Noticed there was no thread dedicated to the flick in question, so I’ve created one, database link here.
Actually not a bad spaghetti western comedy, I kind of liked it even if it happens to be on the slower side and ultimately turns out to be not particularly memorable and not all that unique.
The story sort of meanders around and progresses at a fairly leisurely pace, nevertheless, most of it is relatively well structured, which is probably why it kept my attention throughout the running time. Apart from being a lot less slapsticky than its more zany counterparts, there is likewise a moderately decent story at the center of the movie and is pretty funny in the corny sort of way.
While Lucidi’s direction is predominantly serviceable without being especially memorable and the film admittedly proves to be a little overlong in the end, I think you can do a lot worse than this as far as the comedic part of the genre goes. Hardly essential and I can definitely see why some people think it’s boring, it’s still somewhat enjoyable IMHO though.
Had a Wild East copy of this sitting unopened on the shelf so thought I’d give it a run out as hadn’t seen it for over a decade.
Was actually a bit better than I remembered it. Obviously plenty of brawls with fists on heads but overall not too silly and annoying kid aside a pretty harmless family type movie. The Wild East print was variable as usual but better that the Mill Creek cheapo box set version I watched previously.
Yeah…I need to give this a go again. The first time I watched it, it was a crappy pan & scan dvd.
I then bought the WildEast version, which has remained in my ‘to watch’ pile.
Like Phil, I’ve not been inclined to re-visit it…perhaps due to my initial dislike of the shitty copy that I first watched.
It really is true that the quality of a film makes all the difference.
I’ll make a point of re-visiting it soon, if only to see Bud Spencer and Jack Palance in top form…
Can Be Done… Amigo has been updated to the new layout (3.0). Let us know if you can add anything: pictures, posters, trivia, facts, figures, links, etc…
Tricky one. For starters, it’s way too long for a semi-serious later stage spaghetti with a grumpy/bored Bud Spencer and an annoying smartass little kid. But I like some of the story elements… and I think the movie means well, it just drags too much and Spencer is miscast
I’ve seen few westerns that offend me more than this one. Although I’m not a big fan of Trinity-style spaghetti because their humor is often more childish and stupid, I have to say I expected more because the script is from Rafael Azcona (one of the best spanish comedy screenwriter ever, author of “El Verdugo” or “Plácido”)
Bud Spencer, Jack Palance and Francisco Rabal star in this kind of perversion of “Once Upon a Time in the West” in which a man who has bought a ranch (the SAME ranch that Leone built a few years earlier for Once upon…) suffers a heart attack and entrusts Bud, who was passing by, with the mission of taking his nephew to the property so that the child can take care of it. This ranch, like im Leone’s film (coincidentally), seems to have a hidden value that several people are interested in. So, in this case, Bud would be our Harmonica, a guy who doesn’t use a gun but puts on his glasses when he’s going to hit, the prostitute Jill would be the nephew, who has inherited the ranch without knowing what’s in it (like Jill, she seems to come from a more refined city and doesn’t quite fit in with the Wild West), Francisco Rabal, the priest-sheriff-judge would be Morton, who wants to get the property at all costs and Jack Palance would be Frank, the lethal gunman with an outstanding debt to our protagonist. In the score we have a lazy Bacalov who copies the most playful and silly Morricone’s soundtracks. And that’s it.
Although the bases are the same ones of Once Upon a Time in the West, we will see that the final result will not be the same at all.
I admit that it has some valuable script things, some original jokes like the moment when the lawyer doesn’t finish dying but Bud insists on closing his eyes, Rabal’s all-in-one sheriff concept, the duel that doesn’t take place because the challenger doesn’t want to finish the countdown, etc., but the rest of the plot progresses without any interest between scenes of prolonged blows without rhyme or reason. The photography is quite good and you can see the financial solvency, but it makes you regret why these elements are in charge of such a mediocre film.
The film is rounded off by a very silly and let’s say “sexist” gag that is neither funny nor holds up today… and I don’t think it held up in its day either
Hey, ‘Crazy’ … nothing is quite as bad as ‘Gun’s Gun’ … it’s so bad in every way, and depressing to think this is how the genre ended.
Call me ‘Crazy’ … but I think, ‘It Can Be Done Amigo’ is a masterpiece compared to many revered SWs … I can watch this easily and enjoy it a lot more than either of the ‘Trinity’ films, which I find tediously long and really unfunny.
It’s just a lightweight adventure film with a few mildly amusing scenes … and most of it looks good photographically, thanks to it’s Almeria desert locations.
