The Last Rebel

Yes, I've seen worse films but this was so bad they had trouble keeping horses during the shooting; the critters would all run off at night. To say Joe Willie's talents lay elsewhere would be the understatement of the decade. His dismal performance wasn't all that noticeable, however, because everybody else stunk like a week old corpse in a broken icebox during a Texas heat wave. Even Elam, one of my all time faves, couldn't keep a straight face in many of his scenes. There was so much ham in this turkey that if Jimmy Dean bought it he would have to open up a new building to process all the pork. Seldom have I seen a greater collection of grinning jackasses than were displayed in this thinly plotted venture. The soundtrack was interesting but all that rock music never quite dovetailed with the action on the screen.

Ok, so this movie is not Shane and "Broadway" Joe is not Alan Ladd. However, it is not that bad and in reality, it is not much different from the overhyped Clint Eastwood films like Fist Full of Dollars. Joe Namath is not much of an actor, but he is likeable and does a passable job in this easily forgotten flick. If you like "Broadway" Joe and have a few hours to waste, then see The Last Rebel.

Everything about this film was beyond awful. I can't think of any more criticisms than what previous reviewers have said. I gave it 2 stars for both of the only attractions I had to look at the movie: the attractive profiles & physiques of both Joe Namath & Woody Strode. They are both very nice to look at. I'll give 1 more star for a total of 3/10 for The Black Boy who almost silently serves as a catalysts for some of the action, out acts the rest in perhaps the best role in the film. But for this film you better turn the volume off. The sound editing and off the wall 70's sound track is torture. The plot was ridiculous and the ending provides no satisfaction. It doesn't even warrant achieving camp status. Its just irritating. Not too mention having to cringe through the repeated use of the N-word. Being the movie geek I pressed forward to the end in order to added to my list, but I will never put myself through viewing it a second time.

The one redeeming item in this awful, awful western about a couple of ex-confederate soldiers wandering around the old West -- hey, everyone digs a rebel, even if they were rebelling so they could keep slaves -- is the camera work by Carlo Carlini. However, it isn't enough by a wide margin.

I was going to write that Jack Elam's typically straightforward semi-comic performance was also noteworthy, but it simply emphasizes the awfulness of Joe Namath's performance. Woody Strode is as good as he can be, although he does look embarrassed, as if he wants to be back in the dignity of a Bomba the Jungle Boy movie.

As for Broadway Joe, he sounds querulous every time he speaks a line, as if he's about to stamp his foot and run off. They don't even let him move that much, just pose him and let him stand, which argues that one of the best running quarterbacks of the 1960s did not know how to move. Usually they didn't even shoot him full length, unless he was lying down with his shirt off so you can see him carefully-shimmed armpit hair.

But if there is one thing that makes this a terrible movie, it's the music score. I know that if you want to evoke the dirt and grit of the Old West, there's nothing like Motown-inspired Rock-and-Roll organ work and drumset to do it and that's what they did here. That must've been a great help at the box office.

This western is from the deep seventies, the depressing period. But it doesn't correspond with what I first expected. It is of course an obscure film, not widely known, and destined to seventies exploitation flicks. I love this period because there was much freedom, on the other hand, you could find anything, because the writers were totally "on the loose". That made the specificity of thie era. This western, despite Jack Elam and Woody Strode's presence is rather lame, boring. The ending is not awful but just forgettable and not in the way I wanted it to be for a seventies western. However, it's not a piece of crap. Just forgettable stuff.