BLINDMAN (1971)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

Despite more lavish sets than the usual spaghetti western (thanks to some American investors) and the qualified benefit of Ringo Starr in a support role, BLINDMAN only received a brief run in American theaters. Presumably it didn't do all that much for star (and co-scripter) Tony Anthony, who had by 1971 managed to come out with three of the four "Stranger" features, nor for director Ferdinando Baldi, whose greatest fame came from his work on 1960's DAVID AND GOLIATH, though he'd work three more times with Anthony.

Despite a general ambivalence from online reviews, though, BLINDMAN is a cut above the usual spaghettis, to say nothing of Anthony's warmed-over "Man with No Name" schtick. One could easily claim that BLINDMAN is just a warmed -over "Zatoichi" story transplanted to the Old West, and indeed, the basic idea of the film doesn't lend itself either to good verisimilitude or good myth. In the Zatoichi movies, the filmmakers go to great pains to make it credible that a blind swordsman might be able to defeat a small gang of Edo-era opponents, particularly at night, given the fact that none of those opponents carry modern firearms. In contrast, there's no real attempt to convince audiences that the Blindman (never called anything else) can successfully navigate around towns he's never visited before-- at least, not without the help of Boss, his "seeing-eye horse." There are a few times where one's supposed to buy that Blindman can shoot down enemies by hearing their movements, but the noisiness of firearms makes such an ability very hard to sell. The opening sequence practically challenges the viewer to accept the improbable. Not only does Blindman manage to use his rifle to ring the bell in a town's church-tower (he does miss, once), he's seen nonchalantly stringing dynamite outside the lodgings of the crooked partner he means to execute, though it looks like the partner could pot-shot Blindman without half trying.

Now, there is some potential for myth in a sightless gunman, particularly since the great majority of spaghetti western protagonists are nearly infallible supermen. Late in the film, the female lead asks Blindman why he pursues his enemies despite his handicap. Blindman says, more or less, that he feels like "half a man" because he's blind, and that the only thing that keeps him from being entirely pathetic is being able to earn a big hunk of money with his skills. So even though Blindman is as money-hungry as most spaghetti-heroes, he's got a slightly more personal reason for his greed.

Yet what distinguishes BLINDMAN as myth is less the hero and more his quest. The gunfighter and his partner were charged with delivering fifty mail-order brides to a group of miners in Texas, but Blindman's partner pulled a double-cross and delivered the women to a Mexican bandit leader named Domingo, who plans to use the brides as part of a complicated assassination scheme. A not dissimilar trope also appeared in 2015's MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, and in both movies the hijacked women were stunningly beautiful, which was probably not the case for most real-life mail-order brides. But in a western, the spread of civilization is tied to the dispersal of the Fair Sex, and so, even if Blindman is rescuing the brides for filthy lucre, his activity is still going to serve an altruistic purpose in the long run.

Not so Domingo and his allies. In addition to the usual hordes of grimy bandidos, Domingo's anti-familial endeavors are also supported by his real family, brother Candy (Ringo Starr) and sister Sweet Mama (Magda Konopka). The latter's name suggests something very like a brothel-keeper, and though it's never explicitly said that this will be the fate of the kidnapped women, Sweet Mama clearly has no problem with enslaving norteamericano women for her family's benefit. Younger brother Candy has a more involved backstory: he's in love with the blonde daughter of a Caucasian rancher living in Mexico, and eventually Blindman will use the rancher's daughter (Agneta Eckemyr) to lure Candy to his death. (Surprisingly, Blindman never seduces the lead female, who remains unattached by the story's end.)

Though the hero's back-and-forth struggles against the villains aren't substantially different than if they were fighting over gold bullion, the fact that the "gold" is in femininity gives the plot more immediacy, as well the opportunity for comedy. Ar one point, the bandidos have taken such a shellacking from the one-man, no-eyed army that they agree to load the fifty brides onto a train, so that Blindman can transport them back across the border. However, since Blindman can't see the faces of the brides, the bandits substitute forty-nine old, decrepit women from the town-- and Sweet Mama, who captures Blindman. Indeed, even though there's a long, macabre scene in which Domingo mourns his slain brother, the script places much more emphasis on the bandit leader's diabolical sister. In another scene, Blindman humiliates Sweet Mama by tying her to a stake in the middle of town, and when she spits on him, he bares her breasts-- though ironically he's one of the few heroes who can't enjoy such a spectacle. Later, Sweet Mama meets her own end when she ambushes the blind hero and almost strangles him with her bare hands, forgetting that Blindman's lack of sight doesn't affect his muscles.

A subplot involves Blindman saving the Mexican general whom Domingo plans to kill, and how Blindman later profits from that bit of generosity. The general even makes it possible for Blindman and Domingo to square off, sightless hero against sightless villain-- and yet, for a comic conclusion, the general then takes the brides for himself. Blindman thus doesn't quite get to ride off into the sunset with all the gold like most spaghetti saviors, but the very atypicality of the ending makes the flick all the more appealing.