The Revengers

1972 "He bought six men out of hell and they brought it with them."
6.1| 1h46m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 21 June 1972 Released
Producted By: Cinema Center Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

The life of peaceful rancher John Benedict is torn apart when his family is massacred by a gang of marauding outlaws and his farm is destroyed. He assembles a team of mean, lawless convicts to act as his posse as he pursues the gang responsible for the deaths of his loved ones.

Genre

Action, Western, Crime

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Director

Daniel Mann

Production Companies

Cinema Center Films

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The Revengers Audience Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Greenes Please don't spend money on this.
Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.
weezeralfalfa This screenplay tells the story of a stoic pioneer rancher(William Holden, as John Benedict), in Colorado, who loses his entire family to a raid by Comanche, led by 2 Comancheros. One of the latter is later captured and is made to tell the name of the other(Tarp),the fact that he has one visibly abnormal eye, and his probable location, at Pueblo Plaza. Benedict goes looking for a cheap posse to help him tract down and kill Tarp, who also stole his horses. He goes to a Mexican prison camp, and chooses 6 disparate convicts to be his posse. The rest of the film deals with the travels and adventures of this gang, their near victory at one point and their final confrontation with Tarp and his Indians and Comancheros. During one period, Benedict is shot close to the heart by one of his gang. Amazingly, he eventually recuperates, over months, with his gang waiting around to see if he will live or die. During this period, his nurse, Elizabeth(Susan Hayward), falls in love with him, and requests that he either stay there with her or go back to his ranch. He does neither, in his continuing quest for revenge. The closing scene has Benedict riding off into the sunset, leaving his frustrated gang behind(to what end?). I bet he's riding back to that village where Susan is, to take her to his ranch. Incidentally, this was Susan's last role in a Hollywood film. She would soon be diagnosed with brain cancer.Other reviewers have noted some commonalities with several prior films, such as "The Dirty Dozen", "The Wild Bunch","Return of the Magnificent Seven" and "The Searchers". In regard to the last, both center on a long, long search of months and perhaps years. But also, when they did find their quary, they suddenly got cold feet about completing their mission. In Benedict's case, I can understand his response under the conditions. Tarp was a prisoner of the US Army, awaiting trial and a possible hanging. Thus, there was a good chance he would die rather soon anyway. If Benedict had shot him under this condition, as he could easily have done so, he would have to answer to the army, as he was a vigilante. In Wayne's case(The Searchers), initially he didn't want to 'rescue' Debbie because she was married to an Indian, and initially, she didn't want to be rescued. Thus, initially, Wayne wanted to shoot her, but a cooler head prevailed, and she was brought back to the remaining members of her European family.There is another prior film, I might mention as having some relation to this one. It's called "Wild Women", and involves releasing a bunch of army women prisoners in Texas, to help in a mission against the Mexican army. They accomplished their mission.Problems:1) I was usually confused as to where the action was taking place: in Colorado, where we started, in Mexico, to which we traveled, or back across the border, in the US? It seemed like Colorado was next to the Mexican border. This may not bother everyone, but it bothers me.2)We are supposed to believe that 6 desperate Mexican prisoners could be trusted not to run away, and with firearms, to follow their employer in his seemingly crazy mission of revenge, and not kill him(one almost did, out of anger). Benedict chose to get rid of the 2 guards the prison furnished him with, apparently, a psychological move to show he trusted the men, and hoped this would increase their trustworthiness.3) Holden isn't the most exciting leader of a posse. Is his character just very stoic, or perhaps he was bored with the film?4)Many viewers are apparently disappointed that the film didn't end with a duel between Benedict and Tarp, as expected. I previously offered a rational for this. At least, Benedict's gang took part in the climatic attack by Tarp's comrades, while he was locked up.5)The gang uses dynamite to scare and kill Tarp's comrades when they attack the army camp. But dynamite wasn't discovered until after the Civil War. Probably, it shouldn't have been available.6) There's precious little humor or romance to lighten things every now and then.There are, of course, some other problems with the film that I won't bother enumerating.See it at YouTube. Filmed at various locations in Mexico
