Fucked-up Shit #2: CUTTHROATS NINE

Before I start…I WILL be posting a review of Grindhouse soon. Here’s my 2-word review to serve as a placeholder until I post it, “Fuck yes!”. Good, that’s covered for now.

Recently, the little lady and I went on a dork pilgrimage of sorts. We flew clear across the country and then rented a car and drove a couple hours into the middle of nowhere to stand alongside T.A.P.S., the stars of the show Ghosthunters to “hunt ghosts” in a supposed haunted Masonic lodge in North Adams, MA. Before you ask, we didn’t find any ghosts. It was a fucking blast though! Those guys are cool as shit.

On my loooong torturous flight I watched Cutthroats Nine, a Spanish western from 1972. It has a reputation of being one of the most violent westerns ever filmed, so I had to check it out. I’m a big fan of these older exploitation style westerns that go for shock value over substance, Fulci’s Four Of The Apocalypse comes to mind. Cutthroats had to really punch me in the gut if I was going to feel it. Cannibalizing a dead pregnant woman is some tough competetition [Four Of The Apocalypse]. The film follows a man of the law escorting a group of rapists and murderers across the country to a gold mine, to put them to work on a chain-gang. On the way there they get ambushed by bandits and wreck. The law-man decides to take all them to the mine himself and chains them all together. Oh, forgot to mention his young attractive daughter he decided to bring along for the ride. Smart. So they set off across the countryside and mayhem ensues. We then find out that the chains that bind these unsavory fellows are actually made of solid gold! –gasp!- Throughout this movie we are treated to flashbacks of why all these guys are in prison in the first place and they really set a tone and style for this flick. They are presented as life flashing before the characters eyes, sometimes right as they are dying. Very cool. I won’t go into too much detail on the plot and who lives and who dies, that’s half the fun of this movie. It throws some curveballs in there. As far as violence goes. I didn’t think it was THAT bad. There was really only a couple shock scenes that really stand out. Sidenote: what’s the deal with Euroshock films and the fact that anyone who is stabbed in the stomach, their guts immediately fall out?

I’m not at all familiar with any of Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent’s other work, but I think I am going to have to do some homework and look into it as this film was extremely well shot. It manages to take the spaghetti western mold, break it into pieces and rearrange them as it sees fit adding a beautiful and unique style in to glue it all together.


Cut-Throats Nine (1972)
Spain
aka Condenados a vivir, Bronson's Revenge
Director: Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent