If there ever was a purely existential Spaghetti Western, then Sergio Corbucci’s The Hellbenders (Italian title I crudeli or “The Cruel Ones”) is it. I was pleasantly surprised by The Hellbenders. I have always thought of Corbucci as a clumsy, overrated director. Navajo Joe is dreadful, Django meanders into silliness, and the frustrating The Great Silence falls far short of being the great Western it deserves to be. But in its quiet, subtle, and gutwrenching way, The Hellbenders demonstrates that Corbucci is capable of creating a nuanced morality tale that brooks no easy answers or easily identifiable protagonists. Indeed, the rock solid, wonderfully hateful, and undeniably charismatic presence of Joseph Cotten as Colonel Jonas makes The Hellbenders a winner. He is such a complete bastard, religious hypocrite, and cruel father that you can’t help but be drawn by his irresistible pull. You have no choice but join him on his journey of madness. This anti-hero perfectly encapsulates the tyranny of family, religion, and state all in one very restrained, quiet, but unforgettable performance.
Jonas is the patriarch of three adorable sons: Ben, Nat, and the he just can’t help himself rapist Jeff. The South just lost the Civil War, but Colonel Jonas, leader of the now defunct Hellbenders regiment, ain’t recognizing Robert E. Lee’s surrender, goddamnit. He and his three sons, along with a drunken blonde named Claire (the lovely floozy Norma Bengell), are on a mission to steal a pile of decommissioned banknotes that are being escorted by soldiers. Claire poses as a Confederate widow with a forged permit to escort her husband and his coffin to its final resting place, with Jonas and his sons pretending to be her family. The booze doesn’t help her maintain her disguise.
Jonas, Nat, and Jeff sneak attack the soldiers by chucking a passel of dynamite at them, and picking off the rest of the survivors sniper-style. It’s a complete massacre, and the violence and stunt work of this scene is shocking and involves a lot of horses getting smacked to the ground. We find out that Jonas intends to use the money to fund a The South Will Rise Again movement, and they conceal the money in the coffin. Ben (Julian Matoes playing the square-jawed “good guy” in a very relative sense) is disgusted by the massacre, and begins to have doubts about his father’s obsession. But he remains loyal to his father, and eventually replaces the drunk with another fake Confederate widow, though this particular woman has no idea what she’s getting into. And given how Claire got “fired,” it’s doubtful Kitty (the hard edged and equally lovely Maria Martin) would have wanted the job. The phrase “one big happy family” does not quite do justice to this crew of desperadoes.
I was impressed by the tight narrative of the film, a welcome contrast to the implausible plot developments of Django and Navajo Joe. The music, scored by the inevitable Ennio Morricone, is wonderfully melancholy, creating a perfect backdrop to the hopeless, mad quest. Jonas is nothing if not a very religious man, insisting that his boys pray to the Almighty before they commit murder. There is a constant undercurrent of piety in the film, sincere and false, that flows from one scene to the next, which helps to pile on the ironies. One wonderfully awkward scene involves Kitty going to the funeral of her “husband,” and consoling an old war buddy of the dead man, who is fortunately blind.
The Hellbenders has a knockout ending, which I suppose is somewhat predictable given the main plot device is a coffin full of cash. But the eventual demise of The Hellbenders paints a lovely portrait of the indifferent universe, and how obsession and evil intentions and love and good intentions matter not a whit in the impartial violence of the desert.
Tags: hellbenders, i crudeli, joseph cotten, sergio corbucci, the cruel ones