Look at that cast! I guess with that lot you'd need a different plot from your usual Spaghetti Western plot (anti-hero, corrupt businessmen, Mexicans) so here we instead get a Dirty Dozen set up…which is the plot of many an Italian war film.This one starts off with our hero Captain Kaleb of the US army discovering that his wife has been raped and flayed by a bunch of Apaches. After putting her out of her misery, Kaleb goes nuts at his superior officer as they were supposed to be guarding the mission where his wife was working. After shooting his superior officer in the leg, Kaleb heads off for the wilderness to go rogue and kill loads of Apaches.Two years later, General John Houston turns up and demands that they find Kaleb for a special mission (They haven't seen him in that time, but it takes about five minutes to find him!) and promises him a pardon if he'll take a team of men over the border and wipe out a certain Apache army that's been troubling the US – but who will make up this Dirty Dozen-or-so? There's Chuck Connors (explosives expert, smoking), Ricardo Montalban (Native Indian, overblown philosophy), Woody Strode (Engineering, punch ups), Slims Pickens (good ol' Southern hospitality, tobacco chewing), Ian Bannen (Sarcasm, full of Buckfast) and some other guys. They all do what a Dirty Unspecified Quantity always do – start training! This being the seventies and not the eighties, we get a fairly long training scene instead of a montage.After all that crap, it's time to go on the mission, but wait, Kaleb's superior officer has something to tell them, and I'd love to tell you what that is, but just as he's about to speak the Mill Creek version of the film immediately cuts to the Dirty Group heading for their destination. Thanks Mill Creek! Thanks also for the bit where Kaleb tells the group to shut up and ride in silence when no one was talking.As you'd expect from films like this, this lot don't get on very well and have a few punch ups on the way, and not everyone will make it to the epic battle at the end. In tone this plays out a lot more like an American Western than an Italian one (although it's as violent as an Italian one!), which means it wasn't quite as daft, although I loved that bit where they are hoisting a donkey up a cliff face when the Apaches ride by, causing everyone to dive for cover and leave the donkey hanging there, looking genuinely perplexed.

Bekim Fehmiu had got a lot of exposure in _The Adventurers_, so here's Hollywood wondering if it should keep him around as a leading man. He gets a good director and a dream cast of character actors to support him. And there's a line in the script to identify him as a Serb in case you need an explanation of his accent, but the line isn't necessary; his English is fine. Still, the burden is too much for Bekim. The film is a particularly dark Western. Writer/directory Kennedy, whose other films display a lot of warmth and humor, has given the star little to work with but grief and righteous resentment. You wish the hero well, but he doesn't engage you, and Bekim can't draw the missing sparkle forth from his own personality... not for an American audience, anyway.We're left with a B movie, a movie that can command your attention but not your love.

Chuck Conners,Albert Salmi,Woody Strode,Pat Wayne,Slim Pickens,Ricardo Montalban.Sound like a good show?How about throwing in a little Richard Crenna and John Huston.Mix it all together with international star Bekim Fehmiu and you have the "Deserter".You have seen it before and if you take time, you will see it again.A worthwhile oater that is very watchable(The gatling gun scene that has the cast looking right at you),and enjoyable.I have to agree w/previous comment of the film being too short and not getting to know the charactors very well(they were good and could have been great!).This however was a Dino de Laurentis production,and he doesn,t do westerns very well.Check it out anyway.

What we have here is a rip-off of "The Dirty Dozen", though with more than 12 men, and set in the wild west. There was promise here that wasn't quite realized; we hardly get to know any of the characters, some of which could have been quite interesting given their backgrounds (an Afro-American, a Native American, a British army officer, etc.) The climatic action sequence is also a bit too short, and almost plays like they were running out of time and decided to bring in the action right there, and do it as quickly as possible.Still, it's never boring, and it has a once in a lifetime cast that almost begs you to see it. You might want to wait until it's on TV, though - the boneheads at Paramount Video released this on EP speed, which doesn't make the picture quality any good.