La bataille de San Sebastian
Tags: western, violence, murder

Plot synopsis:
In 1743 Mexico, a womanizing outlaw, the army deserter Leon Alastray (Anthony Quinn) is wounded and pursued by the Spanish military into a church. He is given sanctuary by a sympathetic priest (Sam Jaffe), who will not turn Alastray over to the military. The church authorities side with the army, and when the priest still refuses to hand Alastray over they send him to minister to a remote village, San Sebastian. The priest smuggles Alastray, who is proudly atheistic and anti-clerical, past the soldiers surrounding the church. Alastray feels guilty for what has happened to the priest, so accompanies him to the village to ensure he gets there safely. However he is angry and embittered throughout the trip.
They arrive at San Sebastian to find the church barely stands and the village apparently abandoned. The priest is killed by a marauding vaquero, but his ringing of the church bell brings the villagers out from their hiding places in the surrounding hills. They hide there because they are regularly terrorized by Yaqui Indians. The villagers mistake Alastray for a priest. He at first denies it and is scornful of them, but, guided by a persistent village woman, Kinita (Anjanette Comer), to whom he is attracted, decides to take on the role and organize the villagers. They are aided by the persuasive power of an accident the villagers think is a miracle.
Teclo (Charles Bronson) is a half-breed leader of the vaqueros. He pretends to side with the villagers, but in reality wants them to be scattered in the hills permanently, under his leadership. While Alastray organizes the men of the village to build a dam, the Yaqui attack and massacre many of the inhabitants of the village. The angry villagers order the priest out. Alastray leaves, with Kinita following. He tells her all his life he has fallen just short of achieving something meaningful, and sends her back to the village. A storm of approaching riders are heard, and the two take cover. They see Teclo and the Yaqui leader, Golden Lance (Jaime Fernández) together, and realize the alliance of those two means terrible things for the village.
Alastray goes to the capital and, using a previous love connection, obtains muskets, gunpowder and a cannon, which he takes back to the village. When the villagers see the weapons, they are encouraged and willing to fight. Alastray makes a peace overture to Golden Lance which is initially successful, but Teclo sabotages it and a Yaqui attack is inevitable.
On the eve of the battle the villagers ask Alastray to lead them in a Mass. He tells them he is not a priest, but they nonetheless accept him. Together they repel the Yaqui attack on the village, but they use up most of their gunpowder and things appear grim. However a village boy out playing sees the vaqueros and the Yaquis gather in preparation for the next day’s attack. During the night Alastray and a few villagers set charges in a mountainside overlooking the gathering place, to explode rocks down onto the attackers.
The next morning Teclo rides by and sees the fuse to the charges, but the villagers kill him before he can do anything about it. The Yaquis gather below the rocks, and most, including Golden Lance, are killed when the charges are detonated. With the area pacified, government authorities come to administer the village. A military officer recognizes Alastray and sends soldiers to capture him. The villagers outwit the soldiers, getting them to pursue a decoy. Alastray flees on horseback in the opposite direction, with Kinita riding after him.

Review: A spaghetti western surprise with Anthony Quinn as a "priest" and Charles Bronson as a Mestizo malcontent.The movie has a theme, a developed plot, some actors with charisma and an Ennio Morricone score.
Anthony Quinn A Priest ?.
Over the years I seemed to have missed this great picture with Anthony Quinn, Charles Bronson, Sam Jaffe and Anjanette Comer.
At first I was not sure if I was going to like this picture because Sam Jaffe,(Father Joseph),"The Dunwich Horror",'70, gave the impression it was going to be a long boring film about the struggles of a poor priest in the desert.
I was soon fooled as Anthony Quinn,(Leon Alastray),"The Shoes of the Fisherman",'68 is befriended by Father Joseph and at one point takes over the church and rings the bell of the church to summon the local people who are hiding in the hills.
It makes for a very good view, despite its leisurely pace at times.In summary Anthony Quinn stars as a outlaw that is saved by Father John, whom he escorts to the village of San Sebastian.
The village is deserted, with its cowardly residents hiding in the hills from indians, who pillage their crops and burn their buildings.
When Father John is murdered, the outlaw is mistaken as the man of god by the villagers, and assists them in regaining their confidence and defending themselves.Quinn is superb in his role, complimented by Charles Bronson, who plays the bad guy "half breed" Teclo.
Sam Jaffe's Father Joseph character is also very likable.Whilst the movie is quite slow in places, this only helps to plot out the story.
Although casting the indians as the "bad guys", it does explain that the massacre of the villagers is no different than what the white man has done to their own race "in the name of god".The soundtrack is again provided by Ennio Morricone and, whilst not his best work, does help provide the suitable atmosphere, borrowing heavily from some of his other compositions.Definitely worth a view..
