A still from Sergio Corbucci’s The Mercenary.United Artists
If Quentin Tarantino can have a top-five list of Filipino movies, you best be sure that he has a number-one, number-two, and even number-eight favorite spaghetti Western. Tarantino has often described The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as “the best-directed film” of all time. Helmed by Sergio Leone, the film starred Clint Eastwood and was largely responsible for bringing the spaghetti Western sub-genre to audiences across the world. Produced in Italy as an alternative to the more conventional American Westerns, these movies often dealt with political themes and toyed with Western tropes. Despite his love for Leone, however, Tarantino has long been a champion of “the other Sergio,” a filmmaker who directed many of Tarantino’s favorite spaghetti Westerns.
We’re talking about Sergio Corbucci, whose work Tarantino paid overt homage to in Django Unchained and also in The Hateful Eight. Now, one of Corbucci’s most memorable movies, one that Tarantino personally ranks fourth on his list of favorite spaghetti Westerns, is streaming for new audiences to discover on Prime Video. The movie in question was released in 1968, two years after Corbucci rose to prominence with the movie Django. Interestingly, it could also be categorized as a zapata Western, given its production was spread between Italy and Spain.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Where To Watch Quentin Tarantino’s Fourth-Favorite Spaghetti Western for Free
We’re here to discuss The Mercenary, featuring Django star Franco Nero along with Jack Palance. The movie follows a mercenary who must confront a man from his past while aiding a woman during an uprising against the Mexican government. It now holds an 80% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, and is generally considered an underrated entry in Corbucci’s filmography. On the list of his favorite spaghetti Westerns, Tarantino ranked it above the far more well-known movies Once Upon a Time in the West and A Fistful of Dollars, both directed by Leone. Tarantino’s all-time favorite, of course, is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In addition to Prime Video, The Mercenary is also available this month on YouTube and Tubi. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
