"This is a somewhat underrated action film set during the Mexican Revolution with James Brown as a deputy who crosses the border to bring back Burt Reynolds for the stolen 100 rifles. Eventually Brown and Reynolds get involved in the Revolution through Raquel Welch . Brown and Reynolds play well off each other as they go up against Fernando Lamas and his Federal army. Director Tom Gries put together some great action sequences. That combined with Jerry Goldsmith's score makes for a film that really delivers. Hans Gudegast (Eric Braeden) brilliantly underplays his part as a German military advisor to Lamas. This film helped launch Burt Reynolds into stardom."
Great Great Movie
J. R Sategna | Martinez, California United States | 03/18/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"When is this movie going to DVD? This one is the best of all the Racquel Welch Westerns--It has plenty of action and great storyline--The best part with Racquel is when she is taking a shower from a railroad water tank to confuse the Mexican soldiers that are on a passing train--who cannot help but look? She is dressed but the clothes are tight!!! What a scene!!! Plenty of action in this movie-especially the love scene with Jim Brown--this along with Bandeloro are the best--get them both---DVD PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Implausible But Fun Western
Terence Allen | Atlanta, GA USA | 05/07/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"100 Rifles is the kind of Western you'd have expected someone to make in the late 1960's. One with a black US lawman, and two revolutionary Mexican Indians fighting for justice in their oppressed homeland. It would be easy to dismiss this as a politically correct western, even though it was made before the term was invented. But the cast and the production of 100 Rifles pulls it off, making a rare late 60's Western treat.
Jim Brown, recently retired football superstar, plays the US marshal with the virility and muscle that befits his status as one of the greatest, and definitely the most punishing running back in the history of the NFL. Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch plays the two revolutionaries. Brown's character comes to Mexico chasing bank robbing Reynolds, ends up falling for Welch, and eventually helps both Reynolds and Welch with their revolutionary activities. Reynolds displays all of the vigor and charm that helped become the most popular box office star in the late seventies/early eighties, and Welch is, well Welch, oozing sex appeal and sensuality.
100 Rifles is definitely a product of the era in which it was made, but since there very few great Westerns made in the late 60's except movies like Hombre and The Wild Bunch, this is film to appreciate and treasure."
Fernando Lamas a good bad guy
Sargon | Canada | 01/02/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I admit - Raquel Welch, what a woman! I liked the acters in this flick. It wasn't bad. Burt Reynolds played a good wastrel. Fernando Lamas was the best though as the evil Mexican Commandant with his Colonel Klink sidekick/advisor (Victor Newman from the 'Young & the Restless'). Actually, Victor Newman, is an excellent cool actor. He should have been in more leading roles. I like his cool Prussian demeanor and would make a great stock bad guy. I was surprised that Jim Brown was able to pull it off not too bad.
One of those good 70s westerns, I recommend it."
The film makes a little sense but a lot of amusing noise...
Roberto Frangie | Leon, Gto. Mexico | 01/13/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The movie takes place during a bloody time period of Mexico history... At that time, anyone coming to Mexico ought to be speaking Spanish... But Lyedecker (Jim Brown) didn't speak the language... He was a black policeman looking for a valuable man, a bank robber named Joe Herrera (Burt Reynolds), who looks Mexican but doesn't talk Mexican... Herrera is a half-breed, whose mother was a Yaqui Indian and his father was from Alabama...
General Verdugo (Fernando Lamas) is sure that the money was not spent on women or on Whisky... For him, Joe stole the $6,000 from the Citizen's Bank in Phoenix, Arizona to buy 100 rifles for his people, the Yaqui Indians...
Verdugo--a murderer and an assassin who runs the State of Sonora--have orders to get rid of the Yaquis any way he could, and he took the easy way by killing everybody... He even kidnapped Yaqui children to regain the rifles... And now he wants Lyedecker's head on a stick in the middle of the plaza for everyone to see...
Lyedecker doesn't care about nothing and nobody... He took a job that nobody else wanted... His intentions are to take Joe back for the $200 reward and a permanent job... The policeman rejected any deal in spite of all the atrocities he witnessed like executing Indians or hanging them up like a side of beef...
Steven Grimes (Dan O'Herlihy)--who runs the railroad-- doesn't want his train to be a small sacrifice to the mean general... The German military adviser Lt. Von Klemme (Eric Braeden) thinks that the Indians must be finished off as quickly as possible before more guns come through... Raquel Welch's most audacious moment comes out when the Indians attack a well-guarded train carrying troops and supplies, and she was openly showering in the flat part, under a water tower...
With a very nice score by Jerry Goldsmith, "100 Rifles" is a slam-bang action epic, with loads of explosions and gory fighting, making little sense but a lot of amusing noise...