Let's face it, there aren't that many ways that the Italians could make westerns into art- that is unless they decided to go for even more than broke and turn a B-movie in an epic (Leone)- but it's fun to see the directors try. One of them is Sergio Corbucci and here with his somewhat obscure action 'drama' Navajo Joe. It stars Burt Reynolds, I think in his first actual theatrical performance, and he acts like the true-blue hero for all even if there's really whacked out judgment going on. There's a very large posse in town, and they all want to get at the money at the bank- but find that it's been emptied following a botched train robbery. So now some heads are gonna roll, the lead will fly, and Reynolds's Joe will be fighting with the fury of his forefathers (whom, he reminds one of the townspeople, who happens to be of Scottish descent, that he's a real American as his father before him and his father before him and so on and so on). Meanwhile, any significance in plot or character is thrown by the wayside, save for a ridiculous moment where the villain- Aldo Sambrell's Duncan- reveals his motivations for doing what he does right before killing a priest.
So don't go into the picture looking for the amazing, stoic art that came out of Leone's films. Actually, the most glaring flaw comes through Corbucci trying to rip-off a lot of Leone's tricks (unless it was just his way of going about the western genre too, I haven't seen enough of his work to comment), and is at best a competent, crazy director of action scenes. What he does get right is to let the ludicrousness of the situation(s)- of Reynolds playing an Indian named Joe who somehow is like a super-assassin with his knife &/or gun, as we see hilariously when he takes on a train full of bandits- take over completely, and it's always fun in the most guilty pleasure sort of way. Trashy? Violent? Explotivie of genre and stereotype to the Nth degree? No doubt, but it works all the same for what Corbucci is able to achieve. The biggest plus, however, even through Reynolds's posturing and Sambrell's one-sided bandit leader, is the musical score by Morricone (scuse me, Leo Nichols, ho-ho), where the anthems and bombastic, hard, thrivingly doomed songs (later brilliantly recycled for Kill Bill 2) are totally welcome and make many moments more appealing. The ending, for example, would've been just standard without Morricone on the soundtrack, yet with it low-grade pulp entertainment gets the boost, and the cheesiness pulls together with the operative intonations.
Do I recommend it then? If you're on this page, then you're probably already interested in over-the-top, goofy violent spaghetti westerns, or into seeing less available Corbucci, so I'd say go for it if that's the case. Those expecting a fascinating early Reynolds star vehicle might be a little befuddled, however, unless if you're expecting the unexpected. It's a dumb B-movie matinée flick, and proud of it.
So don't go into the picture looking for the amazing, stoic art that came out of Leone's films. Actually, the most glaring flaw comes through Corbucci trying to rip-off a lot of Leone's tricks (unless it was just his way of going about the western genre too, I haven't seen enough of his work to comment), and is at best a competent, crazy director of action scenes. What he does get right is to let the ludicrousness of the situation(s)- of Reynolds playing an Indian named Joe who somehow is like a super-assassin with his knife &/or gun, as we see hilariously when he takes on a train full of bandits- take over completely, and it's always fun in the most guilty pleasure sort of way. Trashy? Violent? Explotivie of genre and stereotype to the Nth degree? No doubt, but it works all the same for what Corbucci is able to achieve. The biggest plus, however, even through Reynolds's posturing and Sambrell's one-sided bandit leader, is the musical score by Morricone (scuse me, Leo Nichols, ho-ho), where the anthems and bombastic, hard, thrivingly doomed songs (later brilliantly recycled for Kill Bill 2) are totally welcome and make many moments more appealing. The ending, for example, would've been just standard without Morricone on the soundtrack, yet with it low-grade pulp entertainment gets the boost, and the cheesiness pulls together with the operative intonations.
Do I recommend it then? If you're on this page, then you're probably already interested in over-the-top, goofy violent spaghetti westerns, or into seeing less available Corbucci, so I'd say go for it if that's the case. Those expecting a fascinating early Reynolds star vehicle might be a little befuddled, however, unless if you're expecting the unexpected. It's a dumb B-movie matinée flick, and proud of it.