Kill Them All and Come Back Alone (1968) Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Kill Them All and Come Back Alone
Year: 1968
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Country: Italy
Language: Italian

1967-1968 were the peak years of the Italian West, a short period of time when the Italian film industry produced over a hundred Westerns. At this time The Magnificent Seven was an enormous hit in Italy, and had a large influence on many of its Westerns. Kill Them All and Come Back Alone takes the concept of a team of specialists on a mission, each man with his own defining skill/stereotype, and adds in the typical cynicism of the spaghetti Western. 

In 1864, mercenary Clyde MacKay leads a squad of hard-case cutthroats on a mission for the Confederate high command: infiltrate an enemy fortress and steal a million dollars in gold from the Union Army. 

Even when they don’t have an overt agenda, Italian Westerns usually have an interesting political or sociological subtext. Kill Them All and Come Back Alone is unusual because it has none, rather every moment is built on pure primal action. A dialogue scene can hardly run for a minute before a shoot-out occurs or a fist-fight breaks out. 

Kill Them All and Come Back Alone has an attention problem, as it loathes any moments where the actors can catch their breath and absolutely might be moving at all times. The onscreen violence is, surprisingly, not too graphic and involves a great deal of creativity due to a variety of unusual weapons being used. 

The performances...exist? It's hard to be a great actor when your character development is death itself. Kill Them All is certainly an accurate title. I suppose if I just wanted to watch mindless violence this would be an A+, but I like some sort of substance with my movies. Watch this picture if only for curiosity's sake.