En el Oeste se puede hacer... amigo

Coming too late in the Italian Western cycle to get a significant American release, this tiresome Bud Spencer vehicle tries to be picaresque, as the big lug wanders around having borin on-adventures. A cute young boy is thrown in for sentimental value.

In a parallel world where Hollywood big-screen Westerns had not gone out of style, it could have been perhaps a homegrown vehicle for Dan Blocker to provide old-0fashioned family entertainment following his meteoric success starring on tv in "Bonanza". But as ersatz cornball entertainment it comes up as zero.

Despite having a great cameraman Aldo Tonti, who shot epics like "Barabbas" and classics like Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria", it's a mess, with annoying, inappropriate music and even some dubbed dialog that echoes.

Released in 1972 (but not in the USA until 1974), "It Can be Done… Amigo" is an Italian oater starring Ben Spencer as a gentle giant, Coburn, saved from unjust hanging. He becomes the caretaker of a little boy who's the heir of a remote ranch that many people are interested in obtaining for some reason. Jack Palance plays a comical gunfighter/pimp who insists that Coburn marries his nagging sister (Dany Saval) because he was previously intimate with her.

In spirit, but not plot, this is basically an early 70's Euro version of 1963's "McLintock!" Unfortunately it was lost in translation for me. Obviously a lot of effort was put into it, but it failed to engage. It's also marred by the limitations of most Spaghetti Westerns, like dubious dubbing. Plus there should've been more prominent women (Saval is likable, but she just grates on the nerves after a while). Still, the movie's likable; it's just very eccentric, which limits its appeal, but I'll give it another try in a few years.

The film runs 109 minutes and was shot in Almería, Andalucía, Spain.

GRADE: C- (4.5/10 Stars)

Ivan Coburn (Spencer) deflowered the sister of the fastest gun around, Sonny.(Jack Palance) Sonny wants Coburn to marry his sister so she wont live in shame, and then Sonny wants to kill Coburn. During all this Coburn has to take care of a small boy named Chip Anderson whos uncle died from a gun shot. I laughed alot during this movie....many fights and one liners....This movie was much better than I thought it would be. I think it's for Terence Hill and Bud Spencer fans only...or if you like the whole sphagetti western thing. There is something unusal in this film....there's a guy who pays 2 dollars for a bucket if dirt..and then he eats it!!??? (he's looking for soil with oil in it.) The start to this is also funny.....Coburn complains to his horse through the whole credits because it wont move, but when he sees a man with a gun the horse jumps to it's feet!

My vote is 6/10. A good movie for people who like "They call me Trinity" style movies!

This is a funny spoof about several Spaghetti clichés with relentless comedy and parodying usual Western events that sometimes becomes stale . This is a good entertaining juvenile for Bud Spencer fans , as he's delightful in a fraternal story . It packs action, fist-play, sniping, slapdash , humor with tongue-and-cheek and is quite amusing . It deals with Coburn (Bud Spencer or Carlo Perdesoli) an insouciant , bumbling drifter who breaks out from prison and attempts to right wrongs . He embarks on his getaway and he gets stuck a ten years old little boy (Renato) . The boy's uncle dies, leaving a house , useless land to the child but is actually plenty of petroleum that is coveted by a priest-sheriff-judge (Francisco Rabal) and his hoodlums (Salvatore Borghese , Riccardo Pizzuti) . Hiram Coburn oblivious to risks and hopeless odds endure mishaps adventures and he join forces with the child to rout nasty gunmen . Meanwhile, the gunfighter Sonny Bronston (Jack Palance) going out the chase of Coburn to marry his sister (Dany Saval) and the baddies want to take the rich lands.

This release has some cool and several hilarious moments , though the Terence Hill-Bud Spencer duo films are much better , such as ¨They call me trinity¨, ¨Trinity is still my name¨ and ¨Truoblemakers¨ . Good for laughs as well as lots of shootouts and fist-play . The film isn't always good , sometimes is fresh and diverting and on a couple of memorable occasions , it's frankly delicious . The flick belong to the sub-genre that Bud Spencer played in which he has as partners some sympathetic children , as ¨Supersheriff¨, ¨Banana Joe¨, ¨Flatfoot¨ and ¨Aladdin¨. The film displays a wide plethora of secondary actors usually seen in Spaghetti genre as Sal Borghese , Luciano Pigozzi or Alan Collins , Robert Camardiel as an old drunk and Ricardo Pizzuti , the latter usual in Hill-Spencer flicks . The movie displays innumerable jokes , laughter , and slapstick , though relies heavily about the continuous relationship between the tired gunslinger and the orphaned boy . Enjoyable but silly screenplay Ernesto Gastaldi and Rafael Azcona . Catching musical score with noisy songs by Luis Enrique Bacalov who subsequently would win Oscar for ¨The postman¨ . This motion picture was professionally directed by Maurizio Luzidi . Although Maurizio couldn't be deemed an "A"-list director, his movies had a professionalism and a verve that many of those made by his fellow B directors lacked . He was a fine editor and also filmed detective thrillers , Giallo , comedy and even a horror film or two . He directed two Western more as ¨La grand Rapina del West¨ with George Hilton and Jack Betts and ¨Pecos¨ with Robert Woods , and even made films with international cast as ¨Sweet people¨ with Roger Moore and Stacy Keach and ¨The last chance¨ with Elli Wallach and Ursula Andress . His greatest conquest was the edition of ¨Don Quijote¨ by Orson Welles . Rating : 5,5 . Acceptable , passable but average . It is a middling Western story in which gibing the Spaghetti genre , plenty of fights and shoot'em up . As the director Mauricio Lucidi is uninspired and the ending is pretty predictable .

Bud Spencer wanders the west, finds time to help a young orphan/landowner targeted by greedy villains, and keeps having his bacon saved by Jack Palance. However, Jack's motives are anything but altruistic, as he blames poor Bud for allegedly deflowering his sister and plans on marrying her off to him before making her a respectable widow!

Lots of Rowdy fights and amusing gags, including the hilarious oil-soaked climax, keep this breezy, lightweight spaghetti western moving along quite nicely.

It Can Be Done... Amigo features what is probably Spencer's best solo performance, apart from his films with frequent on screen partner Terrance Hill, though A Reason To Live, A Reason To Die, which featured him as part of an ensemble cast, was a better film.

Meanwhile, Palance portrays the same black clad, chuckling, chain-smoking weirdo you've come to know and love from a lifetime of similar western roles. Needless to say, fans of these two won't be disappointed.

One thing that I found odd though, was Palance's changing accents. Sometimes he talked using his own voice, other times he spoke with a southern accent, and still others with a Spanish accent!