The Mercenary

The Mercenary is a 1968 Western set during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s. A Polish mercenary, Sergei Kowalski, is hired to help transport a shipment of silver across the Texas border, and he becomes entangled with a Mexican mine worker, Paco Roman, who has led a revolt against the local overseers and the wealthy landowner Alfonso García. The two men, one driven by profit and the other by ideas of justice, join forces as rebel forces fight government troops and powerful landowners. A dedicated radical named Columba is committed to the cause and to Paco, while the vengeful gunman Ricciolo, known as Curly, pursues them both.

The film is directed by Sergio Corbucci. It is the seventh of the fourteen features he directed in chronological order, following The Great Silence and preceding The Specialists. Franco Nero plays Kowalski, Tony Musante plays Paco Roman, Jack Palance plays Curly, and Giovanna Ralli plays Columba, with Eduardo Fajardo as Alfonso García. Luciano Vincenzoni wrote the screenplay and Alberto Grimaldi produced. The credited cast runs to thirty-one performers.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7.1 out of 10 from roughly 6,900 votes, and on TMDB it holds 6.9 out of 10 from 168 votes. The two audience scores sit close together, indicating a reasonably consistent response across both platforms.