Navajo Joe (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)

I was specifically referring to ‘Navajo Joe’, which I feel was not cliched when it was released - Perhaps I could have been clearer … There were almost no films at that time which looked at the ‘Indian’ point of view, or the brutality of taking scalps to sell as souvenirs, which this film deals with.

In a more general way, regarding the Euro - western … all the images and stylistic touches can now seem cliched, as they have been parodied so often, in comedy sketches, graphic art, 3rd rate imitation films, over the decades, and even within the genre itself when it was still commercially popular.

The bulk of these film are now around 60 years old, they were the trend setters of their time, not the purveyors of the old school American ‘morality’ films, which by the 1960s were totally out of step with dreadfully corny old cliched plots.

So, if some young-ish person comes to watch one of these 1960s Spags for the first time, they will be familiar with at least some aspects of the aesthetics, because those ideas have been ‘re-cycled’ or ripped off for so many years, that they may think they’re watching a cliche, when it is in fact the original source.

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Not exactly I Cantori Moderni, but still. :grinning:

Watched this one again this afternoon.

I looked back at my old review from 15 years ago and don’t know why I was so harsh on it. Maybe I’m getting softer in my old age (well I know I am) but I think I enjoy it more with every viewing. The soundtrack too. Maybe as I said in my review I’d just come off a viewing of Return of Ringo and The Big Gundown when I wrote the review so Navajo Joe seemed a lesser article in comparison. It’s still a good film though. I needed to get over myself.

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I decided to watch it again, too

And it’s taken me 18 years for me to watch it again, so I must have felt the same way. I don’t think it’s going to climb the ladder into my favourites but it’s definitely good fun and that’s all that matters. I think it would have been nice to have more insight into the villain’s life because his back story is actually quite interesting, the son of a preacher and an Indian woman who turned into a scalp-hunter.

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I agree. Would have been nice to have that fleshed out more.

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Navajo Joe (1966) is a very action-oriented film, if there was more of the villain’s background story it would be a different film perhaps. Sometimes a few glimpses of the past is enough? It’s good to have this though and it makes Duncan not completely one-dimensional.

Another rewatch of a personal favorite. Navajo Joe might just be the most underrated spaghetti western. It’s a masterfully made film, from the filming locations to the characters, and especially the action. The filming locations are some of the best, most convincing and most aesthetically pleasing filming locations in the SW genre. The concept of a Native American seeking revenge and using the town’s situation to his advantage is brilliant, and the scalpers are as stylish as they are evil. Burt Reynolds surprisingly plays a native Indian well too, even though its a bit of a caricature, it’s consistent with the exaggerated larger than life almost comic book like characters of spaghetti westerns. While it’s one of the simpler spaghetti westerns, it’s definitely among the best. It’s very well made and well paced. The Ennio Morricone soundtrack is phenomenal as well, one of his finest works. It’s ridiculous that this film isn’t ranked among the essential top 10, let alone the top 20!

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I still wonder if that story about Burt Reynolds expecting to meet Sergio Leone and finding out it was a different Italian director named Sergio is true or not. Was it his wife Nori Corbucci who told that story?It could well be true then.

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In 1966 nobody in the USA knew who Sergio Leone was, FoD was yet not released there, so maybe it’s indeed just a story …

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But that is what makes it believable. No-one really knew who Leone was, so Burt gets tipped off about some guy in Italy called Sergio and ends up with Corbucci.

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He could’ve done worse as far as Sergios in Italy are concerned, too

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If only Burt knew that this is in the official top 30 of 500+ Italian westerns.

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Top 10 imo

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Looking for a better quality of this latinamerican poster we don’t have in the swdb yet

elnavajoposter

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