Cannon for Cordoba Review
- 1970
- Dir: Paul Wendkos
- Cast: George Peppard, Raf Vallone, Giovanna Ralli, Pete Duel, Don Gordon, John Russel, Aldo Sanbrell, Dan van Husen, Hans meyer, Soledad Miranda
In Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch bandits dressed up like U.S. army soldiers rob a bank and subsequently cross the Mexican border. In Cannon for Cordoba the border is crossed by U.S. army soldiers dressed up like bandits, and they’re not flying to Mexico, they’re sent there, to fight revolutionaries, who are called bandits without any restraint or hesitation. In other words: we’re on right-wing, counter-revolutionary territory here, with a movie that must have served the Nixon administration very well in their struggle with anti-Vietnam war demonstrators and young radical groups in the US. Tricky Dicky’s wet dream, so to speak.
The film is set in 1912. Groups of Mexican revolutionary bandits are having surprise raids on both sides of the border. When six cannons are stolen by the renegade general Cordoba, the American general Pershing (Russell) thinks it’s high time for some radical measures ‘to prevent that any of these cannons will ever be used against the American people’. Since the American Army is not allowed to cross the border with Mexico, an elite group, led by the tough, iconoclastic Captain Douglas (Peppard) is sent into the heart of Cordoba’s territory.
The first half hour of the movie, strongly influenced by The Wild Bunch (even if it changes that film's premise), is by far the best part of the movie. It’s strong on tension and atmosphere and rounded off with a well-choreographed, large scale massacre scene, but once we’re passed it, the film takes a more whimsical turn. Despite the Mexican setting it often reminded me of those WWII adventures like The Guns from Navarone or Operation Crossbow, about groups sent to hostile territory with a special assignment, usually the neutralization of a majestic weapon. Ironically the Mexican villains sound a little like the Nazis in those movies, talking some kind of pseudo-American gibberish to each other (even when there are no Americans around) instead of their native tongue. The problem is that our conception of Mexican revolutionaries (even when they have turned to banditry) is radically different from that of the Nazis, which makes the waters this movie is fishing in more than a bit murky. One of the members briefly mentions there’s a people’s revolution going on in Mexico, and that he doesn’t want to disturb it, but nothing’s really done with the idea. There’s also a particularly nasty torture scene early on in the movie to convince us this general Cordoba is a monster, but it all feels a little awkward. Still, if you’re are looking for a tough action movie, you could do a lot worse. The camerawork is a bit show-off, but the action scenes are well-handled, Aldo Sanbrell and Giovanna Ralli (Columba from The Mercenary!) are representing the spaghetti western community, and it’s nice to see that by then George Peppard had already developed the cigar chewing habit from The A Team. He doesn’t even loose his cigar when he’s smacked in the face. Old smokers never die.
--By Scherpschutter
