Brother Outlaw (1971) Poster

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5/10
Learning Lessons From Leone
heybhc4 August 2012
Director Muller aka Mulargia obviously looked at Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West, but the lesson he took from them is SLOW STUFF DOWN! The stagecoach chase at the start of the movie takes up about ten minutes of outlaws riding in pursuit, the coach racing along the famous "white" road near Rome, built in antiquity by the Roman Empire. Lots of shooting, guys falling off of horses, wheels turning, horse's hooves clattering in the dust. Later on some outlaws wait outside a bank for some money to come out; they check their guns, look tensely at each other, look at the bank, look at their hostages, check their guns again...this goes on for about four minutes as tension builds...or is it tedium? And of course the hero is captured and beaten while the bad guys laugh. They chortle, cackle, and guffaw with each blow that falls. It goes on too long. Otherwise, this is a competent spaghetti of interest to fans of the genre. Tony Kendall is good as the brooding sheriff Dakota, falsely sent to prison by (among others) Dean Stratford as a leather-clad gunman who doesn't like him. Kudos to the stunt team who do a very good job of falling off of buildings, tumbling down cliffs and looking like they are really being hurt. Music is good, a nice soaring trumpet solo as the main theme. Filmed entirely in Italy, at Cinecitta Studio, no Almeria exteriors for this one.
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5/10
Average Spaghetti Western plenty of violence , crossfire and high body-count
ma-cortes11 May 2023
A mediocre example of Latino western genre from Italy . For money, for pleasure , for revenge, he doesn't care why he kills or how . The sheriff (Tony Kendall) of Tombstone is falsely charged with robbery and killing of five men , being condemned to 15 years prison, prompting his brother (James Rogers) to break him out of prison . Slim, Joe's brother, uses a ruse by simulating a official pardon to free the wrongly convicted man from forced labor and a life-threatening situation. Before the time, it is necessary to find the real person responsible for the theft to restore honor . Together the pair set out to find the real culprits, and and search for vengeance and it leads them to a gang of outlaws headed by a a nasty called Donovan (Omero Gargano) and his henchman Alvarez (Dino Strano as Dean Stratford).

This so-so Western contains an interesting but well known plot , violence , shoot'em up and results to be entertaining enough , though drags at times , balancing in ups and downs . This moving Spaghetti packs noisy action , thrills , drama with exciting final . Ordinary Spaghetti Western follows the Sergio Leone wake and it is proceeded in violent style with some looks that say it all . The film packs violence , shootouts , high body-count and it's fast moving with a lot of crossfire . The picture is et in Tombstone, which gained its birth and subsequent notoriety with the discovery of a vein of silver. The city, founded by Ed Schieffelien, the discoverer of the precious metal, gradually gained a dismal reputation, so that the city soon competed with the allegorical Sodom and Gomorrah, the notorious Cattle Town (briefly and concisely definable as a cattle transshipment point ) Dodge City. The most evil figures came to Arizona en masse to get rich as quickly as possible. It's a thrilling western with breathtaking confrontation between protagonist Tony Kendall against the heartless Dino Strano and his underlings . This movie is a lot of fun to watch . It's an acceptable story with a touch of peculiarity , some particular characters, and an amazing music score from Felice Di Stefano and Gianfranco Di Stefano. The basic plot is typical spaghetti western fare , but what makes this movie stands out is its style . This is an exciting film, full of action , thrills , fights , gun-down and rocky outdoors from Lacio , Rome , and interiors in Cinecitta Studios . The notorious Spaghetti actor , Tony Kendall , is acceptable in his usual tough role . The pic is well starred by Tony Kendall who began acting in a series of small roles ,and subsequently starring in all kinds of genres , such as : Eurospy : Agent Joe Walker Operation Far East , Kommissar X or Soft Kill , Death Is Nimble, I fantastici 3 $upermen , Death Is Quick ; Terror : The Return of the Evil Dead, La frusta e il corpo , The Loreley's Grasp and Spaghetti Western : Black Eagle of Santa Fe , The Pirates of Mississippi, I vendicatori dell'Ave Maria . In the picture appears Spaghetti habitual Spaghett secondaries playing brief interventions such as : Dino Strano as Dean Stratford , Benito Pacifico , Attilio Dottesio , among others.

