100 Rifles (1969)

Absolutely the worst movie.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

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

"100 Rifles" is an adventure western set in Mexico with former pro football player Jim Brown cast as a sheriff and Burt Reynolds as a Mexican who purchased the titular number of rifles. Raquel Welch is the daughter of a revolutionary soldier who is hanged at the beginning. These three unlikely allies team up to contend with Fernando Lamas and Eric Braeden. Director Tom Gries is better known for his realistic Charlton Heston cowboy classic "Will Penny." Although "Will Penny" is a better all-around western with a largely believable plot, "100 Rifles" qualifies as an exciting, scenic western set below the border that appeared after Spaghetti westerns had popularized the Mexican revolution. Nevertheless, "100 Rifles" is a lot of fun. Reportedly, Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds got off on the wrong foot, and the beautiful Welch hated Reynolds so much that when they co-starred again with him in "Fuzz" she had most of her scenes filmed when Reynolds was not present. Fans of Mexican revolutionary westerns will enjoy this bullet-riddled romp. When "100 Rifles" came out, interracial romances were in their infancy on the big screen. Brown and Welch share a couple of scenes together. Jerry Goldsmith's orchestral score is very atmospheric and contributes to the suspenseful tension. The advertising campaign for this outdoors film was clever. "This picture has a message—watch out." Novelist Clair Huffaker, who wrote the novel for the John Wayne western "The War Wagon," co-scripted this turn-of-the-century horse opera with Gries, based on Robert MacLeod's novel. For the record, MacLeod penned the novel that served as the basis for the Marlon Brando oater "The Appaloosa." "100 Rifles" was lensed on location in Spain.

100 Rifles was release in Australia at the beginning of March and wasn't release in New York City until March 26, 1969. 100 Rifles is a 1969 western directed by Tom Gries. The film stars Jim Brown, Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch, and Fernando Lamas. Jerry Goldsmith composed the original music.Summary: In the early 1900's, Yaqui Joe, a half-breed Indian, robs an Arizona bank and flees across the border into the Mexican town of Nogales where the governor, General Verdugo, aided by a German military adviser, Von Klemme, is waging a war of annihilation against the Yaqui Indians. Verdugo captures Joe and orders him shot, whereupon Lyedecker, a black American deputy assigned to bring the half-breed back to the States, intervenes, and is himself arrested. The two men escape to the hills where Sarita, a beautiful Indian revolutionary, joins them. After Joe has revealed that he used the bank loot to purchase 100 rifles for the Indians, General Verdugo once more captures the two men and orders them shot. Determined to see that the rifles reach her people, Sarita leads an attack on the General's hacienda and frees the two men as well as the rifles. Enraged, Lyedecker, finally on over to both Sarita and the Indian cause, rescues the children, and vows to destroy Verdugo.Question: What did Verdugo storm Yaqui village. Who finally won over both Sarita and the Indians? Who took over the leadership of the Yaquis? Why did Lyedecker ambushes Verdugo's train? Who distracted the attention of the soldiers? Why was the railroad manager, Grimes, captured by the Indians? Who outwitted the General? Now a few thoughts about this picture. I thought Jim brown was excellent in his role as Lyle Decker. Not only were Brown and excellent football player he was a good actor. What can you say about Burt Reynolds that hasn't already been said. He was usually his funny self with ways of getting out of trouble like any actor I know. Finally Raquel Welch! Her role as Sarita was fantastic the way she handle herself in the entire picture. The part where she's changing he clothes in the tent and the shower part under the watering tank was the best part of the movie. I give this picture 10 star for two reasons. The first and the most important was Raquel Welch as the leading woman with her beautiful body and her fantastic mine. The second reason because if you like action this movie had it and plenty of it.Some Trivia about this movie: Though this movie has often been called a "spaghetti western," it actually isn't. That term is applied to westerns that were filmed by European companies (usually Italian), with a European (usually Italian) cast and crew and shot in Spain, because its terrain closely resembles the northeast Mexico/southwest US area. Although this film was shot in Spain, an American studio (20th Century-Fox) filmed it with an American director, producer, writers, and mostly American crew. Star Burt Reynolds' previous film, Navajo Joe, would be properly regarded as a "spaghetti western," but not this one.

So American westerns sucked after The Magnificent Seven, and Italian westerns took over and they were the best. Many American directors started trying to rip off the Italians and they failed big time, here is an absolutely perfect example.It's about a man who is a wanted bank robber who flees to Mexico and buys guns for his Native American people and then he makes the Mexican officials mad and has to run from them as well as a sheriff sent to catch him for the bank robbery. The sheriff gets involved with helping him and it becomes a war of Indians vs. Mexicans.That sounds like it had potential, but they didn't pull it off. Director Tom Gries did a really good job a year before on Will Penny, but he lost it here. This movie tries way too hard to be Italian, it's filmed in Spain and has so many clichés it's not even funny. But wait, it was funny...it tried humor as an additive but it didn't help. Where was the blood, until the final fight at the end, there is no blood and very little then. There was nothing special about the sets, or direction, or cinematography. The music was really bad too, It was way over the top cliché and so much that it hurt the flow of this film. One shot made me laugh hard with a little pistol shooting through 3 Indians, ummm no thats not gonna even make it half way through the first guy.Burt Reynolds is a good actor, but not for this type of role, I wish they had cast someone better for this role, I mean half of the Indians and Mexicans were Italian, it has been a standard though in these films, but Italians and American Italians are two different things appearance wise.Raquel Welsh was laugh out loud funny as an Indian, wow and did she look out of place..and that accent, wow - perhaps the worst casting I have ever seen. Jim Brown now...no problems at all from him, he's a truly magnificent actor and did well in blaxploitation and westerns. He and Raquel had a big make out scene which was aimed to draw in fans of Welsh's beauty, but it really sucked and brought this movie down.Very little on action here, the last 15 minutes was decent, but I can't recommend it.. 2 out of 10 stars.

In 1966, future cult starlet Soledad Miranda traded her artistic life for family life and took a two-year break from performing. She decided to return to cinema when offered a role in 100 Rifles. Soledad appears at the beginning of the movie in a scene with Burt Reynolds. They are in a hotel and are lovers; Soledad demands money from him, but he refuses and it gets a little rough. Their fracas on the hotel balcony (where Soledad is topless) is witnessed by all the townspeople. A Spanish journalist who saw the film in London wrote that Soledad's "charms" had nothing to envy of Raquel Welch's, and begged the Spanish censors to let her countrymen see and admire all that God had given her!