Black Jack - Un uomo per 5 vendette

I did not know a lot about this film when I finally got the chance to watch it on an old Dutch VHS tape. It turned out to be excellent.

The plot concerns a band of bank robbers who decide to betray their leader, Jack. They torture and nearly kill him while his sister gets brutally raped by one of the men and is subsequently scalped (!) and murdered by an Indian who was hired by the villains. But leaving Jack alive was a grave mistake because after getting better his saddles up and goes for bloody revenge.

I usually prefer Italian westerns to those from the US because most of the latter are too tame for my tastes. There is a nastiness about BLACK JACK that is quite powerful and disturbing. Even on the used VHS the cinematography was great and the same has to be said about the effective score. The acting is good for this kind of film, though Jack's grief and madness sometimes border on the comical - especially when he bursts out laughing like a loon during one fight. Still, this is powerful and effective cinema and should be of interest to anyone who likes the genre or revenge films in general. It's a pity that the film is near impossible to find at the time of this writing. I hope it will get a DVD release soon. This 35 year old gem is overdue for rediscovery.