Guns for San Sebastian is directed by Henri Verneuil and adapted to screenplay by James R.
It stars Anthony Quinn, Charles Bronson, Anjanette Comer, Sam Jaffe and Silvia Pinal.
Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Armand Thirard.An outlaw on the run is mistaken for a priest by peasant villagers who are at the mercy of bandits and Yaqui Indians.Something of a multi euro Western, Guns for San Sebastian latches onto the Spaghetti Western coat tails whilst attempting to put something new in the wardrobe.
Undeniably the critics who said it's pedestrian in pace are absolutely right, the first two thirds of the piece asks for a great deal of your patience, whilst simultaneously demanding you buy into the various themes trundling away.With a surreal sub-plot at play, a jokey romance and some atrocious dubbing, it's not hard to dismiss it as purely fun cannon fodder.
Quinn throws in a good turn, the Durango locale is superbly photographed, and Morricone offers up one of his tonally astute scores.It's all very Magnificent 7 et al, but nothing wrong with that, that is on proviso you can get through the labours of the first hour or so.
Anthony Quin plays Leon Alastray, part time revolutionary and full time bandit, on the run from the Spanish authorities in Old Mexico in the 18th Century.
Through a series of unlikely but possible events, Quinn is mistaken for a priest whom has come to the small village of San Sebastian.
Rather silly story, good cinematography, fairly good special effects, and outstanding music (by the master, Ennio Morricone) makes this a worthwhile view.
A bandit posing as parish priest helps a Mexican village with its cowardly inhabitants hiding in the mountains.
This exciting picture deals with an outlaw disguising himself as priest who helps defend tribal land ,(people living on the edges of themselves and their resourcefulness and limited supplies) from a gang of mean bandits and rebel Indians that want tribe's crop .
They ranged from simple villagers , torn between old and new , to the most warlike of the Indian tribes : the Yaquis who were determined to resist all change .
Leon Alastray (Anthony Quinn) is a bandit who has been given sanctuary in a church by Father John (Sam Jaffe), whom he then accompanies to the village of San Sebastian (Mexico) .
The village is deserted, with its cowardly residents hiding in the ridges from Yaquis, who ordinarily attack the little town and rob all their food .
When Father John is killed, the villagers mistakenly believe the bandit is a parish priest .
Alastray at first tell them he is not a priest, but they don't believe it, and an apparent miracle on a San Sebastian sculpture seems to demonstrate they are correct .
After that , the priest train them to kill and defending themselves when the village is besieged by the violent Yaquis .
Meanwhile , the Indian war party (commanded by Jaime Fernandez as Golden Lance) and a rebel group (led by Charles Bronson) then head out to conquer the Mexican village held in an impregnable fortress that the villagers have built and the priest assists them in regaining their confidence.This Western movie produced by Jacques Bar is a Franco-Mexican-Italian co-production,; it packs thrills, emotion, romance, action packed , extraordinary performances and spectacular finale battle .
This Western-drama is an interesting story that carries a genuine charge of intelligence with exciting battle of wits between an upright outlaw and a nasty mestizo .
Sensational acting by two big star names, Anthony Quinn and Charles Bronson .
Strong secondary cast plenty of Mexican actors as Silvia Pinal, Pedro Armendariz Jr , Enrique Lucero, Jaime Fernandez, Chano Urueta and special mention to Sam Jaffe as kind old priest and Leon Askin as Vicar General .
Very good cinematography filmed in Metrocolor by Armand Thirard and on location in Durango, El Saltito, Durango, San Miguel de Allende, and Guanajuato, Mexico .
The picture is splendidly directed by Henry Verneuil, a Turkish director working in France from the 40s.
Verneuil is an expert on heist-genre such as he proved in ¨The Sicilians clan(68)¨ also with Gabin and Delon, ¨The burglars(1971)¨with Omar Shariff and Jean Paul Belmondo , furthermore on Warlike genre : ¨Weekend at Dunkirk¨and ¨The 25th hour¨and only one Western : Guns of San Sebastian(68)¨.
Rating : Good movie and above average, a must see for Western lovers and Quinn and Bronson fans..
The European Western takes a couple steps back in time with the rascal-mistaken-for-clergy theme, a proved device that worked for Bogie in "The Left Hand of God" & Whoopi in "Sister Act." In colonial Mexico, bandit Leon (Quinn) takes refuge with dedicated Father Joseph (Jaffe) & escapes when the priest is transferred to a forsaken northern village.
