It is a performances centric movie

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

A BULLET FOR SANDOVAL is a dark and mean-spirited spaghetti western that offers a leading role for genre stalwart George Hilton who has a more involved reason for revenge than most. He plays a gunslinger whose pregnant girlfriend falls ill, leaving him to bring up his son alone. Unfortunately for him, his girlfriend's tyrannical father kicks him out, leading to tragic circumstances. Hilton then goes gunning for revenge. This is a great story, but the film as a whole gets dragged in one too many sub-plots that are utilised merely to pad out the running time. The budget is obviously low and aside from an entertaining Borgnine the performances are understated. It could have been so much better.

I'm not really a fan of westerns myself, but someone told me that this is a classic spaghetti western and that I must see it. Well, i did and let me tell you, I was not impressed. The casting first of all has something to be desired. They hired a South American actor, George Hilton to play an American soldier, John Warner, who goes AWOL to see his dying girlfriend, Rosa. Her father, Don Sandoval, a Mexican lord, despises Warner and blames him for his daughter's death.Well, Rosa died not necessarily because of childbirth, but probably from cholera. Don Sandoval is played by American actor, Ernest Borgnine. So, you have a Hispanic playing an American, and an American playing a Mexican. But wait, there's more. Warner reaches Don Sandoval's home, comes in, sees Sandoval and is about to leave, when Rosa's brother begs his father to let Warner see his infant son. So, Sandoval tells Warner to take the baby and leave. Warner hides out with the infant, and tries to get some milk for the baby while visiting a town, but the townspeople turn him away. Eventually, we don't know whether the baby died of starvation or from cholera. But, Warner swears that he'll get revenge for his son's death. So, for the rest of the movie, you see Warner and Sandoval plotting revenge against each other. But in the end, Warner's involved in a bloody shootout, and let's just say that Sandoval never got his.

Bullet for Sandoval, A (1969) *** (out of 4)Interesting Spaghetti Western takes place during the Civil War when a soldier (George Hilton) gets word that his pregnant girlfriend is dying. By the time he reaches the house she has died and her jealous father (Ernest Borgnine) makes him leave with their newborn son. Without the resources to take care of the child, it dies and soon the soldier sets out for revenge. This film has a great revenge story going for it but by the time it ended I was pretty mad at the movie because it could have been so much better. The film has several subplots and none of them are as interesting as the revenge story so these subplots get in the way and in the end they really pull the film back some. The film's main story is still good enough to make this worth watching as it features some great action sequences as well as two good performances by the leads. Hilton is very good in his mainly silent role and Borgnine delivers a maniac style performance. The ending is very strange and bizarre but it works well with the film even though the revenge takes a few different turns.

Now people who know me will tell you I'm into westerns. Spaghetti or otherwise. So when I found this DVD for less than $10, I thought I had stumbled across a bit of a bargain. Fulci co-directing a western? Bring it on!!! But after viewing I felt somewhat... indifferent. On one hand the film exudes atmosphere and does a great job building towards a climax. On the other hand you have an anti climactic ending where the bandit Warner leaves his enemy Sandoval (Borgnine) at the mercy of a rampaging bull rather than finishing him off himself like a real man.That's why I was disappointed! Sandoval didn't get the bullet promised in the title, he got a bull!!! But I guess "It's a bull for Sandoval" just doesn't sound right!