yeah that’s true, I doubt most people who watched the film even know that the movie is supposed to take place in the 1910s, I doubt they even thought about it… especially during the time when it came out as I’m pretty sure its the first zapata “western” to ever be internationally successful. I guess these days where plenty of zapata westerns are widely available it’s more noticeable and as a result makes you question the guns and tech more… still I think aesthetically the guns and planes have a negative effect, regardless of historical inaccuracy. The mexican revolution is better off aesthetically when its more primative, as it actually was.
Like you did since you have “0 knowledge of history” like you said yourself. 
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let’s leave it at that. I find it interesting that the comparisons between Mercenary and Companeros keep coming up like that, ones preferring the one, others the other, and mostly for reasons both would name. For the longest time I thought that Companeros is the more popular movie in Europe (I think commercially it was, and generally more well known at the time), Mercenary more popular in the US, but ever since both have become widely avalable on home video in their original versions, I think this distinction has become blurred. I am team Mercenary 
I’m sure people in the 1960s understood TM was set somewhere in the 1910s. For them it wasn’t that long ago. But today it’s over a hundred years ago.
And regarding stuff that was anachronistic in these films, the steam locomotives in SWs were not the ones used in the old west, they were Spanish locomotives and probably a bit more modern, not from the 1860s.
But who are bothered by this?
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train geeks only
For me Companeros is a great entertaining film but not close to The Mercenary…
And regarding stuff that was anachronistic in these films, the steam locomotives in SWs were not the ones used in the old west, they were Spanish locomotives and probably a bit more modern, not from the 1860s.
Apples and oranges, all westerns are to a degree inaccurate… who builds settlements in the middle of an empty desert? Why do white buildings equate to mexico? Westerns, especially spaghettis, always favored cool aesthetics over historical accuracy, but it is within reason, they still grounded you within their fictional world. Turning the mexican revolution into ww2 is something else entirely.
I’m too in team Mercenary, and for most of your complaints it’s for me just the other way round. I rewatched both 2 times some weeks ago, 2 times because they are so incredibly well made, and both with a great score.
But in a direct comparison Companeros is the much more sloppy one. Il mercenario is for me # 3 of all Spags, and amongst the top 10 of all westerns. It has imo a brilliance only few other westerns have.
And you are so far the first who noted historical inaccuracies in mercenario. I never noticed that, and if these 2 things are anachronistic, it is not the same as a M-16, they will never be a problem for me.
But it is a bi-plane, not the kind of planes used in WW II, and you said yourself that is was done in WW I. And we don’t see how the bombing is done, They could very well be just dropped by hand. And the gun you mentioned is from 1921. That’s really not a problem in such a film, which stretches reality for the whole runtime. Il mercenario is not a realistic film, not for a second.
It’s called biplane in English, not Doppeldecker.
Double-decker is a bus with two floors.
Ahh, ok, thanks. That kind of double decker in the Revolution at least would be noticed …
To each their own @stanton. I disagree with everything you said but I can see where you’re coming from .
I don’t hold Corbucci in as high of a regard as a director as you do either. He’s very creative and comes up with very unique and inventive ideas but he is not the best at implementing those ideas, he was never as good at directing as Leone, Valerii or even Tessari (he is better overall than sollima tho). He never got pacing quite right outside of The Great Silence, and i think good pacing is important. Django and The Mercenary being the worst offenders, Companeros not being great in this regard either (but also not bad either). His films also tend to be somewhat uneven, with TGS and NJ being the exceptions. Furthermore, the cinematography can be unremarkable in some of his films too.
A short Wiki check brings the info that 9 planes with US pilots were used for bombing, and that the Mexican revolution was the 2nd war in which such happened, after the Italy-Turkey war in Lybia in 1911.
Actually it seems that in WW I there were already real bombers, and not just bombs thrown out by hand. And that the bombing started early, at first by Zeppelins, and then by planes. Germany alone used 5000 planes in WW I.
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Btw to get back to the question of BluRays, just to repost:
The guns and weapons are anachronistic in most westerns, American and Italian. The Colt SAR didn’t exist before 1872/1873 but turns up in many westerns set before then. Repeating rifles were pretty rare before the 1870s although some were used in the Civil War - Custer’s men didn’t even have them at Little Big Horn (1876), they still had the single shot rifles which must have been one of the reasons they got wiped out. You always have people who are supposed to be holding cap and ball pistols - the main type of weapon before the SAR - with belts full of bullets. Dynamite wasn’t invented until 1867.
The worst offender is the John Wayne western The Comancheros (1961) which has repeating rifles in 1843.
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Musical instruments is another thing, guitars in particular. Almost always inaccurate from an historical point of view, US or Italian westerns regardless. Music performances inside saloons aswell, occasionally it will draw towards Dixieland Jazz or Western Swing…
However I’m not bothered at all by this. For me the fictional and mythical aspect of it is part of why I find these films so exciting.
I’m not team Mercenary nor team Companeros. I just find both to be thoroughly entertaining.
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Interesting… I was going to order the Companeros bluray on Amazon awhile back, but held off because this reviewer complained that there was no uncut English version on the disc. But your review seems to indicate that the uncut Italian version can be watched in English. Does it also include English subtitles during the Italian language only scenes like the Blue Underground DVD?
Maybe this guy just didn’t find the audio track?
I can’t re-check right now but this is what I wrote about the release:
The US BluRay by Blue Underground (pictured at the beginning of the article) comes without a region code, which makes it a real alternative for international buyers. The disc goes the way of a selection after starting the disc (you’ll see later how the German disc handles the versions): start Companeros , the English version at 115 minutes aka the US theatrical cut, or Vamos a Matar, Companeros , the Italian version at 119 minutes aka the uncut original version of the film. Select the US version and you get English, French and Spanish subtitles even. Select the longer version, and there is but the option left to select English subtitles for the Italian audio. The US cut has English audio, the Italian cut of course the original Italian audio (as DTS-HD mono) and - this is interesting - also English.