Tempo de Massacre

Sergio Corbucci's "Django" turned Franco Nero into one of the stars of spaghetti westerns. A number of spaghetti westerns got advertised as "Django" movies, although the only real sequel was "Django 2". Quentin Tarantino later brought the series new attention with "Django Unchained", in which Nero has a bit part as the man who knows that the D is silent.

Horror director Lucio Fulci ventured into the western genre with "Le colt cantarono la morte e fu... tempo di massacro", which got given the English titles "Massacre Time" and "Django the Runner" (the latter hoping to associate it with Corbucci's movie). It's pretty much a B movie, with Nero as a man who decides to rid his hometown from the grip of a corrupt family. Entertaining, but not the best spaghetti western by far. Fulci did better when sticking to movies about zombies and the like. But it's still pretty fun. Fulci incorporates a lot of the brutal stuff for which he's known in horror circles. As it was, the copy that I watched was dubbed in English and had Dutch subtitles!

PS: Franco Nero was in a relationship for some years with Vanessa Redgrave, his co-star in "Camelot". They had a son who directed Redgrave in a TV adaptation of Wallace Shawn's politically charged play "The Fever", co-starring Michael Moore and Angelina Jolie.

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.

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.

Lucio Fulci's MASSACRE TIME is quite simply one of the Spaghetti Western's finest hours. Fulci and scriptwriter Fernando Di Leo are of course better known for their Euro Horror outings & Italian police thrillers, but this is a fantastic film in any regards and one of the finest Westerns ever made regardless of country of origin. Even non-fans of the genre will find it an entertaining & worthy experience that will command multiple viewings.

I will let others describe the plot: Spaghetti idol Franco Nero gets top billing as a wrongly condemned man who returns to his home town for revenge, but George Hilton as his drunken, reckless, wise-cracking brother with a deathwish steals the show. Hilton shows off some trick riding and rather acrobatic stunt shooting that isn't being performed by a double. Hilton also gets big laughs with his character's habit of repeatedly proclaiming "EXCUSE ME, GENTLEMEN!" in a friendly salutation before opening fire on his quarry. It's as almost as if he is trying to give them a fighting chance, and his washed up drunk is easily the most deadly presence in the whole film, counterpointed nicely by Franco Nero's "straight man" brother, who scowls disapprovingly but still bands together with his brother to defeat the bad guys. Franco Nero is great as the protagonist but George Hilton is amazing as the sidekick; this is probably the film that cemented his reputation as an action hero.

All of the action is performed in a quick-edit upbeat manner, with judicious use of the widescreen picture format in an almost painterly manner that as with the best of the Spaghetti Westerns is more reminiscent of a big, violent cartoon than something like THE SEARCHERS or MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. Not that there's something wrong with those approaches either, but the novelty aspect of the Spaghetti genre is in full play here with the offbeat locations, bizarre set designs and oddball characterizations that Italian made Westerns are so famous for.

There's even a fantastic, snickering, twisted, psychotic villain in the white-suited lunatic son of the local land baron, who naturally prefers a whip when it comes to teaching his enemies a lesson. Fans of on screen lashings will want to check this movie out for an extended scene where the loon bullwhips Franco Nero within an inch of his life ... it isn't pretty and unlike most of the Brutal Beating Interludes from the Spaghetti Western formula there is a genuine sense of peril for the hero during his punishment.

Which of course makes the final showdown sequences all the more entertaining as not just plot denouement but a catharsis to get back at the dirtbags for all their evil. Watching George Hilton flippantly quip glib one-liners, ride his horse sideways and blow away the bad guys with a sort of ballet of choreographed stage movements is a joy to behold & makes some of the slower sections worth sitting through. 1966 and 1967 really do seem to be the peak years of creative experiment with the Spaghetti genre, this example is fast, funny, brutal, touching, invigorating, life-affirming, and makes you want to see more like it. There probably are, I've found it to be a pretty unique film and like most of the pre- ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST Spaghettis knew that it sort of had to prove itself by showing audiences something different.

Fulci did it in spades. I may not be a big fan of his horror movies but here's proof that he cut his teeth on film as an art form before devolving into the zombie slobber. Get yourself a region free DVD player & treat yourself to one of the nice widescreen Region 2 DVDs of this movie, though for my money the older Region 0 NTSC pressing from Asia sourced from a positive print with the correct colors is the way to go. In any event you won't regret it, I have a tendency to over-praise lower budgeted genre films in favor of high profile A list extravaganzas, but this genuinely is an instance that anyone can enjoy.

9/10: George Hilton really should have gotten some kind of best supporting actor nomination, he is wonderful.

I have to say I think this one is generally over-rated. I didn't mind watching it, but had read how it was really terrifying, etc. It was very straight-ahead in a way typical of the genre. It was very interesting to see a young Franco Nero starting out with Westerns. It's a very serious portrayal, with none of the humor that we know him for later. It doesn't fail, but it doesn't inspire either. Not bad for 1966, but compared to the stuff that came a bit later, it's B league in my book. Still, I would recommend it to aficionados of spaghetti westerns, simply for the sake of completeness.

IMDb, what is wrong with that review? Ever heard brevity is the essence of wit? That doesn't need to be 1/3 longer. Was that policy even thought through or did some programmer just decide to do it that way? There. You've got your 12 lines now.