THE WHITE, THE YELLOW, AND THE BLACK (IL BLANCO, IL GIALLO, IL NERO)
aka SHOOT FIRST… ASK QUESTIONS LATER
aka SAMURAI
Dir. Sergio Corbucci, 1975
Italy. 106 min.
In English

In the 19th century, a delegation of Japanese samurai travels to the United States to present the president with a gift from the Emperor, in the form of a divine pony. But when the delegation is attacked and the pony is kidnapped for ransom, the group’s inept servant— and wannabe samurai— Sakura (Tomas Milian) turns to the local Sheriff Gideon (Eli Wallach) for help delivering the ransom money. Along the way, they’re joined by the notorious Swiss outlaw Blanc de Blanc (Giuliano Gemma) who has his own plans for the money.

For reasons inexplicable, legendary spaghetti western director Sergio Corbucci (THE GREAT SILENCE, DJANGO) decided to end his tenure in the genre with this slapstick-y buddy comedy, conceived as a send-up of Terence Young’s samurai-western crossover RED SUN, though with some obvious parodic shades of THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY. Action-wise it’s one of the more polished additions to the kung fu-western canon and is altogether a compelling end to Corbucci’s western career… that is, so long as you can stomach Milian’s Sakura in a performance that borders on Mickey Rooney-levels of offensive Asian caricature (viewer be warned).