The Next One
Disillusioned. Lost. Surrounded. Alone. These are words that had little to do with my state of my mind from the last the opinion to this one but nonetheless, when I transfixed on the idea to write about a movie these words came to mind. Felt the years pass and my body wither as I couldn’t make a decision but then there was Fate.
Fate is the name of this big fat cat that lives with me like a bum. He jumped onto a shelf where some movies were living and decided tonight that these movies were in his way. 3 swats of the paws later, the floor was covered with movies. He lost interest after I said ‘Goddammit Fate!’ in sticking around and I was left to pick up the movies and that’s where I found it. The recently imported German special edition of the supposed Uncut version of the 1966 Spaghetti Western Navajo Joe.
It was Fate at work and after writing this review, I will give him a treat and it will be another victory to fulfill his state of ego that he is God.
My Experiences with the Spaghetti Western
I am a decent sized fan of the genre ever since the middling age of 16 years old which was about 65 years ago. Time sure kills you when you ain't looking.
Those were the olden days in which the only way to watch a Region 1 copy of The Big Gundown, And God Said to Cain, or Light the Fuse...Sartana is Coming! was to buy a restoration from a fan off a website that took money orders.
In regard to the fan restoration, I have the three films mentioned above created by a dude by the name of Franco Cleef who went about in using the English dub of a film as a foundation and then include scenes that were only available in foreign territories to create a restored version that was as complete as can be. Besides the inherent unevenness that comes with this process with the sudden switch to Italian then back to English, the films ended up becoming some of my favorites that I watch still to this day and so I owe a thank you to this Franco Cleef person.
This was the era in which you had to walk down to Best Buy and check out the weekly deal’s they had in the DVD section and hope there was a couple in the Western genre that you could pick up. This is the true entrance of the genre for me as I bought the Special Edition of Once Upon A Time in the West which was a seminal night for my current state of mind after watching it 3 times in a row on a Tuesday school night.
And if you couldn't find it in the physical world, you had no choice but to download via torrent’s and hope some asshole in some other country is seeding. Twas the only fashion in which I was able to watch the seminal film in the genre; Django.
From these methods, I started to dig in even more into the genre and as of now in my late age of 42 I can tell you that there are two directors with the same first name of Sergio, one being Sergio Leone and the other Sergio Corbucci, that would go about in making some of the greatest films in the genre.
Leone would be known for launching the genre into full gear by having his Dollar trilogies become the high water mark for perfecting the quality of the drama to entertainment ratio when it came to Spaghetti Westerns as well as breaking a small Italian film into the World stage.
Corbucci would be known as the man for directing The Great Silence and The Mercenary which are fantastic in their own right but it was him directing the surprised out of nowhere mega hit Django that cemented the Spaghetti Western as a genre to stay. This film contains one of the most, if not THE most, iconic character in the genre that would use that World stage the other Leone had brought the genre into and kick-start a failing Italian movie industry in making a ridiculous amount of unofficial Django sequels.
As to say which director is better would be a crime for the quality is high in both of their work but also for the fact that the way they approach the material is far too different from one another that it would be redundant to even attempt to do so.
Leone goes for a cleaner style in the sense of camera pans, dolly tracks and relying on cuts to escalate tension in his gunfights. As well as using Ennio Morricone’s music not just as something to place alongside the image but interweaving the two together and creating this operatic sensibility to the entire picture to make it a far more grand spectacle than what the Western genre had to offer before it.
Corbucci on the other hand doesn't seem to have either the time nor the patience to commit to this sensibility and goes about in the complete opposite direction. He likes his vision of the West to be down and dirty. Gunfights are no longer man to man duels and instead are moments in which the two shooters find any way they can to get their shot in first. No honor to be seen. The good guys only winning of they managed to survive gunshots and beat downs but that doesn't mean there will be a happy ending to look forward to.
So bleak are his films that upon reflecting the two directors, there is great balance between the two's work within the spaghetti western genre.
Previews
Movie genres to me are like the Earth rotating around the sun. There is a defined line of time and place where a certain genre will be on my mind and at this moment, the Spaghetti Western is on my mind. Now, I'm no expert that I’ve claimed to be, though maybe I am?, but there have been a few films on my too watch list for the longest of times and the Sergio Corbucci directed and Burt Reynolds starring Navajo Joe has been one of them.
