Database page: Bandido Malpelo, El - The Spaghetti Western Database
Anybody has seen this very rare movie? Iād love to see it, but i have never seen it available anywhere. Zapata Western with Eduardo Fajardo as the title character - it sounds like a winner to me
Never seen it, the first time I hear about it
CINE CITY has a DVDr with Spanish audio only (14,95 ā¬)
The film has a lemma in Giustiās Dizionario
Iāll translate the text tomorrow or the day after it
Apparently itās a rare, very rare (rarissimo) movie, that few people have seen
Thanks, i would really aprreciate it!
This is what Giusti has to say about it:
<< The only spaghetti western directed by Giuseppe Maria Scotese, in the 60s mainly known as a director of aventure movies and ā especially ā great documentaries. His name also appears as producer on the credits of Mateo Canoās LāUltimo dei Mohicani, and he is also named in relation to a script, written by Bruno Corbucci and Mario Amendola, for a movie called La lunga strada per Chihuaha (Que viva Mexico!) that should have been directed by him, but that was never realized. Possibly this script was also the starting point for this movie, Lungo giorno della violenza/El Bandito Malpelo. It must be said that this mysterious production seems to exist more on paper than as an actual film, because nobody saw it when it was first released, nor did anybody see it afterwards. Itās clear that this movie about a bandit called Malpelo, played by Eduardo Fajardo, set in Revolutionary Mexico, is mainly a Spanish production, with a considerable part of the Spanish spaghetti western force supporting it, in the first place Eduardo Manzanos Brochero as producer/screenwriter, the duo Calicia-Cubero signing for the production design and a lot of familiar faces in the cast. The story is about a young revolutionary called Diego Mendoza, whoās is looking for Pancho Villa, because he has some important documents for him. He is persecuted by the federales, and in the middle of the desert, he is captured by the bandit Malpelo. But when Malpelo finds out what going on, he decides to help to young man fulfill his mission. Absolutely nothing is known of actor George Garvell, the filmās protagonist. Itās also the third film of the beautiful Charo Lopez, who would end up in the cast of Amaldovarās Kika. Spanish critic Carlos Aguilar calls the film āinsignificantā. >>
Thanks, Scherp, thatās interesting. It makes me want to see that one even more
OT One mistake in typing and we have George Garvell->Giorgio Grand (porno actor) ;D insted of George Carvell
Oh so you noticed he was a porno ctor eh 
I have seen it. Thereās a good-quality Spanish dub of this floating around, recorded from a satTV broadcast (If the Cinecity version hasnāt been upgraded, itās still an old, inferior quality version). In all likelihood, this was never dubbed into English. I liked it, nice to see Eduardo Fajardo cast as a good guy for once. It does have a low-budget feel, but also some good shootouts with soldiers on horseback near the end.
Itās really nothing special, but interesting enough for fans of the genre. I couldnāt understand what they were saying (no hablo Espagnol), so I canāt really rate it. The ending is copied from a war movie by another Spanish director. Iām not saying anything more about that (just to be on the safe side and not spoil anything).
I didnāt expect to enjoy El bandido Malpelo / Il lungo giorno della violenza as much as I did, so I guess that in this regard I was positively surprised. Not that the film is great or anything, but itās quite decent, it has some good ideas and a lot of potential and itās just great to see Fajardo in a starring role. First thing that hits me is how fast-paced this SW is, it certainly doesnāt waste any time getting in motion. The aforementioned fast-pace plus the abundance of slightly shaky camera work, the cheap look and the brutal editing certainly gives the movie a particular feel. And the story, although not particularly original, is quite good, especially in how it often feels like a series vignettes (the killing of the landlord, the crossing of the desert, etc.), not that itās very unique either, but it works well. The small outburst of violence are also quite effective. Unfortunately, itās held back by some rather important flaws. The actor who plays Diego Medina is wooden, the film seems confused at times and some shots fail to coherently follow each other (as if they were filmed very quickly with little idea of how they were going to stitch them together afterwards, which is probably what happened), thereās too much exposition in the dialogs (and they can get quite inane) and some aspect like Malpelo transformation into a revolutionary, the relation between Malpelo and Diego, the love triangle between Malpelo, Lupe and Diego are underdeveloped (the fact that my copy lasts 85 minutes instead of the 100 minutes claimed by the database might be responsible for this). The film ends with a bang though, a very bleak and ironic ending, loved that.
In the end, a bigger budget would probably have helped quite a lot, but as it stands itās a solid 6 or 6.5/10 for me. Worth a look for any Zapata fans.
