This is one of the rare Spaghetti Westerns starring Bud Spencer without his usual sidekick, Terence Hill, although the comic offerings in store are very much like you'd expect from the actor. Given a chance to steal the limelight on his own for once, Spencer shines in the leading role in this film, playing a man-mountain (not exactly a stretch) with a good line in comedy. The opening scene, in which he tries to persuade his horse to get up, is a classic moment in its own right, and Spencer's presence throughout the movie makes it more than watchable. While there aren't really many laugh-out-loud moments, it's the little touches – the glasses, measuring the can – that make his character so amusing. I was also impressed with his dubbing in the US version; the groans and grunts his character makes really go with his personality, so much so that I felt like he wasn't being dubbed by somebody else at all.
The plot is typically convoluted, focusing on two different strands: the first is a young orphaned boy who's come into possession of a plot of oil-rich land, and the second is Spencer's character Coburn, who's slept with gunman Sonny's virgin sister. Now Sonny wants to marry the two off to make his sister respectable, and then kill Coburn for his crime. Of course, this wouldn't be a spaghetti western without all the familiar trappings of the genre, and these are present in spades: there are Can-Can dancers, jailbreaks, bank robberies, hookers, bar-room brawls and more. The action scenes are average at best, played for laughs rather than thrills, although I could have done without the interminable fist-fight that closes the movie: sure, the spectacle is unique – watching guys slug it out under a rain of oil – but it goes on too long and quickly descends into shambolic chaos.
Aside from Spencer, we have some interesting faces in the cast. Jack Palance hams it up as usual as a crazed sharpshooter, and here he decides to put on a different accent every scene he's in. It's not one of his better turns. The French Dany Saval is the romantic interest, and is pretty in a vacuous role. Child actor Renato Cestie gives one of the best performances for kids his age, and Francisco Rabal makes an impact as a sinister preacher. Lower down in the cast, we spot a couple of familiar faces from Italian cinema, including Sal Borgese and Luciano Pigozzi. Aside from playing spot-the-cast-member, IT CAN BE DONE, AMIGO is a pretty average movie, saved only by Spencer's genuinely funny leading man.
The plot is typically convoluted, focusing on two different strands: the first is a young orphaned boy who's come into possession of a plot of oil-rich land, and the second is Spencer's character Coburn, who's slept with gunman Sonny's virgin sister. Now Sonny wants to marry the two off to make his sister respectable, and then kill Coburn for his crime. Of course, this wouldn't be a spaghetti western without all the familiar trappings of the genre, and these are present in spades: there are Can-Can dancers, jailbreaks, bank robberies, hookers, bar-room brawls and more. The action scenes are average at best, played for laughs rather than thrills, although I could have done without the interminable fist-fight that closes the movie: sure, the spectacle is unique – watching guys slug it out under a rain of oil – but it goes on too long and quickly descends into shambolic chaos.
Aside from Spencer, we have some interesting faces in the cast. Jack Palance hams it up as usual as a crazed sharpshooter, and here he decides to put on a different accent every scene he's in. It's not one of his better turns. The French Dany Saval is the romantic interest, and is pretty in a vacuous role. Child actor Renato Cestie gives one of the best performances for kids his age, and Francisco Rabal makes an impact as a sinister preacher. Lower down in the cast, we spot a couple of familiar faces from Italian cinema, including Sal Borgese and Luciano Pigozzi. Aside from playing spot-the-cast-member, IT CAN BE DONE, AMIGO is a pretty average movie, saved only by Spencer's genuinely funny leading man.