This is a very strange movie from start to finish. We follow a bunch of characters that we know little about. We have no reason to root for them or hope they get the treasure/make it out alive/whatever. Then the leader (Rena Winters) goes out of her way to be distant, cold and boring. The other male leader of the group is just basically there for exposition, so the only character interaction is between the ridiculously bad overacting of a guy named "Sally". There is a fourth member of the team Phillipe, but rarely says or does much (or even appears in shots) unless they need a Spanish translator or a fourth vote.
Sally is supposed to be crazy, but he just seems to be an annoying idiot, but a harmless one at first. Eventually we learn a little about Sally and Phillipe, but not much, and not enough to care about either of their fate, or to justify or explain Sally's later actions.
There seemed to be at least one scene missing from my DVD (Mill Creek "Drive-In Classics" 50 movie pack) because Rena Winters' narration stops mid-sentence at one point and the scene changes. Maybe that was the scene where everything is explained so we care if she makes it out OK. The possibility of more missing scenes would explain why when our group of four meet a group of Mexicans, none of them acknowledge or seem to notice that they'd already met one of them in their travels, even though he'd been the source of much suspicion and discussion afterward.
The local Mexicans they encounter encompass every bad stereotype imaginable. I admit I've never been to Mexico, but I'm pretty sure that even by the 70's the stereotype of "banditos" with sombreros, covered in bullets and swigging tequila was already long outdated and offensive.
Pretty boring up to this point (I was about to give up) the movie suddenly jumps to unprovoked bloody violence. Back to total boredom for a while, then even more killing, beating, whipping until pretty much everybody is dead. None of the deaths really seem to have meaning or are presented with any sense of emotion at all.
Between all this oddity there's some pretty bizarre camera work with the "passage of time" montages using sometimes triple, sometimes quadruple exposures to have sunsets, mountains, closeups, and our four "heroes" walking all in the same frame. Pretty arty stuff for such a dumb movie.
The appearance of on-camera storyteller/narrator at the beginning and end was also very strange.
Sally is supposed to be crazy, but he just seems to be an annoying idiot, but a harmless one at first. Eventually we learn a little about Sally and Phillipe, but not much, and not enough to care about either of their fate, or to justify or explain Sally's later actions.
There seemed to be at least one scene missing from my DVD (Mill Creek "Drive-In Classics" 50 movie pack) because Rena Winters' narration stops mid-sentence at one point and the scene changes. Maybe that was the scene where everything is explained so we care if she makes it out OK. The possibility of more missing scenes would explain why when our group of four meet a group of Mexicans, none of them acknowledge or seem to notice that they'd already met one of them in their travels, even though he'd been the source of much suspicion and discussion afterward.
The local Mexicans they encounter encompass every bad stereotype imaginable. I admit I've never been to Mexico, but I'm pretty sure that even by the 70's the stereotype of "banditos" with sombreros, covered in bullets and swigging tequila was already long outdated and offensive.
Pretty boring up to this point (I was about to give up) the movie suddenly jumps to unprovoked bloody violence. Back to total boredom for a while, then even more killing, beating, whipping until pretty much everybody is dead. None of the deaths really seem to have meaning or are presented with any sense of emotion at all.
Between all this oddity there's some pretty bizarre camera work with the "passage of time" montages using sometimes triple, sometimes quadruple exposures to have sunsets, mountains, closeups, and our four "heroes" walking all in the same frame. Pretty arty stuff for such a dumb movie.
The appearance of on-camera storyteller/narrator at the beginning and end was also very strange.