Strictly average movie

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Bandolero! is directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and written by Stanley Hough and James Lee Barrett. It stars James Stewart, Dean Martin, Raquel Welch and George Kennedy. A Panavision/De Luxe color production, music is by Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography by William H. Clothier.Initially set in Texas, 1867, the pic in short plot form entails the leading men, ruffian robbers with a glint in their eye, and leading lady, on a road trip of some discomfort. They are being pursued by the law led by George Kennedy, whilst having to deal with internal fighting and a date with blood thirsty Mexican bandits.Bubbling away in the mix is the tale of two brothers (Stewart and Martin) who went different ways during the Civil War, the conversations of such between the two most potent and worth sampling. Add in Welch for dressage and sexual tension, with Kennedy's stoic lawman in pursuit of both her and the outlaws, and it's got firecrackers simmering in the narrative. Hanging and the threat of sexual assault further stokes the fires, all while we are asked to take seriously guys with names like July Johnson and Roscoe Bookbinder!McLaglen directs with competent hands befitting the occasion, in other words let your star named cast operate without mugging for the camera - with the visual ticks of Stewart and Kennedy a joy as opposed to doing down the material. Goldsmith's score is a bit too modern sounding for the time period of story setting, but as expected it's a blood stirrer. While locales are most pleasing as the great Clothier cements his status as a Western genre legend.Ultimately with the cast assembled it really should be a far better film than what it is, but if nothing else, the odd blend of humour and serious themes makes for an intriguing viewing. Whilst as Kennedy slots in to steal the film from his more illustriously named co-stars, it's enough to just enjoy a cast and director comfortably at work. 7/10

If you're Catholic and you grew up in Spokane, Washington in the 60s and 70s, then there is a chance you used to read the Spokane Diocese's newspaper, The Inland Register. In it, movies would be reviewed not on their stories or acting but on their moral content. If a movie received an "M.O.", morally-objectionable, you were not to see the movie.For a future "fallen" Catholic like myself, the worse the rating in the IR, the better! I don't know for sure, but I'm betting Andrew V. McLaglen's Bandolero received the kiss of moral death by the folks at Lourdes Cathedral. What would have been exciting and appealing to a 17 year old is now viewed as repulsive trash, with two Old West recidivists (Jimmy Stewart and Dean Martin) running from the law (George Kennedy) with hostage Raquel Welch (Dow Corning) in tow.As Judith Crist used to say "the blood flows like Chianti" in Bandolero. There are no good guys except for Kennedy and his deputy Andrew Prine, and they're almost-but-not-quite cognitively impaired. Martin is too far gone for redemption as he slaughters his way across the desert while falling in love with non-actress Welch. His crew oozes with rapists and murderers, but we're supposed to cut Dino some slack because at least he feels a twinge of remorse for his deeds.Then there's Martin's brother, Stewart, who we are expected to believe is the better of the two brothers. That's a little hard to accomplish when he meets up with a hangman-for-hire and, offscreen, ices the poor shlub without so much as a sigh.By the end of movie, the bad guys and the good guys have teamed up to kill other badder guys, and the sand of a Mexican town is fairly spongy with blood.Bandolero is a nauseating mess, better left at the nearest distribution center of Netflix, unless you're hooked on Chianti.

I don't think this is a typical western at all. For the first half-hour it keeps viewers in the dark about situations and at points its twists seem more like those of a film noir. It also has an odd shift in tone. The first 1/3 is pretty light and it gets progressively grimmer and darker as the characters head south into Mexico. I think the key to its excellence is that there is a moral drama going on here between James Stewart and Dean Martin and they are both excellent and very moving. The fact that they are two of my favorite actors obviously has something to do with my opinion. In particular, Dean is much better then his reputation would suggest. The film has a very exciting climax, good supporting cast, some good dialog and is nicely shot, in Panavision, by western specialist William Clothier and has a Morricone-inspired score by the great Jerry Goldsmith.

Bandolero! is a run of the mill western which benefits from a watchable cast. This was the only time James Stewart and Dean Martin appeared in the same movie, i believe. The screenwriter James Lee Barrett would also write The Cheyenne Social Club, teaming Stewart with Henry Fonda. A movie which also shares the same cinematographer as this one, William Clothier, who shot billions of westerns.But i'll be honest, being a man and all, i naturally watched this mainly for Raquel Welch. Although at this point in her career, she wasn't given much to do in movies except for wearing skimpy outfits or playing the damsel in distress, the latter of which she plays here. She was still a few years away from taking charge of her own western, Hannie Caulder. A movie that is shockingly still not on DVD, (taps my foot, waiting for an explanation). Despite Welch having a supporting role, you wouldn't know that from looking at the DVD cover which has a big picture of her front and center.Aside from the cast, there's really not much else to rave about with this one. It's just an average western that is a nice time passer while it's on, and then pretty much forgotten within hours after watching it. Something that can be said for pretty much every western that came out in 1968.