Celebrating Sergio Corbucci’s The Specialists

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The Specialists (Gli Specialisti) is an underrated 1969 spaghetti western from famed Italian director and genre mastermind Sergio Corbucci (Django, Navajo Joe). This outing stars French rock ‘n roll legend and actor Johnny Hallyday (L’homme du train, Vengeance) as a mysterious, yet notorious gunslinger who rides into a small town investigating what happened to his slain brother, alleged to have robbed a bank and stashed the loot, but the pieces don’t entirely fit.

Hud Dixon (Hallyday), whose tough and intimidating reputation precedes him, rides into the paranoid town of Blackstone and he soon encounters various characters along the way. These include the well-meaning, pacifist Sheriff Gedeon (Gastone Moschin, The Godfather Part II) who immediately disarms him, a seductive female banker (Françoise Fabian, My Night with Maud) who definitely bears some secrets, a one-armed Mexican bandit and former ally named El Diablo (Mario Adorf, The Tin Drum), a group of vagabonds, and a whole town left terrified or awe-struck in Hud’s presence.

As with Corbucci’s best known work, his stunning visuals and picturesque locations make an eye-popping cinematic background to the unpredictable violence and often barbaric actions seen on screen. While Hud personifies the steely cool anti-hero with piercing blue eyes, more a Steve McQueen type than a Franco Nero or Terence Hill, Hud frequently bursts into action when stand-offs and heated talks escalate and explode in typical genre fashion. This isn’t the calm, composed pistol draw of The Man with No Name, Hud fights dirty, gets wounded, staggers about, and it’s fun and more realistic to see. The brutal finale here is particularly thrilling and memorable, and no surprise that this kind of style and bleak delivery made Corbucci a major influences on the likes of Quentin Tarantino.

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Premiering both on UK home video for the first time and on Blu-ray with a beautifully sharp and cinematic 4K transfer, this gives an opportunity for old time fans or genre enthusiasts working through the catalogue to revisit Corbucci’s underrated diamond in the rough.

This brand new release includes:

  • Limited Edition O-Card slipcase

  • 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a new 4K restoration

  • Restored Italian and French audio options

  • Rarely heard English dub track

  • Optional English subtitles

  • Feature-length audio commentary by filmmaker Alex Cox

  • A brand new and exclusive interview with Austin Fisher, author of Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western: Politics, Violence and Popular Italian Cinema

  • Selection of international trailers

  • Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring a new writing by western authority Howard Hughes on both the film, and the “French-western” sub-genre

To judge Corbucci as an exploitation director, as he was by most contemporary critics, is not an accurate or fair representation of his work. Taking in the rich, widescreen scope, sweeping landscapes and the way these worlds offered a reluctant stage for the darkness and misery shown front and centre, it indicates he was establishing something stylistically deeper. Maybe the degree of violence or nudity (fairly shocking for 1969) is not for everyone, but his downtrodden, moody approach to the genre, as opposed to the lighter tones depicted by other filmmakers, sets Corbucci far apart.

For fans of unapologetic tough guy cinema, as well as spaghetti western aficionados and collectors, Gli Specialisti is a treasure to unearth before riding off into the sunset, just like your new favourite anti-hero, Hud Dixon.

The Specialists is out now from Eureka Entertainment

Mike Fury