. The main shortcoming is easily explained: the scriptwriters are not as good. Whereas A Professional Gun has a well-structured and fast-moving story, Companeros is slow to get going and too often feels baggy and rambling. And I’m surprised that no-one else seems to have a problem with the ending, which I find completely unconvincing. Why does super-cynical Yod suddenly decide to ride back and join the revolutionaries’ suicidal last stand? Absolutely nothing in the film has prepared the ground for this. (I also can’t help thinking that its original English-speaking audiences would have greeted the bellowed last line with a collective “What??”)
It’s still an enjoyable film in all sorts of ways - Nero’s charm, Milian’s oafishness, Palance being completely bonkers - and some of the political discussions are food for thought amid the general mayhem. There’s a lot that can be read into Xantos’ fate, for example. Corbucci has obviously just seen The Wild Bunch - hence the bridge being blown up with horsemen on it and the frenetic final battle - but his direction seems less assured than in A Professional Gun, just as The Great Silence is less well-directed than Django. Morricone’s cacaphonous theme song works will in itself but is applied to the action like a blunt instrument. This is a film that I very much enjoyed when I first saw it as a student (though I thought it took a while to get going even then) but have become less keen on since - though I’ll always watch it through to the end.
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"Why does super-cynical Yod suddenly decide to ride back and join the revolutionaries’ suicidal last stand? " - I asked myself or at least reacted against the same sort of joining the revolutionaries that Steffen’s character did in the end of Killer Kid - which contributed to my dismissal of another zapata-influenced SW.
This movie’s page in the SWDb has been upgraded to the new “SWDb 3.0” format. Please have a look and let us know if there’s something you can add (information, trivia, links, pictures, etc.)
Sorry if this has been answered before but what is the extra 5m or so of footage in the uncut version Vs the international version? Anything of significance?
Thank you
I thought we had this somewhere, but if I remember correctly it was a combination of violence and politics that was cut in a few moments. I need to try and dig out the exact comparison somewhere…
I wondered about this when I watched it recently. The only part that wasn’t English dubbed was the introduction, which felt like it went on longer? But other than than that I didn’t notice anything obvious.
Funnily enough I noticed that the trailer has a bunch of different and unused shots. Most of them are minor (like Nero’s reaction face on the train), but the weirdest is the tower exploding. In the film it collapses from the top down, and is shot from a completely different angle.
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Trailers often were already made before a film’s editing and mixing was finished. That’s why it happens often enough that they contain alternative shots or even parts of scenes which were not used in the final cut.
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Nero has extra dialogue before he punches the guy in the hotel. He says “Your grandpa is a famous fag”, or something like that.
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I just watched this one again.
If someone could update the main page: Vamos a matar, compañeros
At least some of the “filming locations” were set at:
Alcala De Henares
Colmenar Viejo
El Argamasón
Navas Del Rey
Pelayos De La Presa
San Martín de Valdeiglesias
Tabernas
Thanks,
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This is great:
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It’s a pity they never dubbed that line, always made me laugh, but the uncut version doesn’t really add enough for me that would make me choose that over the export cut. The differences are very minor.
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I always watch the shorter one aswell. This film thankfully didn’t suffer much from export cuts at all. Compared to The Big Gundown and Tepepa etc. Compañeros really got off lightly.
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as long as Iris’ big topless show is still in there?
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Its twin The Mercenary is probably better directed but now I very much prefer Companeros. Why? Both Nero and Milian are much more likeable/relatable in Companeros than Nero and Musante in The Mercenary. It is also more comedy like than The Mercenary.
Companeros also has something to say (about pacifism, education, friendship, life values…) while The Mercenary is basically just an action movie with no message. Moreover Companeros has always amazing Fernidando Rey and very catchy music. 5/5
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great movie with Franco Nero and Tomas Miliàn, I have just ordered the remasterised version in DVD