Now before I begin, I would like to spend some time in regard to the production of the picture because I think it’s funny that Burt Reynolds fucking hated it. Here are excerpts about the film from his fantastic autobiography But Enough About Me with the chapter entitled 'Destaphanado'.
"Clint Eastwood and I both went to Italy to make spaghetti Westerns during the 1960s. He got Sergio Leone and a trilogy of pictures that made him an international star. I got Sergio Corbucci and Navajo Joe." - pg. 151
"I spent years playing the third Indian from the left. I never got a funny line. I just took my shirt off as I got shot. I've played every Native American but Pocahontas, and I hated Navajo Joe because he was such a stereotype. Corbucci's idea of the way he would talk was, "You come. Follow." pg. 151
"The first day on the set the costume guy chipped up a ratty old wig and glued it on my head. It was the worst wig I've ever had, and that's saying something. It made me look like Natalie Wood." - pg. 152
From here he mentions his lack of hair and need for a toupee in his personal life then goes into about his trademark mustache.
"The mustache is a different story. I had to grow it for 100 Rifles in 1968. That was fine, because I was tired of hearing that I looked like Brando." -pg. 153
Funnily enough, Brando was a possible candidate for the lead of Navajo Joe but Dino De Laurentiis, the producer, ended up getting Burt who he figured looked enough like Brando.
"On the first day of shooting Navajo Joe, I had to choose a mount from a corral full of horses. The wrangler was a Spanish Gypsy named Mahan. He rode up on an old, swaybacked thing that looked like Don Quixote's horse. His ears were bent down and he didn't have a mane or a tail. But he had a kind of pride about him.
"which horse do you like?" Mahan said.
"I'll take the one you're on," I said.
"Ah, but he is my horse."
"I know, but he's the one I want."
"As you wish," he said. "His name is Destaphanado." -pg. 154
"There was a stunt where I had to ride next to a moving train and step onto it. Most horses will not run against a train, but old Destaphanado took me right up to it and the transfer was smooth as silk. I could see him looking backward to see what happened to me." -pg. 154
"Sergio Corbucci was all about body count. He thought that making a great Western involved killing a lot of people. He figured that if I killed more people than Clint Eastwood, Navajo Joe would make more money than A Fistful of Dollars. By the end of the first week I'd done so many stunts and killed so many people, I asked Corbucci to put in a love scene just so I could have a rest. He laughed and said, "We make American Western-a better. We take out love scenes and-a talk." -pg.154
Reynolds mentions how the pilot for a show he worked on, Hawk, got picked up and that he needed to wrap up on Navajo Joe quickly.
"Sergio was a good sport. "Okay," he said, "We kill-a people faster." I shot everybody in sight. I shot fourteen people in one scene. We got down to twelve guys and I had one day left on the picture. We were stumped on how to kill them in a different way until Sergio's eyes lit up and he said, "Dy-no-mite-a!"
The film didn't do much for Burt Reynolds or his career but watching it now, I thought it was a great example of the physical approach he takes to a role without the need to say much of anything. Having to say something with just a look or the way he carries himself as he ponders a response. I'll speak more after the feature presentation.
Feature Presentation
The movie starts with a massacre. Always a strong note to start off with a massacre in a Western and this one manages to cement how evil the antagonists are when they ride up to a group of Native Americans just hanging out/chilling and then they start killing and scalping them. They then take the scalps back to get paid but meet up with Joe on the way and he manages to kill two of them but the rest of the killers ride away.
They ride into town and find out that there is a bounty on their head and that scalps they worked hard in getting are worthless. Duncan, the leader of this posse, escalate the situation by killing people left and right including the sheriff then they get the idea that they need to burn the town down as well. While this destruction occurs, a buddy of Duncan’s appears and tells him about a safe on a train containing 50,000 bucks. Going on about how he has the inside scoop on how to open it without dynamite since he has the combination. A plan is set and just as they are finishing the deal, a group of entertainers rush out of the bar to escape. Duncan has some men chase them to try and stop them since one of them heard the plan and could identify the inside man. The two shoot up the wagon but Joe shows up and saves the day. They tell him about the train and the potential heist and so he goes off to stop it.
