This is just a great film. Yeah now a days its weird to see burt reynolds as an indian ( even though it seems he has some cherokee heritage) , but its from 1966 and an italian is doing it. The film per se is pretty good: probaly a bit formulaic which is its biggest flaw, but we have again here a west with no hope. With a villain that has density but no heart, with corruption on each corner, where the state is easily robbed.
In here we have duncan: the bad guy who is a professional scalper. He and his gang have a deal with a local sheriff with scalpes of bad guys in return of money. But duncan is diversifying his victims and started to collect scalpes from indians (including women and children) - we understand why later on.
Then the main hero: navajo joe starts to pursue this group (we will also understand why at the end) and fights back. The group goes to the nearest town (that gets burned after) and gets a proposal: to steal a train with 500 million dollars of money that would be split between the group and the guy who told them this information. That train would come to a near city.
Now, no one here is spared, violence is on every corner. The movie is pretty simple on its form but it does want to raise questions about indians vs white people, it wants to make a point about a hero who had a whole land to ride a horse, and a life, and then whites stole it from him and now pursue his own kind. Navajo joe wants to be the representation of the opressed against the system - even though is burt reynolds impersonating it.
The movie makes the prostitutes and the indians as heroes: the whites in general as incompetent people, unable to protect themselves, some of them with very little morals and very capable to sell themselves for money. The state absolutely cannot penetrate here, the sheriff is not useful, so they will have to rely on the weak to protect them from hell. Navajo joe is an excellent gunslinger so you have that.
Then technically the movie is great. There are beautiful and composed shots, the music is amazing and it appears on the right moments, the sound absolutely works, it is a very easy and comfortable watch. Mainly the budget was certainly not huge which even adds into it.
The main problem: all these themes were explored later on by corbucci. There is nothing here inherently new with the exception of having a navajo as a hero. But the pace is awesome, the action moments are very intense and we never know who survives. Its true that reynolds being here is weird, but the movie is still very good.
Corbucci might have done this movie a bunch of times, but it is still very underrated. 4 starts. When i see more of him it might be lower. But for now it does deserve this rating.
In here we have duncan: the bad guy who is a professional scalper. He and his gang have a deal with a local sheriff with scalpes of bad guys in return of money. But duncan is diversifying his victims and started to collect scalpes from indians (including women and children) - we understand why later on.
Then the main hero: navajo joe starts to pursue this group (we will also understand why at the end) and fights back. The group goes to the nearest town (that gets burned after) and gets a proposal: to steal a train with 500 million dollars of money that would be split between the group and the guy who told them this information. That train would come to a near city.
Now, no one here is spared, violence is on every corner. The movie is pretty simple on its form but it does want to raise questions about indians vs white people, it wants to make a point about a hero who had a whole land to ride a horse, and a life, and then whites stole it from him and now pursue his own kind. Navajo joe wants to be the representation of the opressed against the system - even though is burt reynolds impersonating it.
The movie makes the prostitutes and the indians as heroes: the whites in general as incompetent people, unable to protect themselves, some of them with very little morals and very capable to sell themselves for money. The state absolutely cannot penetrate here, the sheriff is not useful, so they will have to rely on the weak to protect them from hell. Navajo joe is an excellent gunslinger so you have that.
Then technically the movie is great. There are beautiful and composed shots, the music is amazing and it appears on the right moments, the sound absolutely works, it is a very easy and comfortable watch. Mainly the budget was certainly not huge which even adds into it.
The main problem: all these themes were explored later on by corbucci. There is nothing here inherently new with the exception of having a navajo as a hero. But the pace is awesome, the action moments are very intense and we never know who survives. Its true that reynolds being here is weird, but the movie is still very good.
Corbucci might have done this movie a bunch of times, but it is still very underrated. 4 starts. When i see more of him it might be lower. But for now it does deserve this rating.