Texas, Adios (1966)

ridiculous rating

Let's be realistic.

Just so...so bad

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Rugged Texas sheriff Burt Sullivan (Franco Nero in fine two-fisted form) and his naive younger brother Jim (likable Alberto Dell'Aqua) head deep into Mexico to arrest the man who murdered their father. The pair find themselves trapped in a lawless and dangerous land in the wake of uncovering a shocking family secret. Director Ferdinando Baldi, who also co-wrote the compact script with Franco Rossetti, relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, maintains a tough serious tone throughout, and stages the plentiful exciting shoot-outs with aplomb. Nero and Dell'Aqua display a natural and engaging chemistry in the leads. The neat array of dastardly villains helps a lot: Joe Guardiola as the suavely slimy McLeod, Livio Lorenzon as sadistic bandito leader Alcade Miguel, and, best of all, Jose Suarez as the deliciously nasty and ruthless Cisco Delgado. The tragic ending packs a devastating emotional punch. Enzo Barboni's crisp widescreen cinematography provides an impressively expansive sense of scope. Anton Garcia's spare, yet stirring score hits the spot. A worthwhile oater.

These days you forget what a name Nero was in the Sixties and Seventies. In 1966, the former army grunt turned physical actor starred in three westerns within six months - Django, Massacre Time and Texas Adios - before heading to Hollywood for a supporting role in Camelot, and then international stardom. It was as Django, however, that turned him into a major star in Europe; Nero as the steel-eyed Angel of Death dragging a coffin behind him personified the fashionable neo-nihilism of the Italian western and made him as iconic as the Kings of the Squint, Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef.Texas Adios, released in 1966, was a much more deliberately American western. Franco Nero is a clear-cut moral figure as Burt Sullivan, sheriff in a Texas town who takes his younger womanizing brother Jim across the border to find their father's killer, the mysterious "Delgado". It's Adios Texas and Hola Mexico, but the country they find is more hostile than Burt imagined. It's a lawless landscape where no-one can be trusted, controlled by morally bankrupt power brokers and would-be revolutionaries, and Delgado turns out to be the most powerful land baron in Mexico who likes to play with his captives before executing them. What begins as a simple quest for revenge becomes much more ambiguous as the plot unfolds and family secrets are revealed.Like all great Italian westerns, Texas Adios is beautifully shot by Enzo Barboni, who as "EB Clutcher" would later create his own sub-genre of Trinity movies with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. And, despite its allusions to the classic models of Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart, it's a spaghetti western at heart, and its heart is cold and cruel. "Are you tired of living (pronounced 'leeeeving')?" asks Delgado's greasy right hand man, and the answer seems to be a resounding yes: sympathetic characters are disposed of with little fanfare, and Nero's idealistic younger brother Jim played by Alberto Dell'Acqua is taught that becoming a man means becoming immune to killing.Me, I'm already numb to the wholesale slaughter, and you will be too, as we ride the blood-soaked plains in Texas Adios.

Like almost every Western starring Franco Nero after Sergio Corbucci's 1966 masterpiece "Django", "Texas, Addio" was marketed as a Django-sequel in Germany and Austria. Although it has neither anything to do with Django, nor is it anywhere near "Django" in it's value as one of the genre's highlights, Texas Addio is still a good Spaghetti Western. Besides the great Franco Nero it features typical Spaghetti Western supporting actors like Luigi Pistilli, Livio Lorenzon and Gino Pernice. When It comes to Ferdinando Baldi's Westerns, however, I would personally recommend "Blindman" way over "Texas Addio".Along with his younger brother Jim, Burt Sullivan, a former Sheriff in Texas, leaves to Mexico to search and capture his father's murderer, Cisco Delgado, and bring him to justice...alive. Cisco, however, has in the meantime become a powerful landowner and crime boss.Franco Nero has once said that out of all the Westerns he played in, "Texas Addio" is the only one that could also be an American Western. This is kinda true, on the one hand, since Nero's character Burt Sullivan is not the typical anti-hero, but a man who is looking to bring his father's murderer to justice alive, rather than just taking revenge. On the other hand some characters, like the grouchy and cynical Alcalde Miguel, played by Livio Lorenzo, are very typical Spaghetti-characters. Franco Nero's performance is great as always, many of the supporting actors are very good too. All things considered, "Texas Addio" is a fairly good Spaghetti Western, not one of the genre's highlights, but definitely worth watching.

Before watching the movie, I watched the interview with Franco Nero that's on the disc. When he said that this western is "more like an American western" than any of his other movies I began to worry since I generally don't care for American westerns.The opening theme song of the movie is decidedly Euro-western, so that gave me some hope. Then the story began. The beginning scenes of the movie when they are in Texas are kind of hokey and corny in an American western sort of way, so I started to doubt the worth of this movie again. Fortunately this part of the movie is very short. The Sullivan brothers head off to Mexico and that's where the story unfolds and quickly becomes one hundred percent spaghetti western.The music score is very good, with lots of spaghetti style trumpets and guitar. The theme song becomes a haunting recurring melody.Franco Nero gives another action packed performance in this movie. His character, Burt Sullivan, has an uncanny ability with a gun that's reminiscent of Django. Jose Suarez is excellent in the role of the slimy land baron who murdered Sullivan's father, and Jose Guardiola is great as his cultured crony McLeod.Needless to say, this movie was much better than I expected after hearing Franco Nero's comments. This is definitely not an American western! If you like your spaghetti westerns packed with action and revenge Franco Nero style, do yourself a favor and check this one out.