The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

SAMURAI is the worst spaghetti western I've seen from the usually assured Sergio Corbucci, a director known for adding a lightness of touch to his genre movies. The problem with this one is that it's an ethnic comedy in which the typically reliable Tomas Milian comes a cropper as he dresses in yellowface and speaks gobbledegook in his role as a lowly Japanese servant. If you thought Mickey Rooney's turn in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S was racially offensive, you haven't seen anything yet.The rest of the film is a tired mix of genre tropes and repetitive slapstick comedy. Giuliano Gemma shows up playing the usual square-jawed cowboy hero while Eli Wallach hangs around and looks faintly embarrassed by it all, and who can blame him? I have no idea what they were thinking when they made this one and the only folk who come across looking good are the hard-working stunt team.

A very funny Western about some roguish adventurers who attempt to rob a fortune of a rescue . Italian-Spanish co-production full of action , exaggerated characters, shootouts and lots of humor . This Spaghetti Western concerns about robbing a valuable Japanese pony from a train crossing American West and the Japan Ambassador had for gift to US . The thieves result to be some rebel Indians . Then a Japanese named Sakura (Tomas Milian), ¨the Yellow¨ along with a rogue thief Swiss(Giuliano Gemma) ¨the White¨ , and a sheriff (Eli Wallach) ¨the Black¨ team up as three unlikely heroes . This is a surprisingly low-key Spaghetti Western in which three diverse characters joining forces to find the sacred horse and rob a rescue .This amusing picture contains an entertaining plot , action Western , shootouts and bits of campy and refreshing humor . It's an improbable blending of standard Western, tongue-in-cheek and Chop-Socky . A bemusing premise , gunslingers against samurais , and interesting casting full of usual Spaghetti make this oater well worth the watching . Delightful Western satire in which the grifter Giuliano Gemma using his wits , breaking all the rules and kicking virtually every cliché in the pants , as he relentlessly deceives, plunders and robs . Amiable but sometimes lumbering Western satire goes on and on about the same premise , as a lot of minutes are superfluous ,it has half hour of excess , as it packs overblown jokes and antics and some moments turns out to be dull and tiring . Tomas Milian steals the show as Sakura, he is very fine, he ravages the screen, he jumps, bounds and leaps, hit and run , besides receives violent punches, kicks and is ultimately buried . Furthermore, appears ordinary secondaries of Spaghetti/Paella Western as Chris Huerta , Tito Garcia, Victor Israel ,Dan Van Husen, Rafael Albaicin, Lorenzo Robledo, and many others . The film mingles slapdash, pursuits, high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining. There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing shootouts, fights or stunts every few minutes . The musicians Guido and Mauricio De Angelis, compose a jolly soundtrack with catching leitmotif and well conducted ; it's full of guttural sounds and commercial songs. Striking cinematography by Luis Cuadrado in Eastmancolor with negative well processed . Interior filmed at Paolis Studios , Rome ,and Ballesteros studios ,Madrid and outdoor sequences filmed , of course , at Almeria, Spain. The film follows in the wake of ¨ Hallelujah trail (65) ¨ by John Sturges ¨ Support your local sheriff ¨ and ¨ Support your local gunfighter ¨ by Burt Kennedy and of course ¨ Blazing saddles (74) ¨ by Mel Brooks , all of them are engaging Western satire and very fun . The picture takes part of a sub-genre in which during the period of the 70s combined Spaghetti Western and art martial with original influence of ¨David Carradine's Kung Fu ¨ series , for example ¨ Karate law in the west ¨(Tonino Ricci), ¨ My name is Shangai Joe¨(Mario Caiano) and ¨ Return of Shangai Joe ( Bitto Albertini)¨, in addition ¨ Red sun (Terence Young )¨ that bears remarkable resemblance to this one .Sergio Corbucci's direction is well crafted, here he's more cynical and humorous and less inclined toward violence and packs too much action , but especially this slapstick Western contains broad comedy . The other Sergio made several Spaghetti classics as ¨ Django¨, ¨The great silence¨, ¨Hellbenders¨, ¨The specialist¨ , and Zapata Western as ¨The Mercenary¨, ¨The Compañeros¨ and ¨What am I doing in middle of the revolution¨ . In addition Sergio directed other inferior S.W. as ¨Far West story¨ ,¨Johnny Oro¨, ¨The white the yellow an the black¨ and ¨Minnesota Clay¨. It's an offbeat , muddle and uneven Western but will appeal to Corbucci aficionados . Rating : 5,5 , riotous Western spoof in which there's too much silly comedy and enough excitement

I bought this DVD in a pack (3 films on one disc) for some spare change. I didn't expect much and also didn't get much. But it did make me laugh every now and again.Amasingly enough, I laughed at some of the jokes too - not just at the movie.In fact, I have to say, in this movie I saw something I though as original. A joke I haven't seen or heard anywhere else, nor did I think of anything like it. And it is not easy to find something like that, with as many comedies I've seen so far. This was something I really liked about this movie. It showed me something fresh - even though it was already very old.*spoiler*The Samurai is making a brew. The sheriff asks: "What are you making?" "It old Japanese recepy. This make you not sleep and not think of food." Sheriff: "You've got something there that will take my mind off of hunger? Give it here!" The sheriff drinks it and starts moaning really badly. The Samurai jumps up and said: "Now you no can sleep, now you no want food. You got toothache!"Or something like that (it's not a transcript, but the point of the joke).

Don't go into this film expecting a typical Corbucci high body count shoot 'em up. This time around the famous `other Sergio' takes a stab at the comedy/spaghetti sub-genre which was ever so popular in the waning days of the Euro Western. `Bianco, il giallo, il nero, Il' is more or less a bizarro take on the East meets wild West classic `Red Sun'. Eli Wallach plays `Black Jack Gideon', a straight and narrow lawman who reluctantly gets mixed up in a quest to recover a prize Japanese show pony that's being held for ransom by a renegade band of army deserters with a penchant for dressing up like Indians. Accompanying him on his journey are the notorious bandit and womanizer `Swiss', played by Giuliano Gemma and `Sakura' the dung handler turned Samurai played by Tomas Milian. Many unintentional laughs and moments of genuine surreal weirdness set to the equally strange Guido & Maurizio De Angelis score almost guarantee this film to delight fans of the genre and confuse and frighten the average viewer.