The rest of movie is Duncan and his gang trying to get the money with Joe interrupting them at every chance. The gang growing more and more ruthless as they get desperate about the money but Joe manages to come out as the victor.
Towards the end of the movie, a duel occurs between Joe and Duncan that left with a sense of melancholy when only Joe’s horse runs back to the townspeople to return the money before galloping away from the town and towards the mountains. Is the horse going back to Joe or is he running away back to nature? The unknown fate of Joe leaving the biggest question to ponder.
The Opinion is like a Block of Marble
This was a film that I needed to think about for a moment. The amount of violence and the tone of the violence that the film was conveying was just tough. Cinematic violence isn't a problem but this was something else. This was a sort of violence that felt of masochist tendencies for the sake of it but then on second thought, it felt valid. It's a tough movie. There aren't that many laughs in it but Burt Reynolds has enough charm with just being who he is that he manages to bring a sense of ease in the scenes that have him in it.
The villains have their moment and Duncan is more of an interesting idea more so than a properly executed villain. He has a backstory involving him being a half breed with his hate towards White men and Native Americans since they both treated him like a bastard but it doesn't have a chance to flourish like it should.
Burt Reynolds is definitely the star of the picture and it's easy to see why he disliked it but overall, I enjoyed what he did in this film. As mentioned, it's a real physical role but inside of this genre, its probably THE most physical demanding role to occur in any of these movies. Reynolds is flying everywhere. Just launching himself into the air and stabbing every person he flies into. It's great. A real kinetic energy that isn't really seen in the other films. Just think back to Clint Eastwood in any of the films. The guy isn't running anywhere. He's not making any quick movements except for pulling out his gun, cocking the hammer, and pulling the trigger. Lee Van Cleef is the same deal. Franco Nero isn't running anywhere. All these roles are mostly them giving off their intimidating physical presence to enhance their sense of mystery. The less is more approach.
The character of Joe follows this trend since he isn't saying much all throughout this movie but the way the dude is running, flying, stabbing, and punching his way through the movie brings a very different sensibility to this compared to the other films. One that I very much appreciate.
It's interesting to see how most spaghetti westerns don't have a sense of romance in regards to characters and their motivations. The characters just never seem to have a need for romance and its obvious that for this film, the director had 0 interest in Joe falling in love with anyone but nonetheless, there is a tenderness between Joe and Estella, a Native American woman, that works in town as a maid of sorts. Even with the handicap of the clunky English dub, there is something there and whenever a Western can achieve this warmth of genuine affection then I can find myself enjoying it a little more.
my masterpiece
What Makes it Beautiful
Now that I got most of everything out of the way. I need to mention the real showstopper of the movie; the score. Ennio Morricone, billed as Leo Nichols in the opening credits, brings the real heat of the movie. A returning theme that plays all throughout at every moment possible and though it may seem like an idea could be a possible detriment to the film but it somehow works. The music just explodes all throughout the 92 minute running time to create this unifying sense of grandiose. The music was filling in the gap in what was missing to make the film not only good but GREAT.
terrific stuff
It's been some time since I have heard a score that is now permanently cemented into my head. I can't tell if its the lack of interest on my end or the lack of strength in musicians in doing some so evocative to get me to remember.
Morricone was the kind of guy that would make the score and then hand it off to a director and every time he would manage to enhance the film. Sometimes managing to make something that is not only magical to the movie but memorable enough to have you whistling the music a few minutes after the credits have rolled.
The Final Chisel to Unlock the Statue of The German Blu Ray Release of Navajo Joe
I was not surprised that I enjoyed it but I am more so surprised at the amount of enjoyment I got out of it. Not to say I found the violence a good time or anything but the sum of all its parts together makes this film so great. From the way it looks, because though I haven’t mentioned it, there are some fantastic shots in this film. From the music to the performances. Even with it’s faults, I still found myself thoroughly engaged in the film and for that I will gladly place this in my top 10 favorite movies.
Though it can never be number one, which is impossible with Once Upon A Time in the West taking that place now and forever, this film will definitely be one that I go back to from time to time just like that one.