Let’s look at Navajo Joe. Perhaps the most successful director of Spaghetti Westerns outside of Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci got his start in the 1950’s mostly directing low budget peplum pictures and comedies. In 1964, however – as Leone was about to change the Western genre forever – Corbucci made his first westerns Grand Canyon Massacre and Minnesota Clay, but it wasn’t until the commercial success of Django (1966) that established him in the booming Spaghetti Western genre; Navajo Joe quickly followed on the heels of that success. Previously released on DVD by MGM and Blu-ray by Kino, the movie returns to Blu-ray in a new Special Edition by Kino.
The Production: 3.5/5
In the Southwest US in the 19th Century, Mervyn “Vee” Duncan (Aldo Sambrell) and his gang of scalp hunters have massacred a Navajo Indian village and destroyed a nearby town when the local sheriff refuses to pay them for their now illegal bounty of scalps. A group of saloon entertainers and their banjo player/manager escape the carnage and flee to the neighboring town of Esperanza to warn the townspeople about Duncan’s marauders; the Duncan gang nearly makes them their next victims before reaching the town, but the murder plot – along with an attempted theft of the town’s money carried on an inbound train – is thwarted by Navajo Joe (Burt Reynolds). Joe offers his help to defend Esperanza from Duncan and his men, but the townspeople are reluctant to accept the offer; however, they will need him as Duncan plans to wipe Esperanza off the map if he doesn’t get the money. The fate of the town – and the money – will be decided in a final showdown in a Navajo cemetery…
Released right as the genre was starting to hit popularity, Navajo Joe was one of the films that helped to establish Sergio Corbucci as one of the masters of the genre. Like he does with Django, Corbucci sets the tone right from the start with the shocking massacre of the peaceful tribe Navajo Indians right before the opening credits; Corbucci and screenwriters Ugo Pirro, Fernando di Leo and Piero Regnoli (the latter credited here under the pseudonym “Dean Craig”) also don’t shy away from showing the prejudicial attitudes of both Duncan and his gang as well as the townspeople that Joe tries to help out (this was one of the Westerns that didn’t show the West in a mythical and glorified way like Hollywood did at the time). The film also has the benefit of terrific Spain locations – filling in for the American Southwest – shot by cinematographer Silvano Ippoliti and a memorable music score by the legendary Ennio Morricone propelling the action along. The film’s major flaw here is not the shocking violence, but rather the awkward English dubbing that makes the dialogue feel more stilted than it actually is; a game cast does their best here despite that unfortunate fact. Awkward dubbing aside, Navajo Joe is still a well done and stylized Spaghetti Western that showed the Old West in a deglamorized fashion while also serving as a steppingstone for its leading man and its director to reach greater heights.
Cast in his first leading role here – he mistakenly thought he would be working with Sergio Leone rather than Sergio Corbucci – Burt Reynolds (who reportedly had Cherokee roots) acquits himself well in the title role; while he didn’t think too highly of the movie, he did acknowledge that the experience here paid off in the end when he won an Emmy for the TV series Evening Shade (1990-1994). A favorite of Sergio Leone, Spaghetti Western regular Aldo Sambrell makes for an appropriately nasty villain as the scalp hunter Duncan; he would reunite with Corbucci a year after this film in The Hellbenders (1967). A descendent of the writer and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, Nicoletta Machiavelli brings a striking beauty to the proceedings as Estella, the Indian woman attracted to Navajo Joe and working for Dr. Chester Lynne and his wife as a housekeeper and doctor’s assistant; better known as the deviously charming Marseille drug lord Alain Charnier in The French Connection (1971) and for his work in the movies of Luis Buñuel, Fernando Rey brings dignified charm to the part of the Esperanza priest Father Rattigan. Rounding out the cast here are Pierre Cressoy (billed as “Peter Cross”) as the two-timing Dr. Lynne, Valeria Sabel as his wife Hannah, Tanya Lopert, Franca Polesello and Lucia Modugno as the saloon entertainers, Nino Imparato as the banjo player, Lucio Rosato as Duncan’s brother Jeffrey, Mario Lanfranchi as Esperanza mayor Jefferson Clay, Angel Alvarez as the bank manager, Lorenzo Robledo as a member of Duncan’s scalp hunter gang and Maria Cristina Sani as Joe’s wife, whose death at the beginning of the film provides a key point that doesn’t become clear until the final showdown.
Video: 4/5
3D Rating: NA
The film is presented in its original 2:35:1 Techniscope aspect ratio, taken from the same HD transfer used for Kino’s previous 2015 Blu-ray release, but now presented on a dual-layer disc and encoded at a higher bitrate than the previous release. Film grain, color palette and fine details are all faithfully presented, but there are cases of scratches, tears and dirt present on the transfer, but nothing that would make the film unwatchable. While this release uses the same HD transfer as the previous Kino Blu-ray, this Special Edition Blu-ray gets the edge here in terms of the transfer being a little better resolved in terms of visual quality and is likely the best the movie will ever look on home video.
Audio: 4/5
The film’s original English dub mono soundtrack is presented on a DTS-HD Master Audio track for this release. Dialogue, sound mix and Ennio Morricone’s unique music score – credited here under the pseudonym “Leo Nichols” – are all presented faithfully with minimal cases of distortion like crackling, clicking, dropout in volume, hissing and popping present on the track. When compared to Kino’s previous Blu-ray release, this Special Edition Blu-ray release is on par with the 2015 Blu-ray in terms of audio quality.
Special Features: 3.5/5
Commentary by filmmaker/author Alex Cox – Newly recorded for this release, Cox goes over the details on the film’s cast and crew, shooting locations and trivia on the film’s production.
Scene Specific Commentary by Ennio Morricone expert Gary Palmucci (18:17) – Carried over from Kino’s previous Blu-ray release from 2015, Palmucci breaks down Morricone’s singular score in select scenes from the film.
Theatrical Trailer (1:52)
Bonus KLSC Trailers – A Fistful of Dollars, Death Rides a Horse, The Hills Run Red, Kill Them All and Come Back Alone, Ace High, 100 Rifles, Sam Whiskey, White Lightning & The Longest Yard
Overall: 3.5/5
Though largely dismissed by both critics and audiences here in America upon first release, Navajo Joe is still a crucial film in the development of Burt Reynolds as a leading man and for Sergio Corbucci to cement his status as one of the Spaghetti Western’s best directors outside of Sergio Leone. Kino has bested their previous Blu-ray release here with their previous HD transfer better resolved visually while adding a brand new commentary track to go along with a legacy special feature from their previous release. This is now likely the best release of the movie on home video and comes highly recommended for fans of Burt Reynolds and the Spaghetti Western genre.
Mychal has been on the Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2018, with reviews numbering close to 300. During this time, he has also been working as an assistant manager at The Cotton Patch – his family’s fabric and quilting supplies business in Keizer, Oregon. When not working at reviewing movies or working at the family business, he enjoys exploring the Oregon Coast, playing video games and watching baseball in addition to his expansive collection of movies on DVD, Blu-ray and UHD, totalling over 3,000 movies.
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