Oslo Jargo (Bartok Kinski) *** This review may contain spoilers *** This is a highly lacking western that strays from any common sense. It begins with an absurd and contrived "attack" on William Holden's ranch. He sets off to Mexico where he picks up the most venomous and unlikeable convicts, mostly foreigners, for the big "Revenge". Why they would help him is unknowable. They are indecisive, swerving between following him and shooting him and leaving him for dead, which makes little sense.Next they bust him out of the same prison they were in.William Holden, and everyone else for that matter, have no redeeming qualities that make the viewer side with them at all. They are riffraff and murderous, lecherous and loathsome.One pointless action scene has Kiowa or Comanche Indians attacking an armed regiment of U.S. Cavalry in broad daylight. William Holden and his bunch put sticks of TNT in the ground and by some means, are able to "shoot" them to explode. Most Indians are killed off (about 100) and only one of William Holden's bunch is shot dead. Why Kiowa or Comanche Indians would attack in such a manner is susceptible, because they would wait until dark.A lot of "horse tripping" (Horse tripping is the practice of roping the front or hind legs of a galloping horse) is to be found here, most likely breaking a lot of horse legs. It is hard to watch.By the weak ending, William Holden doesn't follow up on his big "Revenge" so the whole film is entirely pointless.The only commendable quality of the film is the scenery, which is beautiful. Filmed around Mexico, there's an old abandoned mining town with a rope-stayed foot/horse suspension bridge. The town is "Puente de Ojuela" in the Chihuahuan Desert, of eastern Durango, Mexico.
Spikeopath The Revengers is directed by Daniel Mann and written by Wendell Mayes and Steven W. Carabatsos. It stars William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Woody Strode, Roger Hanin, Reinhard Kolldehoff, Jorge Luke, Jorge Martínez de Hoyos, Susan Hayward and Arthur Hunnicutt. A De Luxe Color/Panavision production, music is by Pino Calvi and cinematography by Gabriel Torres.Colorado rancher John Benedict (Holden) hires six chain-gang convicts to find the white comancheros who led an Indian raid that massacred his family and friends.It is pretty much a Western Dirty Half Dozen, with Holden getting to play the Lee Marvin role and Borgnine, stripped of the weight he was carrying when The Dirty Dozen was made in 1967, getting the chance to be one of the crims on a mission instead of the cameo role of General Worden in Robert Aldrich's macho magnificence. Nicely filmed out of various Mexican locations, film is essentially dealing with a man so hell bent on revenge he comes to resemble the criminals he now rides with. But even crims have codes and ethics as well! Director Daniel Mann never really gets to grips with the character dynamics, leaving hanging the themes of surrogate fatherhood and slave stoicism, while an interim part of the play that sees Hayward nurse Holden back to health actually bogs down the picture, coming off as an excuse to pitch the two great actors together again.Oh the performances of the cast are enjoyable, especially Borgnine who is having fun as a sly old grizzler, and Holden is as stoic and sternly professional as always, but nothing ever advances beyond being a bunch of blokes traversing the landscapes in readiness for a siege. Is the anticipated siege worth the wait? Actually yes it is, and it goes some way to explaining why the film hasn't fallen into the trough of stinky waters never to be used to quench the Western lovers thirst. But then! Something happens to make you think the Production Code was back in boorish operation. Pah! I imagine Peckinpah and Aldrich shed a frustrated tear at this point... 6/10
Jonathon Dabell The Revengers borrows the idea of a bunch of unsavoury convicts being sent on a deadly mission that was used so marvellously in The Dirty Dozen, and transports it to the unlikely setting of a western. The convicts are a rough and ready bunch indeed, and their mission is nothing so grand as the saving of the world from the Nazis.... just a humble quest for revenge.William Holden is a relatively peaceful rancher whose entire family is massacred by brigands. He swears revenge and helps a bunch of Mexican convicts to bust out of jail in order to enlist them as his "hit squad". However, they are such an unpredictable group that even Holden is not safe from their bouts of violence and aggression. By the time he finds his prey, he has witnessed so much carnage that he ponders whether it is truly worthwhile to kill the brigands just to gratify his thirst for revenge.This movie is OK, but aside from the bouts of post Wild Bunch viciousness, there is little that hasn't been done before. The westerns were getting tired by '72 and it's no exaggeration to say that this one is more tired than most. It also contains a self-defeating wrap-up which renders the previous two hours all but pointless. However, the acting and the action are pretty good, the scenery is ruggedly beautiful, and for fans of the genre it passes the time efficiently. If you're expecting a classic, then you'd be better sticking to The Wild Bunch, in which the same two leading stars find themselves in a much better movie.