Adios Amigo (1975) Atlas Films/Comedy-Western RT: 87 minutes Rated PG (some violence and suggestive content) Director: Fred Williamson Screenplay: Fred Williamson Music: Luchi De Jesus Cinematography: Tony Palmieri Release date: February 11, 1976 (US) Cast: Fred Williamson, Richard Pryor, James Brown, Robert Phillips, Mike Henry. Box Office: N/A
Rating: *
On a 1981 episode of Sneak Previews, Gene Siskel selected the comedy-western Adios Amigo as his “Dog of the Week” except it wasn’t. Let me explain. In his search for the week’s Dog, he decided to check out the 1975 comedy starring Richard Pryor in rerelease to capitalize on the comedian’s success in recent films like Stir Crazy and Bustin’ Loose. It looked like it would stink, so Siskel went to see it. Much to his surprise, he ended up liking it leaving him Dog-less for that week’s episode.
Adios Amigo didn’t open in any cinemas near me at that time, but it did show up on one of the UHF channels (WPHL 17, I think) about a year later. I tried watching it, but didn’t make it past the first half-hour. I couldn’t get into it. I didn’t give it another chance until I acquired a cheap used VHS copy from a video store going out of business in early ’98. That time, I made it all the way through and didn’t like it. It’s fine, I only spent $1 on it anyway.
It’s hard to explain why I opted to rewatch Adios Amigo this past weekend. I guess like Siskel, I wanted to review a bad movie and it seemed like the right/wrong choice. No surprise, I didn’t like it any better than I did way back when. If anything, it’s worse than I remember. What’s even sadder is that it could have worked. Hell, it should have worked, especially with a power team like Pryor and Fred Williamson (Black Caesar) in the lead roles. Instead, it’s a complete misfire.
The plot, if you can even call it that, centers on the misadventures of Big Ben (Williamson) and Sam Spade (Pryor) as they traverse the Wild West. Ben is a rancher forced off his land by a greedy land developer who frames him for robbery and has him carted off to jail. En route, the stagecoach is robbed by con man Spade who helps Ben escape. Now at this point, you’d think the two men would team up to right all the wrongs done to Ben. NOPE! That plotline is completely dropped never to be brought up again. Instead, Spade attempts scam after scam only to fail; after which, he leaves Ben to deal with the fallout. That’s pretty much the whole movie. It’s not all that funny the first time and it’s definitely not funny the 10th or 12th time (I lost track).
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Adios Amigo is how it came to be. Understandably frustrated after being denied the lead role in Blazing Saddles, a film he co-wrote with Mel Brooks, Pryor signed on to co-star with Williamson in his comedic western. Not much of a fan of Blazing Saddles, the Hammer decided to do his own take on the genre (he wrote, produced and directed it). He wanted it make it funny but realistic too. It succeeds at neither. It’s essentially a hodge-podge of western tropes with Pryor joking his way through every scenario while Williamson chomps on his cigar. I’ll admit Pryor is a funny guy and has the occasional moment here and there, but it’s not enough to compensate for the poor writing and directing. It breaks my heart to say this because I really like Williamson, but Adios Amigo is a bad movie in all the wrong ways.
What I really can’t get past is how amateurish Adios Amigo looks. To be fair, it’s not all the filmmaker’s fault. Some of it has to do with the poor quality of the copy on Tubi. The framing is off, especially in the beginning when Williamson fights a trio of varmints harassing a Native American woman in town. You can’t even see the tops of their heads. The film hasn’t aged particularly well either. It’s grainy, blurry and too dark to see what’s going in nighttime scenes. It’s badly assembled and clumsily staged. It’s not like Williamson hired an inexperienced editor. Gene Ruggiero worked on several films, including Best Picture winner Around the World in 80 Days, prior to Adios Amigo. Did he even give a s***? It would appear not.
Another thing that sucks about Adios Amigo is that Williamson and Pryor have no chemistry. That’s not to say they give terrible individual performances. They don’t, not really. Pryor does his usual jive schtick while Williamson acts the tough, taciturn cat. The problem is they’re on autopilot the whole time. When they’re in the same scene, which doesn’t happen as often as you’d think, it just feels off. I don’t have a lot to say about the rest of the cast except that the James Brown listed in the credits isn’t the James Brown you think it is. It’s the guy from The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, NOT the soul/funk singer. It would have been cool casting though, right?
Adios Amigo is a complete waste of time for all involved. Even the stars admit it was a misfire. In an interview with Ebony magazine, Pryor issued an apology explaining he needed the money and would never do it again. He made some turkeys in his career (Superman III and Another You come to mind), but none as God-awful as Adios Amigo. BTW, the title refers to what Pryor’s character says to Williamson right before he splits the scene of yet another failed con. It’s also the title of the song that plays as a series of painted stills of the main characters in action marks the transition to the next scene. I wish they had just said adios to the script and ridden off into the sunset to come up with something better and funnier.
