Navajo Joe (1966)

Director: Sergio Corbucci

Starring: Burt Reynolds

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: Navajo revenge slashes ...burns ...ravages the screen!

Plot: The sole survivor of a bloody massacre vows revenge on his attackers and on the men who killed his wife.

My Rating: 7/10

Would I watch it again? sure, I'm game

There are two rumors floating around about Burt and this flick. One, according to imdb, says he only agreed to make it because he was under the impression that Sergio Leone (dir of Clint Eastwood's groundbreaking Dollar trilogy) would be directing and that when he found out it was that other Sergio it was too late for him to pull out. The other is he virtually disowns this picture and doesn't anknowledge its existence. That could be a possible explanation of why it hasn't been released here on DVD. I've got a pretty good non-anamorphic widescreen copy from Europe. Lucky me.

I will say this about the "Sergios" and the spaghetti western. If you can't get Leone, the next best Sergio is Corbucci. He cranked out some great ones: DJANGO (later that year), THE HELLBENDERS (1967), THE MERCENARY (1968), THE GREAT SILENCE (1968 - kickass ending to beat them all), COMPANEROS (1970) and a bunch more that I haven't seen yet.

But...this was before all of those. It's a pretty good revenge spaghetti western for starters. It does tend to drag a little sometimes but not for long. Besides the incredibly fucked up awesome score by Ennio Morricone (featuring the classic lyrics, "Na-hav-o Joe, Na-hav-o Jo-o-o-e" and lots of screaming voices), which I dig largely because of its uniquenes and originality, you need to see this because of this man:

Burt "Frankenstein, aka FrankInjunBurt" Reynolds. There's so many times when he just stands there and all I can think of is, "Arrrrrrr, uuhhhhhh, fire baaaaad, errrrrr". Classic. He's so bad in this. He really doesn't give a shit in his performance which makes rumor #1 seem all the more real. Oh, man, is he bad. And the posing! He's so conceited with his performance and I know it's not his character. It's definitely Burt. He also delivers some of the laziest line readings I've heard in a long long time. There are, however, times when I felt like he was channeling his idol, Marlon Brando, but to see that happen in that getup he's sportin' is laughable.

When there's action, it's pretty good. Having a torture scene for the hero seems to be a staple of so many of Corbucci's films and this one is no exception. Strung upside down, FrankInjunBurt is in no position to escape until an old dancehall pimp springs him free in a most unusual fashion. From there to the end it's ON with the bodies piling up.

I almost forgot the dialog. It's funny as hell. About halfway into the picture when an Indian girl, Estella, goes to enlist his help we get this gem of a scene:

"What's your name?"

fires shot 1

shot 2

shot 3

"Joe"

I'm howlin'. On the floor howlin'.




Remember that scene in MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL where you've got two soldiers at the castle entrance and John Cleese is running towards them, sword in hand and music all menacing, ready to attack? And they keep cutting back and forth yet Cleese isn't any closer until finally he's right on them attacking? There's a similar scene in this one where the music is building and building as a man on a horse is searching (standing still) for Joe for easily a minute and there's nothing going on but this tense music when suddenly OUT OF NOWHERE FrankInjunBurt leaps at the guy knocking him off his horse. Ahahahahahaha. You can't help but laugh at this shit. Classic.


Navajo Joe. Come for the curiosity factor, stay for the laughs.