Navajo Joe (1966)

Aside from Reynolds, the acting in this film is pretty mediocre. The dialogue is one dimensional as are the characters. None of it is helped by it being dubbed.Aside from a few notable exceptions, Spaghetti westerns do little for me. From the unrealistic gunshot sounds and stereotyped characters to the over acting and obvious story lines, they are generally low quality products. This Western is not one of the exceptions. I have a feeling that the growth in Spaghetti Westerns was one of the main reasons that Westerns virtually died out.It isn't the worst film I've seen, not even the worst Western. But it's certainly not one I'd bother with again.

If you watched this film you just wasted two hours of your life that you will never get back.This film has been added to my list of "worst ten films I have ever seen." If you have something else to do please do it. Paint the barn, pull some weeds, learn a foreign language, or at least take a nap.The writing was bad. The directing was bad. The plot farcical. This is a prime example of some rich kid with too much money looking for a toy to play with. I get the feeling that the producers needed a tax write off, and this was it. Movies should be made with the heart, not the wallet. There was not heart in this film.Don't be afraid to turn off the television and go for a walk!

For money, for pleasure, for revenge , he doesn't care why he kills or how ¡ . The sole survivor , named Navajo Joe (Burt Reynolds who wore a black toupe hairpiece), of a slaughter and atrocity executes a single-handedly revenge , as he slashes, burn , ravages and kills each person involved in the massacre . He is relentless in his vendetta , deadly in his violence . The conflict is a simple one between avenger Indio and oppressors , nasty bandits (Aldo Sambrell , among others). Meanwhile , Navajo Joe aids an unappreciated although terrorized little town called Esperanza City in the process . The town is inhabited by important people as the banker named Blackwood (Angel Alvarez of Django) , the priest(Fernando Rey of Return Magnificent Seven) , the doctor (Peter Cross) and a gorgeous mestizo girl (Nicoletta Machiavelli) , among others. Navajo is submitted a tempestuous trap and is caught up and he suffers incredible tortures .It's an exciting western with breathtaking showdown between the protagonist Burt Reynolds and the enemy Aldo Sambrell and his hoodlums. Burt Reynolds is fine , he ravages the screen , he jumps, bounds and leaps, hits and runs ; besides receiving violent punches , kicks , lashes and is ultimately hung . Reynolds told this one is his worst film but I think it turned out to be a good Spaghetti Western . Producer Dino De Laurentiis made this with the intention of replicating the success of For a fistful of dollars (1964) after that movie had become a box-office hit . De Laurentiis wanted to find an American actor to rival Clint Eastwood's popularity. Reynolds had appeared in TV westerns and was part Cherokee Indian . De Laurentiis persuaded Reynolds to sign on. Aldo Sambrell as a cruelly baddie role is terrific , this is his only acting as starring , subsequently the would play very secondary or minimum characters . Furthermore, there appears usual secondaries Italian/Spanish Western as Alvaro De Luna , Simon Arriaga , Rafael Albaicín ,Lorenzo Robledo, and , of course , Fernando Rey in his ordinary role as priest . The film blends violence , blood , tension , high body-count and it's fast moving and quite entertaining . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing shootouts or stunts every few minutes . There are many fine technicians and nice assistant direction as Ruggero Deodato, future Cannibal Holocaust, and production designer Eduardo De la Torre Fuente who creates an excellent scenario with barren outdoors , dirty landscapes under a glimmer sun and a fine set on the Indian cemetery . The musician Ennio Morricone , Lee Nichols, composes a nice soundtrack and well conducted ; it's full of guttural sounds and Indian screams. Striking cinematography by Silvano Ippoliti in Technicolor, Techniscope with negative well processed . Interior filmed at Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica, Studios Rome and outdoor sequences filmed at Torremocha, Colmenar, Guadix and of course Almeria, Spain.Sergio Corbucci's direction is well crafted, here he's less cynical and humorous and more inclined toward violence and too much action, other Westerns he filmed contained broad comedy . He made several Spaghetti classics : ¨ Django¨, ¨The great silence¨, ¨Hellbenders¨, ¨The specialist¨ , and Zapata Western as ¨The Mercenary¨, ¨The Compañeros¨ and ¨What am I doing in middle of the revolution¨ . In addition Sergio directed other inferior S.W. as ¨Far West story¨ ,¨Johnny Oro¨, ¨The white the yellow an the black¨ and ¨Minnesota Clay¨ .

Let's face it, there aren't that many ways that the Italians could make westerns into art- that is unless they decided to go for even more than broke and turn a B-movie in an epic (Leone)- but it's fun to see the directors try. One of them is Sergio Corbucci and here with his somewhat obscure action 'drama' Navajo Joe. It stars Burt Reynolds, I think in his first actual theatrical performance, and he acts like the true-blue hero for all even if there's really whacked out judgment going on. There's a very large posse in town, and they all want to get at the money at the bank- but find that it's been emptied following a botched train robbery. So now some heads are gonna roll, the lead will fly, and Reynolds's Joe will be fighting with the fury of his forefathers (whom, he reminds one of the townspeople, who happens to be of Scottish descent, that he's a real American as his father before him and his father before him and so on and so on). Meanwhile, any significance in plot or character is thrown by the wayside, save for a ridiculous moment where the villain- Aldo Sambrell's Duncan- reveals his motivations for doing what he does right before killing a priest.So don't go into the picture looking for the amazing, stoic art that came out of Leone's films. Actually, the most glaring flaw comes through Corbucci trying to rip-off a lot of Leone's tricks (unless it was just his way of going about the western genre too, I haven't seen enough of his work to comment), and is at best a competent, crazy director of action scenes. What he does get right is to let the ludicrousness of the situation(s)- of Reynolds playing an Indian named Joe who somehow is like a super-assassin with his knife &/or gun, as we see hilariously when he takes on a train full of bandits- take over completely, and it's always fun in the most guilty pleasure sort of way. Trashy? Violent? Explotivie of genre and stereotype to the Nth degree? No doubt, but it works all the same for what Corbucci is able to achieve. The biggest plus, however, even through Reynolds's posturing and Sambrell's one-sided bandit leader, is the musical score by Morricone (scuse me, Leo Nichols, ho-ho), where the anthems and bombastic, hard, thrivingly doomed songs (later brilliantly recycled for Kill Bill 2) are totally welcome and make many moments more appealing. The ending, for example, would've been just standard without Morricone on the soundtrack, yet with it low-grade pulp entertainment gets the boost, and the cheesiness pulls together with the operative intonations.Do I recommend it then? If you're on this page, then you're probably already interested in over-the-top, goofy violent spaghetti westerns, or into seeing less available Corbucci, so I'd say go for it if that's the case. Those expecting a fascinating early Reynolds star vehicle might be a little befuddled, however, unless if you're expecting the unexpected. It's a dumb B-movie matinée flick, and proud of it.