Poster for The Mercenary
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Year
1968
Country
Spain · Italy
Runtime
101 min
Director
Sergio Corbucci
Updated
9 Aug 2026
Obscurity
known (29/100)
Also known as
A Professional Gun · Revenge Of A Gunfighter

The Mercenary

Corbucci's Zapata western. A Polish gun-for-hire, a peasant revolutionary, and Jack Palance in a frock.

Sergio Corbucci's rousing Zapata western, in which a cynical Polish mercenary is hired to protect a Mexican mine and ends up entangled with a peasant who becomes a revolutionary. Franco Nero and Tony Musante play the mismatched pair, and Jack Palance is a memorably foppish, flower-loving villain.

Morricone and Bruno Nicolai provide one of the great spaghetti scores. It balances real political content with pure entertainment better than almost any film in the cycle, and the bullring finale is superb. One of Corbucci's most purely enjoyable films.

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