There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes . There is a very odd implementation of shots in the camera work during some particular scenes as the film approaches its climax , as in the final gunfights and the customary showdown conclusion . The movie gets the usual Western issues, such as avenger antiheroes , violent facing off , exaggerated baddies, soundtrack with Morricone influence , among them . The sense of pacing is such that his film can be counted on to move quickly and smoothly . Acceptable production design creating an atmospheric scenario , though mostly set in a little town from Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy . Great musical score by Di Stefano , furthermore a catching and emotive leitmotif . This motion picture titled : Rimase uno solo e fu la morte per tutti! (original title) was professionally but middlingly directed by Edoardo Mulargia though with no originality and it has some flaws and gaps . Edoardo Mulargia directed a lot of Spaghetti as ¨W Djanjo¨, ¨El Puro¨ , ¨Django Spara¨ Cjamngo¨ , ¨Shango¨ , ¨Vete con Dios , Gringo¨, most part starred by Ivan Rassimov , Robert Woods or Anthony Steffen . Rating : 4.5/10. Regular but passable Western that will appeal to Spaghetti fans .
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5/10
Standard, unremarkable, yet still decent enough spaghetti western
Red-Barracuda22 August 2017
One thing I have come to realise over recent years is that there sure are a lot of generic spaghetti westerns out there. There are many which basically mine the exact same central ideas to the point that it is kind of hard distinguishing a lot of them from one another in your mind not long after you have seen them. Brother Outlaw, for better or for worse - it really depends largely on your standpoint with regard to this sub-genre – is essentially another of 'those' Italian westerns. It doesn't bring anything new to the table that I can think of but, at the same time, it was still decent enough and better than quite a few others that I have seen. Its story focuses on a sheriff who is accused wrongly of theft and sent to a hard labour camp. He is unexpectedly released when his outlaw brother tricks the authorities into setting him free. In true spaghetti style he quickly sets about getting a bit of revenge on the criminals who wronged him.

In all honesty I wasn't familiar with the director or any of the cast in this one. But it turned out that Tony Kendall is actually pretty good as the brooding central character. The direction was good enough I thought, if totally by-the-numbers. There is an opening stage coach chase, a bank robbery with copious zooms into a sign displaying the word 'bank' presumably just to double-check you are still paying attention and a requisite scene where our hero is captured, knocked about by laughing banditos and then saved by his partner. In other words, it's sort of more of the same from this sub-genre. I rate it ultimately as a pretty middling effort as it did keep my interest for the most part although, as seems to be increasingly often the case when I watch run-of-the-mill spaghetti westerns I found my mind drifting off in the latter quarter. Still, it was definitely an okay movie overall as far as this type of stuff goes.
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6/10
Solid if unspectacular western
Leofwine_draca27 June 2015
BROTHER OUTLAW is a solid if unspectacular addition to the spaghetti western genre, directed by Eoardo Mulargia, who previously made DON'T WAIT, DJANGO...SHOOT! amongst many other entries in the genre. Thankfully it's much better than the aforementioned film, thanks to a well-paced narrative, plenty of well-directed action, and an interesting plot. It's clear that Mulargia learnt plenty since that earlier western he shot.

The good-looking Tony Kendall plays Dakota, the Sheriff of a small town assailed by bank robbers. This dastardly criminal gang successfully manage to pin the blame for their latest crime on the sheriff, whom is promptly shipped off to a hard labour camp for x amount of years. Thankfully for him his brother is a real outlaw and breaks him out of the camp so that the pair can track down and bring justice to the real culprits.

This is an affectionately-made western with all the usual tropes of the genre: the opening stage coach chase (which goes on for about ten minutes but feels like an hour), the hero getting captured and beaten and escaping, lots of duels, shoot-outs and people getting shot off horses, plus some very nice location photography with Italian landscapes standing in for the Old West. Kendall was always an adept hero and he's well supported by a game cast. BROTHER OUTLAW is no classic but it's certainly an entertaining enough entry in a crowded genre.
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