The Five Man Army
| The Five Man Army | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Don Taylor |
| Produced by | Italo Zingarelli |
| Screenplay by |
Marc Richards Dario Argento |
| Starring |
Peter Graves James Daly Bud Spencer Nino Castelnuovo Tetsuro Tamba |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
| Cinematography | Enzo Barboni |
| Edited by | Sergio Montanari |
Production company |
Tiger Film |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release dates | October 16, 1969 |
Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language |
Italian English |
The Five Man Army (Italian: Un esercito di 5 uomini) is a 1969 Italian Zapata Western film taking place during the Mexican Revolution.[1]
The film was directed by Don Taylor and featured a script by a young Dario Argento. Starring as a group of five men enlisted to rob a train containing a shipment of gold were Peter Graves, James Daly, Bud Spencer, Nino Castelnuovo and Tetsuro Tamba. The film's score was composed by Ennio Morricone.
Plot
The rebels want the "Dutchman" (Peter Graves) to rob a train carrying $500,000 in gold on behalf of Victoriano Huerta to finance the Mexican Revolution. So the Dutchman enlists four other men, a strong man (Bud Spencer), an acrobat (Nino Castelnuovo), an explosives specialist (James Daly), and a samurai (Tetsuro Tamba), promising to reward each one a thousand dollars. Their first undertaking is to save the rebel leader from being executed.
After thwarting the execution and having caused a riot in the village, the five men are forced to flee, along with all the civilians, in order to prevent reprisals. Nevertheless, some soldiers still manage to find them and bring them to the local Mexican Army commandant. They manage to escape, killing the soldiers and dynamiting the fort's magazine. A squad of soldiers manage to pick up their trail. All seems lost when suddenly, in a gorge, dozens of revolutionaries cover the escape of the five men. The few revolutionaries are vastly outnumbered, but this serves to make the five men understand how important the success of their business. The train is heavily defended by a cannon, machine guns, and dozens of soldiers. The difficult robbery succeeds. However, the other men never believed that the Dutchman would really give the gold to the revolutionaries, but would divide it evenly between them. The Dutchman wants to respect the agreement, though, having his personal reasons.
In the final showdown, the Five Man Army kills all soldiers, and the Mexicans arrive to celebrate the men as heroes.
DVD
The Five Man Army was released to DVD by Warner Home Video on September 11, 2012 via the Warner Archive DVD-on-demand system available through Amazon.
See also
- Adima Changala, a 1981 Indian remake
References
- ↑ "Esercito di cinque uomini, Un". spaghetti-western.net. Retrieved 2014-04-25.