Navajo Joe

Not without interest but this starts so well with some great long shots and then some startling up close violence and the story is unfolding as we struggle to keep up, and then it pretty much stops. We are introduced to a very young Burt Reynolds who looks pretty good with his horse and rifle but then we get to meet the baddie brothers and they seem far more interesting. Lovely old train but lame plot which necessitates the town's folk (who have said 'no' to guns) being able to do nothing except sit around and wait hoping that Joe will sort things out. Thing is we have to sit watching them sit. And so it plods on. There are a couple of spurts of nasty violence but the girls are wasted, criminally so in the case of Nicoletta Machiavelli and we are forced to imagine just how good this might have been.

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¨ .

Is NAVAJO JOE a stupid movie? Oh yeah, you better believe it. Is it a bad movie? Surprisingly, no. To a significant degree, NAVAJO JOE makes up for its farcical plot with its great style.

First, Sergio Corbucci knew how to make good-looking movies. Or at least, he knew how to make this one look good. He laps up the shots of the sere Western landscape (Spain, as usual in spaghetti westerns, stands in for the American frontier). He knows whose faces the camera loves and gives them lots of affectionate close-ups. He knows how to put a rose against a background that makes it look even redder, like a spot of blood on the screen. Kudos to cinematographer Silvano Ippoliti, but the cinematographer can only photograph what the director tells him to, and Corbucci knew what to shoot.

Second, Corbucci manages to keep his leading man off of the screen most of the time. Burt Reynolds is atrocious. His stuntman, on the other hand, is superb. They combine to give us Navajo Joe, one of the most athletic western heroes you'll ever see. Unlike the typical western lead who gets most of his exercise transferring his Colt .45 to and from its holster, Joe believes in getting close and personal whenever he can, usually by flying through the air, climbing onto rocks and roofs, and otherwise dealing with the situation acrobatically. The movie poster ridiculously shows Reynolds aiming a bow, which he never once uses in the movie; as any smart Indian would, Joe uses a Winchester rifle for long-range combat. But he uses even the Winchester athletically, holding down the trigger and pumping the lever action frenetically to shoot down his foes.

Third, that `Leo Nichols' you saw credited with the music is really Ennio Morricone, who, with all due apologies to Nino Rota, is the undisputed king of Italian film music. Like many of his themes it is a choral piece, apparently inspired by Indian tribal songs but reworked to fit Morricone's own standards, and it is superb. NAVAJO JOE is the only movie I have ever watched solely for the music. It is amazing to consider that Morricone did four better themes for Leone alone, while for most film composers this theme would be a career best.

Fourth, the movie exposes some of the injustices that European settlers did to American Indians without ever giving in to the modern assumption that the Indian victims of these evils must themselves have been saints.

As you can see, the elements of a classic western were there. But alas, Corbucci dropped the ball short of the goal line. For one thing, he hasn't got a clue what to do with Nicoletta Machiavelli. She's the top-billed lady, and she's gorgeous, but she doesn't get to take any part in the action. She doesn't even get to kiss the hero. It goes without saying that the characters are paper-thin, and the one who is most humanized is not Joe but Aldo Sambrell's villainous Mervyn (who has a funny scene where he tears down the `Wanted' sign for his brother and crumples it up, but carefully removes his own and puts it away for safekeeping).

Furthermore, NAVAJO JOE is a textbook example of what Ebert called the Idiot Plot; that is, a movie whose plot can only proceed if everyone involved is an idiot. The initial massacre which motivates the hero for the rest of the film depends on his wife being idiot enough to show not the slightest suspicion when an armed horseman rides up to her when she is alone and defenseless. Joe's survival is due largely to Mervyn's inexplicable decision never to send more than two or three of his thirty-or-so outlaws after him at one time. The secondary villain fails to see that, once he has guided Mervyn to the gold, Mervyn will have no more use for him. Mervyn's hard-bitten brother Jeffrey is given an invitation that has `TRAP' written all over it, and proceeds directly into the trap without the slightest suspicion. The most absurd part of all, though, is when Mervyn drags the servant girl Estella into the street, right under the muzzle of Joe's rifle, and threatens to shoot her unless Joe surrenders. Does Joe (a) shoot him through the head, or (b) surrender? You guessed it, he surrenders. Now does Mervyn, having seen that Joe will cave in to any threat to Estella, threaten again to shoot Estella unless Joe tells him where the money is? Nope, he spends fruitless hours beating the living dung out of our hero, and when that doesn't work, strings him up by his heels. He doesn't even muss Estella's hair.

NAVAJO JOE was Dino De Laurentiis' answer to A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. Obviously, it doesn't even come close; FISTFUL was every bit as stylish as JOE and had a good story too. But if you measure JOE by what it achieved, not by what it tried to achieve, you'll find it's pretty decent.

Rating: ** out of ****

Recommendation: Western fans should catch it on TV.

Sergio Corbucci western with style to spare. Every good spaghetti western is a revenge story and this one's no exception. Burt Reynolds plays the title character Navajo Joe, who hunts down the men responsible for the death of his wife. Lots of violence amidst the attempts at profundity but it's all good fun. Try not to take it seriously and you'll enjoy it more. There is a cheese factor but, again, it's a spaghetti western so that comes with the territory. More so when you add Burt Reynolds to the mix. I don't care what anybody says, I love the Ennio Morricone score. I was humming "Nav-a-jo Joe Nav-a-jo Joe" for a long time after the movie ended.

...Navajo Joe...directed by Sergio Corbucci.

I'd rate Navajo Joe a "must see"...for Spaghetti-heads, at least....although I wouldn't place it in my top 10 SW. Somewhere in my top 20's more like it.

It's certainly one of the least 'cartoonish' SW...the themes touched on in the movie are well chosen & well done....the score is soooooooo good............Reynolds is good in the part (he's half Cherokee Indian, by the way)........Joe is not your run of the mill SW character--> it's refreshing to have a hero (as opposed to hero/anti-hero) for a change...he's an 'assassin', & a good one...wiping out 40+ guys is no small feat.

The ending was handled well..& slightly ambiguously...there is room for speculation as to Joe's ultimate fate in the movie....although w/ a little thought...it's pretty clear...& adds to the film's quality & richness. The usual atrocious dubbing....occasionally some excellent dialogue will poke through.

Good one.