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Brilliant and touching

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

I've seen literally hundreds of Westerns, and for the longest time I never saw a woman actually shot dead on purpose until I ran across 1948's "The Hawk of Powder River" with Eddie Dean in the lead role. That whole concept gets blown to smithereens here when half of Domingo's (Lloyd Battista) gang recklessly shoots away at a couple wagon loads of scantily clad women as they run for cover, while the other half chases them down for a little you know what. It's one of the more surreal scenes you'll see in a spaghetti Western, a genre that's known to have it's share of them.What you have to do though, is suspend major disbelief when it comes to the title character portrayed by Tony Anthony. I can grant some semblance of marksmanship to a shooter who can't see based on a compensating factor like acute hearing, but all Blindman needed was for someone to point out the general direction of a target or an enemy. Like the bell in the steeple tower he managed to gong about a half dozen times while moving around. Really? But if you like your Westerns with a heaping dose of marinara topped with Parmesan, this might just be the way to go. There's a whole host of colorful characters here with names like Skunk, Dude and Sweet Mama, and if your eyes don't deceive you, yes, that's Ringo Starr in one of the leads up until about the sixty minute mark as a Mexican outlaw named Candy. Quite honestly, I thought he really filled the bill as a bearded thug, he played the part well until he got shot in the back by Blindman. He really should have been allowed to make it to the end of the picture.The whole story is filled with double crosses by various characters to thwart Blindman from his original mission, that of delivering fifty mail order brides to miners in Lost Creek, Texas. Those were no ordinary mail order brides either, every one was most certainly cast for their eye candy appeal, with generous assets prominently displayed throughout the story.If the concept of a blind man in a Western intrigues you, another flick you might want to catch with a bit more credibility is 1964's "Minnesota Clay" with Cameron Mitchell in the title role. In that one, Clay loses his vision gradually and begins to rely on his hearing to compensate for the loss, which comes in handy for his final showdown. The film also uses shooting locations in Spain and Italy, pretty handy when it comes to ordering all that linguini.

The most noticeable thing about Ferdinando Baldi's "Blindman" is that Ringo Starr plays a supporting role in it. Yes, the annular member of the Beatles appears in a spaghetti western...with his voice dubbed! It's more than a little jarring to hear the man who sang "Yellow Submarine" and "Octopus's Garden" have a neutral accent.But anyway, it's an OK movie, not great. Tony Anthony plays a man hired to deliver fifty brides to the miners, but the brides get kidnapped and so he has to take charge. It's got a lot of the things that we can expect in a spaghetti western, along with a few things that wouldn't have been acceptable just a few years earlier. It's a fairly interesting flick, partly to see the most famous drummer in the world play a bandit, but mostly just to see this lesser known entry in the genre. Good times.PS: Producer Saul Swimmer also co-produced the documentary "Let It Be" and directed the documentary about George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh. In other words, this is one spaghetti western that's all about the Fab Four.

There are lots of very positive reviews of this film, but I couldn't feel quite as positive when it began because it really was a remake, or at least a re-tooling of the Zatôichi films from Japan. This very long and successful series of samurai films began in 1962 and resulted in 28 films (if you count the newest remake). They were very popular because although the central idea of a blind swordsman was impossible to believe, the stories were so well written and compelling that the audience soon bought into the idea that a blind guy can be THAT amazing with the sword. Here, what is essentially the same formula is used by Italian film makers to transport the franchise to the American Old West to fight evil gangs and injustice. In addition, making the central character a master gunman instead of a swordsman is...interesting to say the least. Now understand that it was hard enough to believe a sword fight with a blind guy, but now they were using guns!! This DEFINITELY needs the viewer to suspend disbelief because I don't care how much experience and practice this guy has--he's STILL blind and hasn't a prayer of being a master gunfighter. At least with Zatôichi he could sometimes have his battles at night--helping to minimize his disability. It's even sillier when Blindman asks passers by to tell him in which direction to shoot--and he unerringly makes his shots!! Fortunately, however, Blindman has an amazing horse to make things a little easier.There is one major way, however, that BLINDMAN and the other films differ. BLINDMAN is much dirtier and sweatier looking--and is among the dirtiest looking Spaghetti Westerns I have seen. In addition, it has lots of nudity, more violence and is less a film about a blind do-gooder. Zatôichi was just so kind and good--you knew he would always do the right thing. Blindman, on the other hand, is much more morally ambiguous. He turns out to be kind of good, but throughout much of the film you just can't tell. He seems like a pimp just looking for his "possessions" for much of the time and doesn't do a whole lot to save many, many innocent women from being killed. And, sadly, he didn't seem to care all that much, either, when this happened.In fact, this brings me to the biggest complaint I have about the film. It is one of the most callous films I have ever seen in its treatment of women. It isn't the nudity I am talking about but how many times you see women being punched in the face, slapped, violently killed and even raped. In one memorable scene, Blindman has to fight a crazed woman to the death and snaps her neck! It's all very disturbing when you realize these women are being brutalized for your entertainment! This is NOT a film for a feminist to watch--unless you are deliberately trying to make them very angry. Even as a guy, I felt rather uneasy about all this decidedly misogynistic material.The fun begins with Blindman comes into town demanding the fifty women that some guy named The Skunk promised him (apparently these women were kidnapped and are now being forced into prostitution). Unfortunately, Skunk doesn't have them--he's given them to a sadistic gang leader (Domingo) much like Pancho Villa. Interestingly, though, this guy and his gang look much more like extras from a Hells Angels type movie than a Spaghetti Western. And it turns out they act pretty much like them as well, as they are 100% untrustworthy and evil--as you soon see when they offer the General and his men these 50 women (you have to see it to know what I am talking about). When Blindman comes demanding these same 50 women, not surprisingly, Blindman gets the crap kicked out of him by the gang. So far, he isn't looking too much like a super-hero or Zatôichi--just some dumb guy getting his butt kicked repeatedly.Not surprisingly, Blindman escapes and seems ready to fight the baddies. However, then he seems to set up the women to be killed--at least that's how I saw it. Only then, after many are slaughtered, does he react...eventually. Ultimately, naturally, it ends in a battle between Domingo and Blindman...and it's not super surprising to see who wins. Oddly, however, there is a lot more to the ending than this and it really looked as if they were planning a sequel to tie up loose bits from this film. Alas, the sequel never materialized.Overall, the film is exciting but too dark and bleak for me to enjoy. Others obviously could look past all this, but I just can't see this as anything but a second-rate knock off of Zatôichi.By the way, Ringo Starr is also in this film. Based on how things went for him, it would seem like Blindman, not Yoko or Linda, broke up the Beatles.

Impressive,stylish spaghetti western with a little bit of everything thrown in and never a dull moment.film has action,humour,nudity,plenty of pretty women,and violence some of which is quite brutal.there are quite a few scenes where the violence is towards women and it's not a film feminists will take to,but the most gruesome violence is saved for the climax involving the chief villain which will go some way to equal the score.film also features an almost unrecognisable Ringo Starr the drummer from the legendary "beatles"as the brother of the bandit leader,he certainly looks the part,and of course does not speak in his native "liverpudlian" voice.frankly this film has a ridiculous premise of a blind gunfighter but it works.film is immensely entertaining and one of the best spaghetti westerns.