Review of 'Bandolero'

This is an underrated Western that gets no critical respect. This is
because the director Andrew McLaglen came from a TV background and took
orders from Duke in a series of late Wayne Westerns. However, he also
did some above average work, including both Shenandoah and Bandolero.
This scored a 6 out of 10 in my IMDb rating, which is very good and
tallied 15 points in my ranking system, a very good score.

Here's what I thought was good about this movie:

- The co-leads, Dean Martin and James Stewart are great in this. James
Stewart is just a wonderful comedic actor. It's a shame Anthony Mann
didn't have a sense of humor. He underused Stewart in his 1950's
Westerns. In addition to Stewart's wonderful part at the beginning as a
fake hangman, there are a number of back and forths between he and
Martin later in the movie that are as good as the dialog between
Stewart and Widmark in "Two Rode Together".

- George Kennedy is another very underrated actor and like Dean Martin,
he's an underrated comedic actor. Kennedy really fills up the screen
like few actors can.

- I admit I've had a life long crush on Raquel Welch. She looks great
in this and her character has quite a bit of depth. I bought the
romantic subplot between her and Martin. Hostage/captor thing, you
know.

- McLaglen does a nice job of keeping the story moving. They don't get
stuck in Val Verde.

- There are extended location shoots in Glen Canyon in Utah that are
absolutely stunning.

- Excellent use of Civil War and Mexican themes.

- Good music score

- As mentioned, good use of comic relief throughout.

There were a number of things that kept this movie from being better:

- There was basically no heavy. The Mexican bandidos were almost
completely undeveloped. This severely undercut the dramatic tension in
the story, especially since there was so much humor. At some point,
humor can cease to be counterpoint to relieve dramatic tension and a
movie becomes a comedy. This almost happens to Bandalero and is one
reason why it's not taken seriously by critics.

- The night camp studio sets were very artificial looking.

- The ending felt abrupt and contrived.

- The body count in the final shoot 'em up scene was unnecessarily
high. The bandidos are pretty ridiculously stereotyped. Maybe that's
why they didn't shoot in Mexico. They wouldn't let them.

- More on the final shootout, McLaglen commits the cardinal sin of
having the stupid brown skinned bandidos ride around endlessly out in
the open, making themselves perfect targets, while the white people
pick them off from well protected hiding spots. Of course, 20 bandidos
ride in, 40 are killed, and 20 ride out. They run like rabbits when
their "jefe" is killed. All implausible and ridiculous

- Finally, exactly what happened to the real hangman? Stewart must have
killed him. Inconsistent with his character.

"All I can see is the flags"