Plenty of Westerns revolve around the efforts of the downtrodden to deal with their oppressors. 1970’s Wrath of the Wind offers an unusual perspective, as it focuses on reactions to a form of unionization.

Set in Spain circa the late 19th century, local peasants attempt to form their own kind of labor movement to procure better working conditions. Unsurprisingly, rich landowner Don Antonio (Fernando Rey) wants to shoot down these attempts – literally, in this case.

Don Antonio hires assassins Marcos (Terence Hill) and Jacobo (Mario Pardo) to get inside this organization and murder the leaders. However, along the way Marcos falls in love with sexy rebel Soledad (Maria Grazia Buccella) and switches sides.

So… Norma Rae with guns? Not quite, of course, but I still think the organized labor theme gives this one an intriguing twist.

In theory, at least. In reality, Wrath fails to explore that domain especially well.

Instead, Wrath concentrates more on romance than the typical Western. Not that it makes that domain paramount, but nonetheless, the Marcos/Soledad relationship receives more screentime than I would anticipate.

On paper, that sounds like an interesting choice, but as depicted, this side of the movie plods. Actually, pretty much all aspects of the story walk a slow path, and that becomes a definite issue.

Despite the simplicity of the plot, Wrath takes its own sweet time to go anywhere, and everything feels stretched out longer than it needs to be. We wind up with too many scenes that feel nearly endless.

Even with a tight 98-minute running time, Wrath comes across as an endurance test. It lacks momentum and dawdles on its path to inevitable confrontation.

Parts of Wrath also lack coherence. Scenes connect in a manner that creates confusion, and that also means the story feels jumbled.

I don’t demand nonstop action from Westerns, and as mentioned, I think Wrath comes with plot threads that show promise. Unfortunately, the end result seems too slow and disjointed to succeed.

Footnote: released as La Collera Del Vento in Italian, Wrath comes with multiple English titles. IMDB lists it as Trinity Sees Red and Wiki credits it as The Wind’s Fierce. Wrath of the Wind offers a literal translation of La Collera Del Vento.

Wrath of the Wind appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This turned into a fairly positive presentation.

Overall delineation worked fine. While some aspects of the image leaned a little soft, the movie usually showed appealing accuracy.

I saw no signs of jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. Grain felt natural and other than a few gate hairs, the movie lacked print flaws.

As with most Westerns, a sandy palette dominated, with only sporadic instances of brighter hues. This made sense within the film’s setting and the disc reproduced the colors in a largely satisfying manner.

Blacks appeared fairly deep and dense, while shadows came across as mostly smooth. Expect a generally high-quality image.

As for the movie’s LPCM monaural audio, it seemed typical for the era’s Italian soundtracks. This meant the standard dubbed dialogue and effects recorded after the fact as well.

Dialogue seemed awkwardly integrated and stiff. That didn’t come as a surprise, but the lines still felt “off” most of the time.

The rest of the mix followed the standard patterns, with effects that sounded dull but fairly clean, with only a little distortion. Music didn’t present great range but the score felt adequately reproduced. This turned into an acceptable mix that never sounded better than okay.

The disc provides both the film’s standard theatrical version (1:37:49) as well as an Extended Spanish Cut (1:46:16). What does the longer edition add?

Nothing that seems substantial, as the differences revolve largely around extensions of existing scenes. Given that I feel the theatrical Wrath already feels slow an meandering, the extra footage doesn’t help.

Alongside the theatrical cut, we get an audio commentary from author/critic Howard Hughes. He delivers a running, screen-specific view of cast and crew, genre domains, and production notes.

Much of Hughes’ chat looks at the careers of the participants, though he digs into aspects of the film’s creation as well. Although he tends to simply narrate the movie a little too often, Hughes makes this a reasonably engaging track.

Campesinos: Al Poder! brings a 16-minute, 58-second introduction from critic Fabio Melelli in which he discusses various cast/crew, genre and production domains. I still find it odd Arrow calls these Melelli programs “introductions” since they exist more as overviews, but he continues to deliver appealing chats.

Next comes The Days of Wrath, a 19-minute, seven-second chat with camera operator Roberto D’Ettore Piazzoli. As expected, he tells us of his career and time on Wrath in this engaging piece.

They Call It… Red Cemetery! goes for nine minutes, 28 seconds and offers a reel from filmmaker Francisco Lacerda. This short pays homage to the Spaghetti Western genre but doesn’t prove especially entertaining.

With Alternate Opening Titles (3:41), we see an English language variation called The Revenge of Trinity. Essentially it drops the movie’s opening six minutes and starts with the characters on the way to their mission. It’s an interesting curiosity.

Finally, an Image Gallery with a whopping nine publicity elements. It seems too short to offer much.

Despite an intriguing premise, Wrath of the Wind fizzles too much of the time. It proceeds at a sluggish pace and never kicks into gear. The Blu-ray brings generally good picture, mediocre audio and a mix of bonus materials. I wanted to like this film but it failed to connect with me.

Note that Wrath of the Wind comes only as part of a four-film collection called “Savage Guns”. This set also includes fellow Westerns I Want Him Dead, El Puro, and Four of the Apocalypse.