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Beautiful, moving film.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Prospector Tom Corbett(Franco Nero)is summoned to his home town only to find it under the control of land baron Jason Scott and his borderline psychopath son. Corbett finds the townsfolk are terrified to speak out or leave and those who do are murdered in cold blood. He tracks down his brother Jeff(George Hilton), who has lost his land which has forced him into alcoholism. Jeff is less than happy to see Tom who is rebuked by his brother, although Tom later convinces Jeff to aid him in his stand against Scott after he is viciously bullwhipped by the son. However as the showdown is set, Tom learns a shocking revelation...Goremaster Lucio Fulci's first attempt at an Italian horse opera is extremely impressive. Highly regarded within spaghetti western circles, Massacre Time(or The Brute and The Beast) sees genre heavyweight Franco Nero make a formidable return following his ground-breaking role as Django four months previous. The movie itself is a sign of things to come with grim overtones and some gratuitous sadism(the film begins with a unknown character being chased down by a pack of dogs and mauled alive as a group of horsemen look on).It burns slowly(the movie)and the script is a little messy and clichéd. The action scenes are peppered throughout the movie and all of them are brilliantly constructed, although it is the climatic shootout at the ranch which is the most spectacular. Franco Nero and George Hilton kick some serious ass in awesome spaghetti western fashion and the stuntwork is equally amazing. This sequence contains one of the most fantastic stunts I've ever seen in a spaghetti with Franco Nero flipping out of a buggy and cannonballing several feet in the air before landing on both feet and gunning down a group of baddies!, although this really has to be seen to be appreciated. There's also an excellent saloon fight and Tom Corbett's bullwhipping at the hands of Jason Scott's brutal son was executed with scabrous venom, it was more effective than having the hero beat up by a group of thugs. This movie belongs to Franco Nero, any red blooded spaghetti western fan will concede that he has such an imposing screen presence-especially in this movie. Sergio Endrigo's energetic title song "A Man Alone" will always be a favourite of mine.A compelling good versus evil tale with some excellent action scenes, Massacre Time stands with the greatest of the genre. 9/10

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.

One of the best Italian westerns, Tempo di massacro (1966) is an interesting and enjoyable riff on many of the genres recurrent themes. It is one the must-see films for any fan of the genre. Known mostly for his horror films, Lucio Fulci directed two westerns, this and Quattro dell'apocalisse, I (1975). Horror fans would probably prefer Quattro dell'apocalisse, I (1975) but Spaghetti Western fans would most likely prefer this one, made during the first post-Fistful of Dollars (1964) tidal wave and having the Leonesque ethos of that initial cinematic flood.Fistful of Dollars (1964) was a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961) which was itself based on Dashiell Hammett's classic hardboiled thriller Red Harvest (1929). The various elaborations and translations of this basic story led to many of the unique features of the Italian western, most specifically the strange catholic/Marxist resurrection/revolution plot in which the action is often driven by the hero's attempt to resolve some central mystery (often in the form of an ambiguous flashback, as per Leone). What is really interesting about Tempo di Massacro (1966) is that it plays a lot like a hardboiled detective story along the lines of The Big Sleep (1939) with Franco Nero's character Tom Corbett playing the role of the detective. Called back home after an absence of several years, he finds his hometown inexplicably distorted and that he is somehow central to this change and to its undoing. The Scotts, father and son, form a brutal aristocracy that is degrading and desolating the community. Their private conflicts embroil and destroy the lives of the townspeople. With its dark tangle of confused lineages and identities (in the manner of classical Greek, Roman, or "freudian" mythology), the movie is a Gothic family western like Pistolero dell'Ave Maria, Il (1969), Ritorno di Ringo, Il (1965), or Texas, addio (1966).The movie stars two of the genre's most popular actors, Franco Nero and George Hilton. Nero starred in three classic westerns in 1966: Django (1966), Tempo di massacro (1966), and Texas, addio (1966). Hilton (Born in Uruguay) never achieved the level of international fame that Nero did, but he starred in a number of Euro-cult classics. His westerns include movies such as Desesperados, Los (1969) and Professionisti per un massacro (1967). Nero is a little wooden in this role, but Hilton is great as the drunken, reckless brother, Jeff Corbett. Unfortunately, the dubbing is terrible in the English version.While Fulci does a good job at reproducing Leone's style in the use of widescreen and angles, he does add a sense of claustrophobic pressure all his own. The violence has a strange angular quality with a focus on geometry and impossible, artificial kinetics. As with other films that it was competing at the box office with, their was a focus on more exotic, baroque violence. However, unlike some later films, the violence was in the service of the plot and the atmosphere of the film.The final gunfight is a variation of the finale of Leone's For a Few Dollars More(1965) in which heroes and villains stalk each other, with the heroes using misdirection and deception to prey on their opponents who accept to-readily surface appearances. In most of these westerns one of the qualities that makes the hero/anti-hero superior is their ability to understand what another person thinking, what their motives are, and how things look from another's perspective. Parolini's movies such as Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte (1968) represent the most extreme development of this theme.

What a truly wonderful discovery and surprise. Lucio Fulci is best know in the genre of horror, I must admit to not being one of his biggest fans, his movies lack consistency, his earlier work outweighs, by far, his later work. But even the films regarded by his fans, The Beyond, Zombie Flesh Eaters etc. are severely overrated. Before I saw his Spaghetti Western Tempo di massacro (Massacre Time) I was impressed more by his earlier work, Don't Torture a Duckling for a perfect example of Giallo cinema. It all changed when I caught this truly outstanding cinematic experience...Tempo di massacro. From the excellent original Morricone' esquire score by Coriolano Gori to fantastic action sequences that obviously inspired John Woo's narrative traits (complete with flying 'slow mo' doves) The consistently great Franco Nero here gives an adequate performance (mirroring Eastwood's on screen presence) pairing perfectly with his on screen brother George Hilton who steals many of the films greatest lines from him. But the highlight of the film, by far, is the absolutely fantastic and mesmerising performance of Nino Castelnuovo playing the sinister whip brandishing Junior. Castelnuovo's performance lights up the screen here in a way rarely has been seen in cinema (for me Castlenuovo is one of the best character actors in Italian cinema with career defining leaps in so many genres ranging from comedy, horror, romance, erotica, western, sci-fi and drama) From the fantastic 'whipping' scene to the organ-playing scene... Nino Castelnuovo steals every moment on screen... and considering Franco Nero is in this that is by no means an easy achievement!Just check this cinematic classic out...I have no doubt in saying that in a few more years, this will be seen as a true classic of the genre and will finally be given the respect and audience it so rightly deserves. Lucio Fulci's finest work! A MUST SEE!Much more than just sixties exploitation cinema. I don't use this word lightly... it's a masterpiece of sixties cinema.