A Bullet for the General

The most openly political of the Zapata cycle, and the sharpest. An American gun for hire attaches himself to a Mexican bandit turned revolutionary, and the film slowly reveals which of them understands what the revolution is actually for.

Damiano Damiani directs it as a genuine argument about solidarity and betrayal, with Gian Maria Volonte excellent as the bandit and a young Klaus Kinski as a Bible-quoting killer. The final line is a call to arms.

A western that means its politics. One of the cycle's most substantial films.