Joaquín Romero Marchent's "Condenados A Vivir" aka. "Cut-Throats Nine" is a raw and uncompromising film about survival, hate and violence, that has the reputation of being the most violent Eurowestern. And for good reasons - The most violent or not, it certainly is the goriest Eurowestern out there (I'm not calling it a Spaghetti Western since the film is Spanish and Claudio Undari is the only Ialian actor involved in it), and the movie is full of entirely despicable characters and a constant atmosphere of hate, greed and brutality.
Sgt. Brown (Claudio Undari) is to escort a bunch of dangerous criminals through a mountain wasteland in a cold winter. The Seargant's beautiful daughter (Emma Cohen) is also traveling with her father and the prisoners, who are chained together. Convinced that it transports gold, a gang ambushes the coach in the middle of nowhere, and the Seargant, his daughter and the seven murderous, blood-thirsty prisoners are forced to walk...
"Cut-Throats Nine" is a gruesome Eurowestern that is, in some aspects, atypical for the Western genre. There is not too much gunplay, for example. Gore-fans will be pleased to hear that there is a lot of more explicit violence, such as cutting, burning and stabbing instead. The (well-deserved) reputation as the goriest Eurowestern is not the only reason to watch his film, that not only Spaghetti Western enthusiasts like myself should enjoy. Any fan of brutal, uncompromising, pessimistic cinema should be pleased by this hero-less movie, in which almost every character is a real bastard. The bleak winter mountain setting reminds of Sergio Corbucci's masterpiece "The Great Silence" of 1968, although the locations and photography are, of course, not nearly as impressive here.
"Condenados A Vivir" may not be everybody's taste, but it is definitely a film experience that one is not likely to forget. Uncompromising, brutal and not for the fainthearted, "Cut-Throats Nine" is highly recommended to any fan of Eurowesterns and Gore-flicks!
Sgt. Brown (Claudio Undari) is to escort a bunch of dangerous criminals through a mountain wasteland in a cold winter. The Seargant's beautiful daughter (Emma Cohen) is also traveling with her father and the prisoners, who are chained together. Convinced that it transports gold, a gang ambushes the coach in the middle of nowhere, and the Seargant, his daughter and the seven murderous, blood-thirsty prisoners are forced to walk...
"Cut-Throats Nine" is a gruesome Eurowestern that is, in some aspects, atypical for the Western genre. There is not too much gunplay, for example. Gore-fans will be pleased to hear that there is a lot of more explicit violence, such as cutting, burning and stabbing instead. The (well-deserved) reputation as the goriest Eurowestern is not the only reason to watch his film, that not only Spaghetti Western enthusiasts like myself should enjoy. Any fan of brutal, uncompromising, pessimistic cinema should be pleased by this hero-less movie, in which almost every character is a real bastard. The bleak winter mountain setting reminds of Sergio Corbucci's masterpiece "The Great Silence" of 1968, although the locations and photography are, of course, not nearly as impressive here.
"Condenados A Vivir" may not be everybody's taste, but it is definitely a film experience that one is not likely to forget. Uncompromising, brutal and not for the fainthearted, "Cut-Throats Nine" is highly recommended to any fan of Eurowesterns and Gore-flicks!