The Mercenary

Sergio Corbucci's spaghetti western The Mercenary (Il mercenario, 1968) is yours to watch online on iFILM. Set during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, it follows Kowalski, a cold-blooded Polish gun-for-hire who will rent his revolver to whoever pays the most.

Chance throws him together with Paco, a peasant who rises from farmhand to revolutionary leader. Kowalski couldn't care less about the cause — he is in it for the money — yet he agrees to school Paco in the art of war, and their alliance runs on mutual profit and constant needling. On their trail rides the vengeful gunman Curly, played with dandyish menace by Jack Palance. Franco Nero and Tony Musante spark off each other in nearly every scene of this mismatched partnership.

Corbucci delivered one of the finest Zapata westerns, a subgenre where shootouts march alongside politics and class fury. The score comes from Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai, and its whistling main theme lodges in your head at once. A hundred and one minutes of dust, cynicism and revolutionary fire — made for anyone raised on Italian westerns. Stream The Mercenary (1968) online on iFILM.