The villagers, terrified of marauding Yaquis & exploited by a frontier protection racket led by embittered half-Yaqui Teclo (Bronson), mistake Leon for the priest & implore him for miracles.
Unable to escape back into colonial settlement & tempted by naive, spirited village girl Kinita (Comer), he teaches the villagers to fight back & believe in themselves rather than praying for miracles.
Quinn is colorful as ever but not quite believable making the transition from Leon the selfish, godless rascal to Leon the selfless, principled hero, though he is properly scruffy all the way through.
Surprising good and enjoyable surrealistic spaghetti western..
However from the moment on when the main character arrives in San Sabastian, the story gets developed well and becomes interesting and original.
This certainly ain't no formulaic spaghetti western.
It helps the characters to develop well and the story to become interesting.
The movie certainly shows some parallels to the movie "The Mission", even though it isn't as beautifully and professionally made.It doesn't seem like it at first but the movie becomes surprisingly action filled toward the ending, with some quite big scale battles.
Also the ending most certainly does not disappoint.The movie has some good actors that help to flesh out the flat characters.
Anthony Quinn is a good main lead and he makes the moral change his character goes through seem believable.
Charles Bronson plays a good movie villain, though his character is perhaps a bit underused.
Further more the movie features Sam Jaffe, once again in the role of a Christian.The directing isn't much good, since the story-flow of the movie is quite poor at times, which is also due to some bad editing.
Nevertheless the movie is filled with some memorable and great looking sequences, although it's also definitely true that most of those sequences are being uplifted by the musical score by Ennio Morricone.Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
The film has a good theme and set in quite genuine historical settings.
I have never actually seen the film, but Morricone's main theme is one of his greatest.
if the film is anything like as good as its score then it will be a masterpiece!The score is up there with Morricone's compositions for The Good The Bad and The Ugly and A Fistful of dynamite.
Worth remembering that Morricone carried on composing great scores for this Director, including the twangy accompaniment to The Scicillian Clan and all those great early 8o's action flicks with Belmondo (Not to forget of course The Burglars as well).
The original story written by William Faherty was called " 'A wall for San Sabastian' and later under the direction of Henri Vernevil changed to " Guns For San Sabastian.
" The late great Anthony Quinn plays the titled character Leon Alastray, a fugitive outlaw and bandito running from the military police.
Wounded and helpless, he takes refuge in a Catholic Church under the protection of Father Joseph (Sam Jaffe) and Sanctuary.
With the good priest being sent to a forgotten mission, where it's residents live in fear of the Native American, Yaki Apache, Alastray stows away and arrives at the distant mission, where Father Joseph is murdered.
Among the heavies of the film, audience members will see a very young, Charles Bronson, Jorge Martínez De Hoyos and Jaime Fernández as 'Golden Lance.' The story is slow to develop, but does rise to the occasion when expected, to such a degree it has become a Western Classic.
Fine casting and good story.
A man guided by God's hand without knowing it, Leon Alastray fulfils his destiny following a chain of violent events out of his control.
Definitely Leon Alastray is God's Messenger.
Father Joseph, the priest who saves his life from the King's soldiers, makes a quick remark about God's sharp sight about Leon.
See it - A pretty stereotypical plot about villagers who must stand up for themselves and fight against the bad guys who have been pushing them around for years.
It sounds like "The Magnificent Seven," but this story is unique enough in its own right.
Anthony Quinn is a fugitive on the run who is shown kindness by a priest.
When the priest is killed, Quinn impersonates the priest and becomes the leader that the village of San Sebastian so badly needs.
A leader who is willing to fight against the villain played by Charles Bronson.
A pretty average movie, but it has an awesome "Alamo-like" final battle and a great ending!
Anthony Quinn and Henri Verneuil Made A Great Haunting Movie Together.
I was actually looking forward to it since I had already seen Quinn directed by Verneuil in "The 25th Hour(La Vingt-Cinquieme Heure)".
Quinn plays a Mexican Bandit on the run rescued by Sam Jaffe's Catholic Priest in sanctuary.
Through a series of mischances, Quinn winds up in the role of Priest where he teaches the villagers to fight off bandits led by Charles Bronson and Yaqui Indians.
I agree to the surrealist elements of this film which, quite frankly, detracts from the main story of an otherwise formulaic spaghetti western.
So if you want to see a REALLY good film starring Quinn and directed by Verneuil, skip this one and find "The 25th Hour" instead..
Two-time Academy Award winner Anthony Quinn (Viva Zapata!, Zorba the Greek, Lust for Life) as a priest?
He borrows a robe and hopes he doesn't get caught.But Charles Bronson (Once Upon a Time in the West, Death Wish) doesn't want any priests around to mess things up for him.
