A wagon load of convicts on their way to prison is being escorted through the mountains by a cavalry troop. They are attacked by a bandit gang, and only a sergeant, his beautiful young daughter and an assortment of seven sadistic, murderous prisoners survive, and they are left without horses or a wagon. The sergeant must find a way to get his prisoners to their destination while protecting his daughter, watching out for the still pursuing bandits and trying to determine which one of the prisoners was the man who raped and murdered his wife.
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The Worst Film Ever
It is a performances centric movie
I'll tell you why so serious
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.
It was marketed is the goriest western ever made. It has been categorized as a horror film. It is not, and it's all the better for it. Cut-Throats Nine is indeed gory, but that is not the primary focus of the film. It has a great story to go along with it, full of intriguing characters and great visuals.But before we get off the subject of gore, let's talk about it. The gore in this film is great and it's very well-done. It's fun and exciting and gross when it should be but not overly revolting as may be suggested by the "terror mask" required for all viewers, per early advertisements. It's hard for me to say just how realistic the violence in this movie is, as I'm not an expert in that sort of thing and don't know how much a person's real life guts might look like a tin of spaghetti, but the effects are very masterfully done, look great on the screen, and get the desired reaction and then some. But the film isn't constantly violent. The bloodshed comes and goes from scene to scene. Some scenes have it and some don't, and sometimes we follow the story for a long time without any violence. It is never forced into the story for its own sake and that's what is good about it. I almost get the impression that the idea to market this film based on its gore was an afterthought, not planned for before shooting the film, and possibly only decided on when the filmmakers realized how truly well the effects had been accomplished.Moving on to the story, it's nothing that's never been done before. We've got some convicts in the old west, some bandits and a man out to avenge his murdered wife. But at the same time, the way it's all put together, it still feels fresh enough to keep the viewer engaged. And the best part about the story is how it's told. It's very well stylized, but not overly so. I love how we get a glimpse into each character's past, seeing flashes of their memories at pivotal moments. We only linger there for a few seconds and never get the whole story, but we get just enough. Sometimes we don't even see anything that directly advanced the story, but it always tells us something about the character. But the way that it's done—along with the opening narration and a few other aspects of the film—at first make it seem a bit corny, until you realize that the director knew exactly what he was doing and everything works together for the overall effect of the film.The one primary drawback for me was the film's setting. A group of convicts navigates its way through the harsh, wintry mountains, and they spend a good deal of the film in those mountains. It looks like much of it was shot on the same acre of land, using different angles to make it seem like they were going places. This sort of thing normally wouldn't bother me, but in an adventure movie with characters moving from place to place, I would like a little bit more variety.I saw the VHS cut of this film, which clocks in at 83 minutes. Much more might have felt too long, given the stale environment, but at that length it maintains a great pace and would be easy to watch again and again and to share with friends.I wouldn't suggest everyone rush out to find this movie as soon as possible, and a good-quality copy seems impossible to find, but it's worth viewing if you get the chance. I recommend Cut-Throats Nine to anyone who is in the mood for a good, fun midnight western and doesn't want to think too much. Just don't forget your terror mask!
Cut-Throats 9 (1972) is by far the most gory western ever made. Is it as scary and gory as they hyped it to be by issuing terror masks the answer is no. I don't know what these reviewers are griping over name another American or Eurowestern so gory and violent together? The Wild Bunch violent yes not gory. The story is good and to me well written it grasps your attention from beginning to end and unravels a subplot of why the Sgt. had these particular men selected to be escorted 400 miles to Fort. Green. I also thought it was clever how they made the chains out of gold disguising them as ordinary chains from the gold mine to Ft. Green to fool the bandits as well as the prisoners. It seems there has been quite a few mixed emotions about this later SW but lets face it the genre was fading out fast most ideas where out played and director Marchent gives us a breath of fresh air with the ingredients of mixing the cold terrain with violence and gore and fresh new story ideas made a fantastic little movie. I was very impressed with Robert Hundar's acting as well as Emma Cohen who played his daughter. The best of the bad guys was Dandy Tom (Alberto Dalbes)who was sensational. The music was good with eerie whistles and sounds. I don't know what there is to dislike about this movie but SW fans well like the ending and should understand why the Sgt's daughter did what she did. in her frame of mind to lose everything why go on living (family, lover, and dignity).
Somewhere in the original 1972 "Cut Throats Nine" , is a decent story waiting to be told. Unfortunately it is so muddled with flashbacks, little character development, and gratuitous sadism, that it loses most of it's momentum. A sergeant seeking revenge for his wife's murder, escorts a wagon full of prisoners toward a fort stockade, not knowing which one stabbed his wife. Complicating things,for whatever reason, his daughter comes along. The whole plot hinges on the not likely belief that the eight chained men could not at some point overpower one man and a girl. Men die, horses die, and what seems like an endless hike in the snow ensues. Hopefully the 2011 remake will clear up some of the issues that drag on the original. - MERK
Joaquín Romero Marchent's "Condenados A Vivir" aka. "Cut-Throats Nine" is a raw and uncompromising film about survival, hate and violence, that has the reputation of being the most violent Eurowestern. And for good reasons - The most violent or not, it certainly is the goriest Eurowestern out there (I'm not calling it a Spaghetti Western since the film is Spanish and Claudio Undari is the only Ialian actor involved in it), and the movie is full of entirely despicable characters and a constant atmosphere of hate, greed and brutality.Sgt. Brown (Claudio Undari) is to escort a bunch of dangerous criminals through a mountain wasteland in a cold winter. The Seargant's beautiful daughter (Emma Cohen) is also traveling with her father and the prisoners, who are chained together. Convinced that it transports gold, a gang ambushes the coach in the middle of nowhere, and the Seargant, his daughter and the seven murderous, blood-thirsty prisoners are forced to walk..."Cut-Throats Nine" is a gruesome Eurowestern that is, in some aspects, atypical for the Western genre. There is not too much gunplay, for example. Gore-fans will be pleased to hear that there is a lot of more explicit violence, such as cutting, burning and stabbing instead. The (well-deserved) reputation as the goriest Eurowestern is not the only reason to watch his film, that not only Spaghetti Western enthusiasts like myself should enjoy. Any fan of brutal, uncompromising, pessimistic cinema should be pleased by this hero-less movie, in which almost every character is a real bastard. The bleak winter mountain setting reminds of Sergio Corbucci's masterpiece "The Great Silence" of 1968, although the locations and photography are, of course, not nearly as impressive here."Condenados A Vivir" may not be everybody's taste, but it is definitely a film experience that one is not likely to forget. Uncompromising, brutal and not for the fainthearted, "Cut-Throats Nine" is highly recommended to any fan of Eurowesterns and Gore-flicks!