The Five Man Army

The Five Man Army
Film poster
Directed by	Don Taylor
Produced by	Italo Zingarelli
Screenplay by	Marc Richards Dario Argento
Starring	Peter Graves James Daly Bud Spencer Nino Castelnuovo Tetsuro Tamba
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Cinematography	Enzo Barboni
Edited by	Sergio Montanari
Production company	Tiger Film
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	October 16, 1969 (1969-10-16)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian English

The Five Man Army (Italian: Un esercito di 5 uomini) is a 1969 Italian Zapata Western film taking place during the Mexican Revolution.

The film was directed by Don Taylor and featured a script by a young Dario Argento. Starring as a group of five men enlisted to rob a train containing a shipment of gold were Peter Graves, James Daly, Bud Spencer, Nino Castelnuovo and Tetsuro Tamba. The film's score was composed by Ennio Morricone.

Mexican rebels hire the "Dutchman" to rob a train carrying $500,000 in gold on behalf of Victoriano Huerta to finance the Mexican Revolution. The Dutchman enlists four other men to assist him: Mesito, a strong man, Luis, a circus acrobat turned outlaw, Augustus, a former army officer and explosives specialist, and a samurai warrior (only referred to only as Samurai), promising to pay each one a thousand dollars.

Immediately after they assemble, their first undertaking is to save the rebel leader who hired them from being executed. After thwarting the execution and causing a riot in the village, the five men are forced to flee, along with all the civilians, in order to prevent reprisals. Nevertheless, some soldiers still manage to find the men and bring them to the local Mexican Army commandant. They manage to escape, killing the soldiers and dynamiting the fort's magazine. They are tracked by a large group of soldiers and are likely to be captured when they come upon a small group of rebels, who are there to cover the Five Man Army's escape. The Dutchman and the rebels all know they will be unable to stop the soldiers, but the rebels are willing to sacrifice themselves for the Five, emphasizing the importance of the Five's mission.

The train carrying the gold is heavily defended by a cannon, machine guns, and dozens of soldiers. The Dutchman's plan is to uncouple the car carrying the gold from the rest of the train without stopping it. The difficult robbery succeeds, despite Samurai falling off the train and Augustus dropping a key piece of equipment. When the Five return to their hideout conflict arises amongst them. Luis, Augustus, Mesito, and Samurai had all assumed they were going to take the gold for themselves, but the Dutchman is set on keeping his promise to the rebels. He disarms the other four and explains to them that his wife had been executed by soldiers since other members of her family were rebels.