Colonel Gunther Reza is the main antagonist of the 1971 Zapata Western film A Fistful of Dynamite (also known as Duck, You Sucker! and Once Upon a Time... the Revolution). He is the sadistic leader of an army detachment belonging to the Mexican government, and he seeks to exterminate all opposition using violence and torture, committing war crimes in the process.
He was portrayed by the late Antoine Saint-John.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- Is a brutal military leader who does the heavy lifting for the tyrannical Mexican government, unjustly imprisoning or killing Mexican citizens, even Juan Miranda's father in the past.
- In his first appearance in person, he leads the Mexican Army, to massacre a revolutionary camp.
- When he and his army are taken by surprise, with his soldiers being killed, Reza only seems upset that he lost the battle rather than the fact that his soldiers were killed.
- After he manages to rebuild his army, he leads another attack, this time succeeding in wiping out the camp, with not even Juan's six children being spared.
- Tortures Dr. Villega into identifying Revolutionaries, resulting in him betraying them to their deaths at the armies hands.
- While the torture itself isn't visible onscreen, it nonetheless has the onscreen consequence of Villega selling out the revolution, along with his injuries being shown, and Villega later commits suicide to atone for his betrayal (also production stills of the torture scene still exist).
- He also tortures him psychologically by forcing him to witness the revolutionaries' executions, while Reza has a vague but notable smile on his face.
- In the climax of the film, he leads another attack, and he personally shoots John Mallory in the back multiple times before he is killed by Juan, resulting in John either succumbing to his injuries, or being blown up and killed by mortar fire presumably fired by Reza's soldiers, either way he is responsible for John Mallory's death.
Trivia[]
- The fifth Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western villain to be Pure Evil, after Ramón Rojo, El Indio, Angel Eyes, and Frank.