Tempo de Massacre

Lucio Fulci would direct only three Westerns in his career and this is one of them. Tempo Di Massacro/Massacre Time(1966) came out three years before his first prosperous period in the early 70's. Although the Fulci touch is not fully developed, there are still scenes which contains mannerisms that would later become his trademark. It is about friendship and the lack of woman in a family structure. This film is also about the greedy and sadistic nature of the rich.

Massacre Time exhibits the fact that Lucio Fulci was not a hack as many people believe. It also shows that he was a talented film-maker who was capable of making great feature films. One reason to watch Massacre Time(1966) is the appearence of Franco Nero as this was done before he worked with Sergio Corbucci to do Django(1966). The story starts out slow, but ends in a awesome gun battle that foreshadows the famous shootouts of the Hong Kong Action films of the 80's and early 90's. The best way to view this film is via widescreen and hopefully in the Italian language as dubbing would gives this film little justice.

I have loved Fulci's Zombie films and his other horror films since long before I became interested in spaghetti westerns, so I was naturally very curious about this movie when I discovered that Fulci directed it. After viewing the film, I am very pleased to say that Fulci has directed an excellent western as well.

The music is a perfect example of a great non-Morricone score. Lallo Gori shows that he can have a style of his own and still create a score that is unmistakeably spaghetti western flavored. The theme song is fantastic, and you hear very different variations of it throughout the movie. This gives a feeling of continuity throughout the film without sounding redundant.

Nero and Hilton are both great, as usual. Hilton plays a funny character- a drunk who can shoot faster and straighter than anyone no matter how much he drinks! He can also fight several men at once even though he can't walk a straight line. The other actors are very good also. Nino Castelnuovo gets to play the most interesting part in the film. His character is truly weird and sadistic, and his preoccupation with playing the organ adds a nice hint of the macabre.

If you are a fan of spaghetti westerns or euro-films in general, do yourself a favor and see this movie.

The idea of a Lucio Fulci western is compelling to say the least. Known for making some of the most gory, brutal and sadistic horror movies during the eighties, Fulci's first western "Tempo Di Massacro" is an early sign of his coming transition to the splatter genre. It lacks the gore but it certainly does not lack on the brutal and sadistic trademarks which have made Fulci famous around horror circles. Alright so there were some things that were basically copied from other Italian westerns it was still a fun movie to watch and it's not like that's a big revelation considering the whole commercialized nature of the genre.

The movie begins with a shot of a man being chased by a hunting party. The kind that usually hunts animals for sport only this time they're hunting people. Needless to say what happened when they caught him. Did I mention that this movie was sadistic and this is not the only proof there's more further along? Anyways "Tempo Di Massacro" stars Franco Nero as Tom Corbett a prospector whom after receiving a mysterious letter about his family, returns home. But things have changed a lot since he's been gone and Corbett realizes this as soon as he arrives. His family's ranch has been taken over by a rich landowner and his demented son (the guy that was leading the hunting party earlier). One might say that story is a slow mover, I disagree. I found it's pace to be very precise setting up the outline for the final confrontation. The story is coherent enough so that it makes sense. There are a few twists here and there so as not to get too boring when waiting for the showdown.

In a movie that supposedly starred Franco Nero, his character Tom wasn't all that impressive, gone was that cynical attitude with which he portrayed the titular character in "Django" and his clothing, well it's obvious where they were taken from (small hint: an Italian western movie with Clint Eastwood). Instead more focus was put on Tom's brother Jeff played by George Hilton, a drunkard with a bit of a temper and the sadistic son of the landowner played by Nino Castelnuovo. Both these men were the highlights of the movie. Respectively performances are well done considering that this is a spaghetti western. The score by Lallo Gorri is good, very catchy song in the beginning.

Now what really makes "Tempo Di Massacro" fun is it's finale. There Fulci demonstrates that he is more than capable of directing action. With commendable choreography, masterful synchronization between the shooting and victims's death. It's a hard task to create a long entertaining action scene, most of the times everything wears out after a couple of minutes not here though. Variety is the key to success in such sequences and Fulci packs the scene with outdoor, indoor shootouts making it an entertainingly diverse gunfight. The film ends with a symbolic white dove flying away, possible this is from where John Woo got his dove gimmick from.

Anyways "Tempo Di Massacro" is one of the better Italian westerns out there. It's a good movie on all accounts, worth the look from fans of the genre or even horror fans intrigued with Lucio Fulci's pre-horror work.

...Lucio Fulci's "Massacre Time" is a typical Spaghetti Western with a few things that seperate it from the pack. First, the presence of schlock horror-maestro Lucio Fulci makes it worth a try for devotees of the king of Italian gore. Second, the shootout at the end (while nothing compared to the action scenes of Sergio Corbucci, the best action director of Spaghetti Westerns) is quite interesting especially considering the many John Woo trademarks throughout (flipping while firing, the emptying of guns into a single person at close range, birds flying through the air, etc.). Whether this is coincidence or outright theft is up in the air. Third, the wonderful score. You'll be humming the theme song for the rest of the day.

To sum it up, this flick is interesting, but more or less typical for the genre.

When you hear the name of Italian movie director Lucio Fulci, you probably don't immediately think of spaghetti westerns, but Fulci did direct a few before he was associated as a horror director. For the most part, Fulci does a good job with what he was given with "Massacre Time". There is genuine atmosphere, an atmosphere of gloom and doom that will put you at unease. In the moments of action, Fulci creates both excitement and the feeling that maybe the protagonists might not succeed. He also gets Nino Castelnuovo to give a GREAT performance as the sadistic Junior, enough that you'll wish that there was more of this character in the movie.

The movie definitely has enough to satisfy fans of spaghetti westerns, though it's not without problems. There are a couple of major script problems, for one thing. It is NEVER explained how the character of Scott managed to take over the town, nor is his connection with the character of Tom explained. The biggest problem is that the first hour of the movie goes by VERY slowly. The movie takes an hour to do what would normally take about a half hour by a more efficient screenplay. So while this is a movie worth seeing, it's best saved for when you are in a patient mood.