The Deserter (Italian: La Spina Dorsale Del Diavolo), also known as The S.O.B.s and The Devil's Backbone is a 1970 Italian-Yugoslav American international co-production Western film produced by Dino De Laurentiis.

Scripted during the Vietnam War in the style of The Dirty Dozen (1967) with a party of professional or misfit soldiers going into an enemy sanctuary, it was designed as a vehicle for Yugoslavian theater and film matinee idol Bekim Fehmiu.

Two years later, General Miles arrives at the fort with criticism of now Colonel Brown's military command and an offer of pardon for Kaleb.

General Miles tells Kaleb that Apaches led by Chief Mangus Durango have gathered in Mexico, intending to cross the border and attack at any time.

As the Army is prohibited from entering Mexico, the general, over Brown's objections, promises Kaleb amnesty in exchange for leading a select band of soldiers in plain clothes across the border to wipe out the Apache stronghold known as La Spina Dorsale Del Diavolo (the Devil's Backbone).

A blustery Englishman, Crawford, sent by the British Army to study frontier tactics is selected by Kaleb's wolf dog.

On their return to the fort, Major Brown reveals that, despite the general's amnesty offer, he intends to arrest Kaleb for having shot him.

Kaleb's elite force wins, in large part due to the advantages proffered by dynamite and machine gun fire.

Many exterior scenes were filmed at the Fort Bowie set built in the Province of Almería, Spain, where the desert landscape and climate that characterizes part of the province have made it a much utilized setting for Western films, among those A Fistful of Dollars (1964), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and later 800 Bullets (2002).