Texas, Adios (1966)

Please don't spend money on this.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Franco Nero said in an interview that this was much more like American Westerns and he was right. Unfortunately, I think many that have grown to think of Rodriguez's Mariachi trilogy, or, heaven forbid Tarantino's Django trash, may think that a Spaghetti Western is so purely because of its style. If so, this one won't disappoint you. It is stylistically well done.But that's not what made Spaghetti Westerns what they were. Before the death of the Hollywood "Production Code", there was a BIG difference in terms of the subtext, the message of the movie. American Westerns of the '50s were terrorist morality tales, where the sheriff is the good guy, clean shaved, and Mexicans and Indians are terrorists out to be subdued by the morally righteous Yankees. The radical left in Italy systematically deconstructed that with protagonists that seldom saw a razor, were morally ambiguous, and the tin star was, as so directly put by the sheriff in "Sartana the Gravedigger", "just for show". In many in the genre the pillars of society are the most violent and morally corrupt individuals in the picture. Gringo intervention in Mexico is a analogy for the Viet Nam war. Only Sam Peckinpah did that within the American system. His "Major Dundee" deliberately deconstructs the worst colonial assumptions of "Rio Grande", particularly in the final scenes.This is the opposite of that. Here, a Mexican revolutionary pleads with the heroes to help the cause because "you two are Americans. You're both free. You went through this already. You understand". While that might seem, on the face of it, to be the poor struggling against the system, it's embracing the colonial assumption of the US as the world's policeman, and recreating that moral righteousness. In that sense this is much more in the vein of a Ford movie than a Damiani Western. So, for me, this isn't a Spaghetti Western for the same reason Tarantino's are not, though this one is not nearly so vacuous. A real Spaghetti Western is the product of a mentality which promoted leftist struggle of the poor against their oppressors. Jean Pierre Gorin, Jean- Luc Goddard's creative partner, put it best- "every Marxist on the block wanted to make a Western". None of them would have made this one.

Quite pleasantly surprised by the quality of this movie. Sure, it's not perfectly made, the dubbing leaves much to be desired, as with most spag westerns that I've seen so far, but the cinematography is good - at least it goes to show the Spaniards are indeed capable of selecting appropriate locations to do their films, the fact that it's about two white gringos who travel to Mexico where most of the story occurs makes it more interesting. Franco Nero plays Burt Sullivan, a tough tin-star lawman with the reputation of being a quick draw on the pistol and capturing bad guys like rabbits. Weary of the adulation heaped on him, he leaves Texas on a personal quest to find and bring back to justice the man who murdered his father when he was a little boy. Accompaying him is his wet-behind-the-ears brother Jim, who has an eye for the ladies and draws banjo strings better than a gun, but whom Burt loves and protects nevertheless. They cross the Rio Grande to Mexico, asking for information about the man they seek. Turns out that he's the wealthiest and most feared despot for miles around. The revelation of a long-kept family secret complicates Burt's mission to capture the man. There's lots of action chili-peppered throughout the movie, the usual gunplay and brawls in the bar, and some torture scenes best left to the imagination. All in all quite watchable with a glass of Coke and nachos on the side.

im glad i just saw the movie for the first time. why? i didnt have to be so damned concerned about the "poor dubbing" some are whining about. the dvd comes with the italian track!! anyway, i never have complained about a films poor dubbing job. im much more into any film to sometimes notice. i may giggle a little....but its not that distracting. i also get a kick out of how many people cant handle "keoma" because of the music. whatever. i thought it kinda fit...so im weird. TEXAS ADDIO is a great story with solid action again featuring the italian gun-slingin master, franco nero. i really enjoy that guy and im looking forward to him with the dvd release of "django". i have over 1000 dvds in my collection but my euro-western section is only 21 titles long with more on the way. "texas.." is most welcome in my collection and worth repeated veiwings. many j. wayne films sit close to the sketti titles but they have nothing to do with each other except for that they are all great westerns. also close by is "dead man" with j. depp....a great film but comparing and sizing up actors and titles is a waste of time for me. also see "the great silence" and "bullet for the general" if you have not checked them out yet. youll find nice dvds of each on shelves now.

Sheriff Burt Sullivan and his younger brother Jim want to take revenge for their murdered father and say "Good bye, Texas!" to head for Cisco Delgado, the hiss-and-hate bad guy, who resides in Mexico. Unlike in many other Spaghetti Westerns the hero is never really slick and instead decides for an against-all-odds approach. The darkness of other serious spaghetti westerns is missing.The sung score is memorable, the cinematography of Enzo Barboni is mediocre, Franco Nero is good as usual while the other actors do their job with little ambition. Overall this Western has average quality.5 / 10.