He likes taking from the people, and priests just complicate things.Felicia (the prolific Mexican actress Silvia Pinal) is going to do her best to keep him in San Sebastian.It turns into a Magnificent Seven, but there is only Quinn, who gets help from the Governor after he tells his wife that he will expose their affair if she doesn't help him.
I'm sure this film would have a stronger following if given the a title I have put or titled THE PRIEST OF SAN SEBASTIAN.There are many films in which a band of rebels want to take over a peasant village with violence and killing and as with this one I question, Why?
But That's my issue.Anthony Quinn does a very good job of carrying the film and I just wish his character had more to say because his words at the end are quite poignant.
When he does talk he is very strong, forceful and illuminating.I also feel the film needed another strong male lead in the village.
Anthony Quinn in fact was too much of a strength and I got the feel that villagers would not be able to stand on their own two feet without him.The action scenes are quite inventive and makes me think this could be remade successfully.Anjanette Comer is very good and very beautiful.
Third, it's set in the 18th century--about a hundred years before the usual western film--though at times, it looks much more 19th century than it should (such as the types of weapons and their accuracy as well as the clothing in some scenes).
But, on the other hand, it does have music from Ennio Morricone and looks like an Italian-made western.
And, like many of these films it has a couple Americans in the leads (Anthony Quinn and Charles Bronson).
So it's kind of a Spaghetti Western and kind of not one at the same time.The film begins with Quinn playing a bandit who is trying to escape from the Spanish army.
He rushes to a church to claim sanctuary and it is granted by the local Father (Sam Jaffe).
But Jaffe's superiors are not at all pleased about this and banish him to the hellish desert town of San Sebastian.
Shortly after arriving, a bandit murders Jaffe and the people (all hiding in the hills due to repeated Yaqui Indian raids) think Quinn is their new priest.
He does a lot to help the town and actually, at times, tries to promote peace--and WHY he did all this, since he's an atheist bandit, is totally unclear.
Despite these serious shortcomings in the script, you can't help but wonder how Quinn will help these people--especially since one of their 'friends' is actually in league with the Yaqui marauders.
And as for action, the final portion of the film is pretty exciting..
"Guns for San Sebastian" is above-average Spaghetti Western.
In "Guns for San Sebastian," Anthony Quinn plays a wanted Mexican bandit who escapes execution through the inadvertent help of a humble and good-natured priest (played by veteran actor Sam Jaffe).
The good father's new assignment is San Sebastian and, to escape the authorities, Quinn goes along for the ride.
After the priest is murdered in cold blood by some despicable Mexican bandits, Quinn avenges his death and then is mistaken for the old padre when the townsfolk return from the hills.
Why they should believe that Quinn is their new priest is known only by God and the scriptwriter.
Of course, Quinn plays along with the charade and soon falls for the local good-looking chica (Anjanette Comer).
Unfortunately for Quinn, the girl and the town, the Indians (led by Charles Bronson) are up to no good and making their usual forays and unrelenting demands.
Quinn decides that what the town really needs to do is defend itself.
After that conflict is established, the film moves along a brisk pace and an even faster body-count.Director Henri Verneuil knew something about being besieged on all sides.
I don't believe that this film makes any type of personal statement, but it is possible that Verneuil's own history may be an undercurrent theme.
As for the film itself, it's an above-average Spaghetti Western directed by a Frenchman with American actors in the cast.
Quinn, as usual, gives a fine performance as does his chief antagonist, Charles Bronson.
Bronson's character is a bit conflicted which adds some much-needed ambiguity to his role.
Furie's "The Appaloosa" (1968) with Marlon Brando), Anjanette's forte was comedies like "The Loved One" and "Quick Before It Melts", and also Charles Bronson's rather cheezy blending into a half-breed Indian that detract from the movie's realism, I was rather pleasantly surprised by 1968's "Guns for San Sebastien." The index I checked before ordering the film prepared me for a rather tedious exercise which turned out to be totally unwarranted and thanks to my knowledge of the reputation of Henri Verneuil, who had done so well with "The 25th Hour" the year before and star Anthony Quinn, I was treated to an exciting and enthralling assault on the imagination in both sound and spectacle.
It predates "The Wild Bunch" at first with the stop motion on violence, but then goes for straight Western spectacle, providing Quinn another well suited role as a renegade thrust into the unlikely role of a priest of a village he can help display their humanity so aptly.
Ennio Morricone's score is helpful.
Halliwell's calls the film "undistinguished." How totally wrong they were this time, as this film, somewhat riveting, goes beyond the routine western and lives on in the spirit of your imagination.