Overview
Soldier of Fortune is a 1976 Italian comedy film directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile. The film tells of the challenge of Barletta in a comic and grotesque style.
Plot summary
In 1503, while wandering southern Italy in search for employment, soldier of fortune Ettore Fieramosca and his troupe – Bracalone (the group's chronicler), Graiano, Romanello und Fanfulla – run into a siege of the city of Barletta and its Spanish garrison by the French army. Despite his moral code of aiding the underdog, his starving men persuade him to seek their fortune with the French; but when the French commanders, Charles La Motte and the Duke of Namur, contemptuously dismiss them, Ettore sides with the beleaguered Spanish. By single-handedly routing a French assault on the city walls, they win the trust of the Spanish captain, Gonzalo Pedro de Guadarrama. However, with Barletta's provisions nearly depleted and Spanish reinforcements still underway, the situation is bleak for the city's inhabitants.
When Ettore aggressively responds to a provocation by the French feasting in full view of the starving population, the French retaliate with a tower-mounted cannon. While trying to find a way to disable the weapon, Ettore and his men encounter the wandering actor troupe of Capoccio, whose female star Leonora develops a crush on Ettore. With the actors' help, Ettore destroys the gun, but in the meantime Graiano defects and attempts to warn the French about the sneak attack. When the French's hesitation in believing his story results in the cannon's destruction, they lay the blame on Graiano and execute him.
The French subsequently capture Capoccio's troupe, but while looking for Graiano, Ettore comes upon them, frees the captives and kidnaps La Motte and two of his knights. Indignant at having been captured through trickery, La Motte refuses to acknowledge defeat and begins insulting Ettore and Gaiano's memory, whereupon Ettore challenges him to a fight. Since, however, according to the rules of chivalry only a knight may lawfully duel a knight, Ettore is granted three days to assemble a band of thirteen Italian volunteers to be knighted and fight thirteen French knights on equal terms. In actuality, De Guadarrama wishes to use the armistice to let his reinforcements from Spain arrive in time.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).