Verdict
Summary
The movie resembles a gangster movie like Scarface, but set in a dusty south of the border town, and it works if you’re a fan of these types of violent westerns. It’s not quite as stylish as some of the more well known films in the genre, but it doesn’t need style to be compelling.
Plot:
A soldier who is determined to be a deserter tries starting his life with his newborn, but tragedy alters the course of his destiny and turns him into a hunted outlaw.
Review:
On the eve of a battle, soldier John Warner (George Hilton) asks for leave, hoping that he’ll be allowed to go back to his woman who is about to give birth. His superiors bitterly accuse him of being a coward and of desertion, and when he returns home, he finds that his woman has died in labor, and her father Sandoval (Ernest Borgnine) in an inconsolable rage at Warner for being the cause of his daughter’s death. Warner takes his newborn child with him on the run, which proves to be a terrible mistake as the child dies of disease soon after. Bereft and angry, Warner begins collecting a bunch of rejects and scum to ride with on his journey to hell, and soon his gang is committing crimes and robberies to fund their blazing path of destruction. Sandoval, who sees it his mission to kill Warner, goes on the warpath alongside his son and their men, hunting for his gang, and they have a showdown at a bullfighting ring that will see them all going out in a blaze of glory.
An uncommonly bleak spaghetti western from Julio Buchs, A Bullet for Sandoval has a good story that sees no real heroes in the central roles, and it has an intense Borgnine as the protagonist whose fate is sealed once he sets his bitter heart against the ill-fated Warner, played by Hilton. The movie resembles a gangster movie like Scarface, but set in a dusty south of the border town, and it works if you’re a fan of these types of violent westerns. It’s not quite as stylish as some of the more well known films in the genre, but it doesn’t need style to be compelling.
MVD Visual and VCI’s new Blu-ray edition (there’s a DVD too) of A Bullet for Sandoval comes with a Spanish language version, a commentary by filmmaker Alex Cox, new English language dialogue sequences that are a little jarring as they don’t match the rest of the film, and the trailer. The transfer is adequate, but not especially outstanding, but it should serve the purpose of a casual fan looking to add it to their collection.
