100 RIFLES is a Hollywood western shot in Spain with a good little cast. Made in 1969 it features a little ultra-violence in the WILD BUNCH style although is much inferior when compared to the Peckinpah movie. However, it's still quite watchable and has an interesting story about a bank robber, a bounty hunter, a female gunslinger and a cruel Mexican general. The story favours larger-than-life characters and action and generally works very well, even if it isn't top tier. Burt Reynolds plays an irascible character with plenty of charm while Jim Brown is another imposing tough guy with a heart. Raquel Welch certainly grabs the attention with THAT infamous shower scene but the tragic Soledad Miranda is equally entrancing in her first-scene cameo. I wouldn't call 100 RIFLES a classic but it certainly does the job for western lovers.

100 Rifles is a film worth seeing for western fans because it's a European shot western which has absolutely no trace of the spaghetti flavor. As I think westerns are best made in America by a mile, this was a pleasant surprise. It also features interracial lovers Raquel Welch and Jim Brown.Brown is a lawman down with extradition papers looking for Burt Reynolds, mixed racial revolutionary who robbed a bank in Phoenix. But the money was used to buy guns for the Yaqui Indians who are being persecuted and harassed by genocidal general Fernando Lamas. Being the cowboy hero you know that Brown will get involved and having Raquel there is an added inducement.As mean as Lamas is watching the film I also thought he was rather stupid at times. Reynolds and Brown outwit him at every turn.Also here are Eric Braeden as Lamas's German adviser and Dan O'Herlihy who runs the new railroad in the Sonora State. O'Herlihy just wants to make sure he's with the winner.Some question about Brown being both black and a sheriff. Actually during Republican administrations like the Roosevelt-Taft era that 100 Rifles is set in a black US marshal would have been not so uncommon in those times. In anyway he's as tall in the saddle as John Wayne ever was.Fans of the three leads will like 100 Rifles and you might become a fan of any or all of them upon seeing this film.

"100 Rifles" is an adventure western set in Mexico with former pro football player Jim Brown cast as a sheriff and Burt Reynolds as a Mexican who purchased the titular number of rifles. Raquel Welch is the daughter of a revolutionary soldier who is hanged at the beginning. These three unlikely allies team up to contend with Fernando Lamas and Eric Braeden. Director Tom Gries is better known for his realistic Charlton Heston cowboy classic "Will Penny." Although "Will Penny" is a better all-around western with a largely believable plot, "100 Rifles" qualifies as an exciting, scenic western set below the border that appeared after Spaghetti westerns had popularized the Mexican revolution. Nevertheless, "100 Rifles" is a lot of fun. Reportedly, Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds got off on the wrong foot, and the beautiful Welch hated Reynolds so much that when they co-starred again with him in "Fuzz" she had most of her scenes filmed when Reynolds was not present. Fans of Mexican revolutionary westerns will enjoy this bullet-riddled romp. When "100 Rifles" came out, interracial romances were in their infancy on the big screen. Brown and Welch share a couple of scenes together. Jerry Goldsmith's orchestral score is very atmospheric and contributes to the suspenseful tension. The advertising campaign for this outdoors film was clever. "This picture has a message—watch out." Novelist Clair Huffaker, who wrote the novel for the John Wayne western "The War Wagon," co-scripted this turn-of-the-century horse opera with Gries, based on Robert MacLeod's novel. For the record, MacLeod penned the novel that served as the basis for the Marlon Brando oater "The Appaloosa." "100 Rifles" was lensed on location in Spain.

"100 Rifles" is a pretty good western, all things considered. Although shot in Spain, as many "spaghetti westerns" of the day were, this actually isn't a cheap spaghetti western but a well-made, impressively mounted American-made "epic" with some terrific action scenes, a good story that manages to work in comments about racism and genocide, and showcases Burt Reynolds at his most charming and roguish. Jim Brown, who often comes across a bit stiff as an actor, acquits himself quite well, Fernando Lamas has a showy role as a murderous Mexican general and is very effective in it. The film's biggest flaw is Raquel Welch. She looks great, of course, but she is monumentally untalented as an actress. She uses the worst Mexican "accent" I can ever remember hearing--apparently she thinks that rolling her "R's" is all that's needed, and she doesn't even do that very well. Other than to show off her spectacular body--which you really don't get to see all that much of--there's no reason for her to be in this, and her feeble attempts at playing a fiery Indian revolutionary are more embarrassing than anything else.Overall, though, it's a pretty good movie. As I said, the action scenes are very good, climaxed by an attack on a "federale" garrison by Reynolds' and Brown's Indian guerrillas. The movie is definitely worth a look, and is, all things considered, one of Reynolds' better pictures and probably the best western he ever made.