Viva Cangaceiro

Viva Cangaceiro
Viva Cangaceiro
Directed by	Giovanni Fago
Written by	Giovanni Fago
Produced by	Alexandre Adamiu
Starring	Tomas Milian; Ugo Pagliai
Cinematography	Alejandro Ulloa
Edited by	Eugenio Alabiso
Music by	Riz Ortolani
Release date	1970
Running time	104 minutes
Countries	Italy; Spain
Language	Italian

Viva Cangaceiro (originally titled as O' Cangaçeiro, also known as The Magnificent Bandits) is a Brazilian themed Spaghetti Western-like movie co-produced by Spain and Italy and directed by Giovanni Fago.

Plot[]

Espedito is the sole survivor of his hometown after it got annihilated by Colonel Minas and his death squad for harbouring an infamous cangaceiro. A hermit consoles him by planting the idea in his mind that he was from now on chosen to fight injustice. Espedito tries to live up to this vision.

Cast[]

Tomas Milian: Espedito
Ugo Pagliai: Vincenzo
Eduardo Fajardo: Gov. Branco
Leo Anchóriz: Army Officer
Howard Ross: Hoffmann
Claudio Scarchilli

Reception[]

The movie received mixed reviews and is generally considered a minor variant of the similar movies Tomas Milian has starred in for Sergio Sollima (Face to Face and Run, Man, Run!), Sergio Corbucci (The Mercenary and Compañeros) and Giulio Petroni (Tepepa).^[1] Simon Gelton (aka "Scherpschutter") wrote for spaghetti-western.net considered Riz Ortolani's film score unique and praised Alejandro Ulloa's pictures of Bahia. Yet he didn't "recommend the film wholeheartedly" because due to a lack of "emotional depth" Viva Cangaceiro would never "really take off". He stated the plot was occasionally at the brink of being "absurd".^[2]

References[]

^ Marco Giusti (2007). Dizionario del western all'italiana. Mondadori, 2007. ISBN 978-88-04-57277-0.
^ Gelton, Simon. "O' Cangaceiro Review". spaghetti-western.net. Retrieved 2013-07-09.