Texas, Adios (1966)

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.

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.

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.