Yes did like the ending. Did not care for any of the characters so film dragged at times for me. Took me some time to get used to Fajardo and his wig, and to be honest I never did through out the film. Zapata westerns are not my favourite kind of western though.
He had a wig? I guess Iām really bad when it comes to spotting those (I wouldnāt even have noticed Burt Reynoldsā wig in Navajo Joe if people didnāt keep talking about it).
Out of curiosity, whatās the name of the film?
Out of curiosity, what's the name of the film?
Itās Battle of the Last Panzer. From the director of Requiem for a Gringo / Duel in the Eclipse.
Thanks! I think Iāll check this one out.
Itās very lowbudget though. I liked it, but donāt expect a Saving Private Ryan. Merino also used some weird red filters for an action scene, creating some effect youād normally only expect for an intro credits sequence.
I tried to watch El Bandido Malpelo a couple of weeks ago, but turned it off after ten minutes or so. Prior to it, I revisited Companeros and this was a way too big deterioration in movie quality. It looked and felt like crap. Perhaps I should give it a shot after watching a Gianni Crea film.
It certainly would be a step up from any of those.
I actually quite liked this one. As Durango says above, it has a number of flaws and it is not nearly as good as it tries to be but it does at least try and on a number of levels it is quite enjoyable. Fajardo does a good job as the eponymous bandit and you can see he took this role really quite seriously. No hamming or scenery chewing here. He genuinely tries to inject some drama into the character and it is something of a triumph for him I think. Charo Lopez is also fine in the female lead and gets to do more than just look good. (which she does too of course) The other male lead is less convincing but, on the whole, a pretty reasonable effort all round considering the obviously micro budget. Some interesting editing techniques in this one too. The freeze frames on the points of death struck me in particular.
No masterpiece but considerably more serious than I had expected.
Funny enough I also did watch this been curios about this one since Pereira (in our extreme Samora Correia ā Alcochete axis film exchanges), the curiosity was increase by the fact that Fajardo was playing a typical Tomas Millian type of part. Well like I havenāt done a proper review in a long time (how I miss my office) decided that this one deserved that consideration from my part.
First of all and starting from the end itās a not a great film but not a tottaly waste of time either one of those middle of the road films that could have been so much better had the director choose the right path for it.
Some parts of the film are without any doubt influenced by the more revolutionary style of cinema, saying Godard Glauber Rocha etc
The made in 1971 was only possible because it was an International production, if it was a fully Spanish one Iāll doubt the censors allow it, the full storyline is a typical Zapata SW, but some scenes and clearly remind us the political situation of both countries of the Iberian Peninsula, killing landlords tied to posts and talking about land to the campesinos not so normal with so many Spanish actors. In any case I think the major fault of the film is the ambiguity in terms of how the films is presented sometimes you got that avant-guard feeling mixed with a regular action (mostly bad ) action SW, and that is never solved. Also the non Spanish speakers and I do not know how the subs are made, but thereās always something lost in the process) will lost a lot of the film, its pretty talky sometimes and the dialogues are unusually complex for a SW, for instance that part where Malpelo talking with Medina about religion, who is obvious inspired in a dialogue of Ernest Hemingwayās book For whom the bell tolls. My guess is that in the hands of another less documentary habitue and more stylish director (and more means of production also) the film would have gained more coherence and style.
About the acting is clearly that Fajardo really worked hard for the part, but Iām not totally satisfied, pretty uneven in my view I think he sometimes he just fails to grab the part, or maybe Iām just being unfair cause in my subconsciously Iām always thinking is imitating someone, but still heās very good in the more comical parts, Charo is perfect in her part, and also like the only one credit actor (typical stuff from these left winged productions) George Carvell who has an incredible resemblance with actor Luke Wilson, also goes pretty well.
Mostly the weak parts of the film are his low budget production level, and an uninspired director who made almost two films in one, on the good side the story stands pretty well, and also the Zapata feeling is really pure, which means that the aspect of character development was of less importance to me, its all about collectivism not individuality.
So not a masterpiece not even a 4 stars but an enjoyable to watch SW, that deserved a good DVD edition at least a Spanish one, Suevia for instance got so many chunky paella Westerns in their catalogue, and Fajardo wasnāt the main actor in so many films, this one really deserves a break Iāll buy it for sure.
This film, set in Mexico 1915, is uploaded twice to YouTube the last week, a poor Italian and a better Spanish version.
In Italy the VM14 rating was mainly caused by the scene from 71m 15s to 72m 17s (also 75m 20s), censored in the shorter Spanish version.
I watched the first few minutes of the Italian version. Quite violent. Iām sure that it would have received an 18 rating in the Low countries if they had released it theatrically