Review of Navajo Joe (1966) by Peter H — 10 Apr 2011

Legend has it that Reynolds and Clint Eastwood were both told by an acting teacher that they would never make it as actors. Of course, both became big stars. Everyone knows that Eastwood became huge thanks to spaghetti westerns, not many know that Reynolds also starred in one, that one being Sergio Corbucci's NAVAJO JOE.

Reynolds plays the titular lead, a vengeful indian who stealthily hunts down and kills wicked bounty hunters who wantonly slay indian tribes and sell their scalps for a dollar a head. The casting of a white man in a lead that should go to a Native American is annoying one the part of the filmmakers, especially given the political nature of the majority of Corbucci's films.

These films often featured American leads, but the casting of Reynolds is dubious at best (he is supposedly part Cherokee, but so am I, and I'm white as snow). Still, Joe isn't your typical spaghetti western anti-hero, as he doesn't shoot it out with his enemies after a long build-up and an Ennio Morricone crescendo, but rather opts to stalk and slash the bad guys.

The film's biggest contribution to pop culture is its iconic score by Morricone, which many will immediately recognize as having being liberally used in Quentin Tarantino's KILL BILL films. NAVAJO JOE is no classic of the genre, and Corbucci has made much better films, but it entertains pretty well, I'd only recommend it to die-hard fans of either spaghetti westerns, or Burt Reynolds (you're out there, I can smell you).

I read that Burt Reynolds supposedly said that this was the worst movie he ever made, which makes me wonder how many of his own movies Reynolds has actually seen. Maybe he just doesn't like looking at himself sans-'stache.