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Simply A Masterpiece

Don't listen to the negative reviews

best movie i've ever seen.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Another work of Spaghetti western master! But is it really that bad? Sergio Corbucci knew how to make good-looking movies. Or at least, he knew how to make this one look good. He combines up the shots of the Western landscape (Spain, as usual in spaghetti westerns, stands in for the American frontier). He knows whose faces the audience loves and gives them lots of dramatic close-ups. Hands up to cinematographer Silvano Ippoliti, but the cinematographer can only photograph what the director tells him to, and Corbucci knew what to shoot.Corbucci also manages to keep his leading man off of the screen most of the time. Burt's stuntman is superb. They combine to give us Navajo Joe, one of the most athletic western heroes you have ever seen. 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 and otherwise dealing with the situation acrobatically. The movie poster ridiculously shows Burt 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. Even Burt Reynolds has goofed on this movie several times during guest spots on TV talk shows. Whatever, Navajo Joe is a worthwhile Euro- western, several degrees darker and brutal than other released during the same year and a much better, more stylish film than Burt's later westerns. I'd rate Navajo Joe a "must see" movie for Spaghetti-heads, but I wouldn't place it in my top 10 SW. Somewhere in my top 20's more like it. And the Morricone's score in this picture is beautiful.

I have to get this out of the way first: Everyone who reviews this movie falls all over themselves to praise Morricone's score, but to tell the truth, I thought the main theme was overused, overwrought, and mixed way too loud. (Most of the incidental music is fine). It's not bad, of course - Ennio is incapable of creating a bad soundtrack - but it's decidedly less quirky and compelling than some of his classics like "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly".Second: Everything about the movie looks great. I can't fault the director and cinematographer on this - visually the landscape and the sets and the costumes and the setups pull the viewer completely and hypnotically into the bloody, nihilistic vision of the classic Spaghetti Western. Where the movie falls short is with the plot and with Burt Reynolds. Now, this isn't to say that I don't like Burt - I'm a fan of even his lesser work, and he and his stuntman certainly combine to make a character who is a force of nature. But he's just not a natural choice for an Indian, and he doesn't disappear into the role. You see that face, and you can't see past the fact that it's Burt Reynolds. (Not a problem with a movie like "Stick" or "Smokey and The Bandit, definitely a problem here.) That pops me right out of the movie that the rest of the visuals work so hard to pull me into.As for the plot - the screenplay lacks the gallows humor and wry machismo of the best SWs - Navajo Joe is just a vengeance machine with a code of honor, and the bad guy is just an utterly despicable psychopath. And every character is an idiot - no one acts logically or with a moment's thought as to the implications of the plot points. (For instance, when the Dr. opens the safe expecting a $500,000 payoff inside, and it's empty, the lead bad guy never seems to consider that only a masochist desiring death would deliberately try to cheat him this way, and shoots the man in spite of his protestations.) Still, "Navajoe Joe" is a good example of 2nd string SW filler - not a classic to go out of your way to see, but worth catching if it pops up on cable.

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.

I would have lost a bet on whether Burt Reynolds ever appeared in a spaghetti Western, but you know what, this is actually a fairly entertaining flick once you get past the unbelievable body count by Reynolds' title character, Navajo Joe. My unofficial count was twenty nine by the time the film was over, and when you throw in what had to be a dozen or so by the soldiers defending the money train, bandit leader Duncan (Aldo Sambrell) lost more guys than he started out with.I got a kick out of the scene when the Duncan brothers ride up on a pair of posters showing the reward for their capture, dead or alive. For Jeffrey Duncan (Lucio Rosato), the two hundred dollar reward included 'murder, robbery, and other acts against the people of the U.S.' Kind of makes you wonder what Mervyn Vee Duncan must have done to deserve a thousand dollar bounty. Incidentally, it was pretty cool how the elder Duncan crumpled up his brother's poster, but neatly secured his own after he took it down.Other reviewers on this site give high marks to the Ennio Morricone soundtrack, and it does have a catchy Indian themed spaghetti score. But I couldn't help noticing the repetitious 'Na-Va-Ho-Jo', 'Na-Va-Ho-Jo' refrain, which if you think about it, would be a great scat line for a Howard Johnson in Arizona.Keep an eye on the opening scene when Duncan reaches to scalp the Indian woman he killed; her eye twitches slightly before the camera cuts away.I managed to pick this film up on a four disc Western DVD set put out by Direct Source Special Products, a neat little package with additional films starring Telly Savalas, Martin Sheen and Clint Walker. Check your local Walmart bargain bin.