This is one of those rare aces of a good story told in Spartan eloquence all the way - perhaps the most admirable quality of the film is the very tense and clearcut dialog, where not one word fails to have effect. I loved this film from beginning to end and was mightily surprised by its epic splendour, since I had expected nothing but rather had had some misgivings about the killing of Indians. But this is a war story, it's about soldiers who are out there to kill and do nothing else, and although it's a spaghetti western and there are no cowboys at all, the soldiers are the more intrepid and sinister. Of course, you can't agree with the massacre of Indians, but you have to remember all through the movie that they killed and flayed his wife, and then there is the Indian boy in the end, turning the story into a very fountain of an endless wealth of food for afterthought. The story crowns them all in epic splendour making this film indeed one of the considerable westerns ever made.
Review of The Devil's Backbone
