Massacre au Grand Canyon

The Italians should stick to doing what they do best - making spaghetti. Forget the Spaghetti Westerns. Leave the westerns to the Americans.

As for some of the fight scenes, they were like scenes from the ballet. And James Mitchum is no match for his old man.

His father's style of acting is often described as laid back and laconic but I'm afraid his son, James Mitchum's is just lethargic. With his dad's looks and sleepy eyes he does just sleepwalk through this film without any of the intense screen presence that Robert Mitchum could bring to a role.

Doesn't help that the film story is pretty dull too, the old warring cattle barons trying to take over the whole land and everything. The film plays much like an American one from an earlier era, such as 'High Noon or Duel in the Desert' and not the spaghetti western that it is. One thing about the spaghetti's that though short on plot most of the time, they did fill it out with lots of action set pieces. This one doesn't, a couple of short one on one barroom fights but mainly the opposing factions shooting at each over from one rock cliff to another.

I was tempted at times to fast forward on the DVD remote, which is always a bad sign...

Very much a standard oater and while not that bad, it just doesn't deserve much attention.

Unlike many westerns made by the Italians during the spaghetti western craze, "Massacre At Grand Canyon" seems to have been a serious attempt to come across more like an American western rather than having done things in the spaghetti western style. The flavorable music sounds more American, the nice-looking Yugoslavian locations look more American, and the screenplay devotes a lot of time to character development over action. Unfortunately, in the attempt to flesh out the characters, the movie unintentionally ends up being surprisingly boring for a great deal of time. There's far too much talk here - I would have gladly given up a lot of the talk for some more action. As for the action, while there are one or two action sequences that are passable, most of the time it comes across as flat and disappointing. Director Sergio Corbucci made some good movies in his career, but this isn't one of them.

James inherited some facial features and a marquee name from his dad, but that's all of the apple that fell from this particular tree. He lacks the gravitas needed to pull off this laconic western hero lead. The direction is even lamer, with most of the action coming from a multi-party series of shootouts among unidentified henchmen and locals at various elevations in a long mountain pass for the turf war between two rich ranchers. It's virtually impossible to tell who is being killed as each stunt man falls from the rocky heights. No uniforms or scorecard to know if any casualty is a win or loss for the good guys. The most noteworthy performance came from George Ardisson, who channeled a slice of Dan Duryea for a smugly crazed take on this villain gig, complete with a leering smile that projects more menace than mirth.

The court is still out on this one. The second of Sergio Corbucci's Euro Westerns that I have managed to track down lacks the punch that he would find in DJANGO and represents a genre in search of it's form. It's actually a very unique looking production, using exteriors located in the former Yugoslavia rather than Spain and existing as a sort of brooding, somber range war movie than a slick cartoon about Pistoleros and Gringos battling it out under the hot sun. James Mitchum is adequate as the Yankee imported to sway box office receipts, with genre legends George Ardisson and my hero Giacomo Rossi-Stuart adding a bit more color in supporting roles.

The issue with the film is that it's a bit of a slog compared to the hip, visually revolutionary movies like DJANGO and the Sergio Leone DOLLARS films, and still hadn't quite achieved the sense of fun & invention from contemporaneous Euro Western hits like SEVEN GUNS FOR THE MACGREGORS or FURY OF THE APACHES -- over the top examples of the Western as an exaggeration, where MASSACRE AT GRAND CANYON seems to dwell on understatement. It's a bit more enjoyable than Corbucci's followup MINNESOTA CLAY which I have a strong aversion to that cannot be put into words. I hate MINNESOTA CLAY but I merely dislike MASSACRE AT GRAND CANYON.

Yet it's historically significant, with the presence of Albert Band helping to cement the film as a transitional effort between the Karl May influenced Schnitzel Westerns of Harald Reinl et al & the full blown Spaghetti Western boon precipitated in part by Corbucci's DJANGO. By then he would have found his balance between the brooding, languid sense of pessimism and an arty flair that would become his trademark. Here he was figuring out the tune, and while I may not sing praises for the results they are certainly interesting, and spoke of greater things to come.

5/10