i wound up watching *none* of my watchlist and instead watching
Soldato Di Ventura -
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073726/
on youtube, for free. In the original Italian.
I'm not even sure if a dubbed version exists. Tbh you'd be lucky with subtitles.
While not a Spaghetti Western, it still shares some aspects with that style, and given that Bud Spencer stars, conflicts are resolved through the typical comical fake violence that's always associated with his character, though, far less here than in any later films. In fact, while there's comedy, this is a pretty darn sad film.
The story is of the
Challenge Of Barletta, where a snail-eating frog dared to offend the honor of the brave Italians, who got very pissy and decided that it had to end in a personal battle, thirteen versus thirteen, which we then (miraculously) managed to win. Keep in mind that at this time (early 1500s) there was no actual government called "Italy" and italians were notoriously bad at war, so, not really sure why they got all offended in the first place.
But, the thing happened, we won, yay. National pride n'all that.
Now, Soldato Di Ventura does not try to be historically accurate. They just took the typical Bud Spencer trope of "big guy stronk, bonk ppl on head" and stuck it in this particular scenario.
Bud Spencer is Ettore Fieramosca, mercenary, who - insulted by the French army - must find and assemble thirteen brave Italian knights to defend their national honor. Once again, he finds various scoundrels, thieves, gamblers and madmen, and through the magic of MAMMAMIA, they turn into a formidable fighting force and defeat the darn froggies.
.. i grew up with this film. I caught it originally when i must have been maybe 8 years old, and it struck me, hard. There is a quiet streak of melancholy underneath the comedy that hits hard. Even in the end, we are reminded that victory is only temporary, and defeat is inevitable.
Did i mention that italians are 76% PURE FUCKING DEPRESSION by body weight?
Despite this seeming like just another cheap italian very-forgettable production, it's got a whole bunch of scenes that, to me, are absolutely memorable. YMMV, and in this case, i expect it to. But hey.
7.5/10 - excellent, despite some shortcomings.