Eastwood’s recommendation led Reynolds to take on a role
he would quickly regret.
Collider
By Samuel Williamson
11/17/2023
If you were an actor and Clint Eastwood told you to go
work with a certain filmmaker on a Western, you would absolutely go wherever he
told you to go. This was the case for Burt Reynolds, who was thrown way in over
his head by the mid-60s Spaghetti Western, Navajo Joe. At the height of the
prime era for this subgenre, legendary producer Dino de Laurentiis and
acclaimed genre filmmaker Sergio Corbucci were looking to bring a new hero to
the big screen, that being the titular Navajo Joe. Allegedly, this filmmaking
duo had their eyes on none other than Marlon Brando for the part. Who could
blame them? Wouldn't you also want one of cinema's greatest figures leading
your movie?
However, Brando turned it down, as he never ended up
starring in the picture or taking any role in it. Legend has it that this was a
blow for Corbucci, who was "promised" that Brando would take the
part. Instead, the team behind Navajo Joe pivoted to Reynolds because of his
apparent resemblance to the Godfather actor. In return, Reynolds was interested
because his good friend, Eastwood, had talked up a Spaghetti Western filmmaker
named Sergio a good bit.
When Reynolds was already on board, he realized Eastwood
was talking about Sergio Leone — not Corbucci. These days, Corbucci is regarded
as one of the coolest filmmakers of his era, but at the time, not being Sergio
Leone wasn't going to cut it. Since then, Reynolds has repeatedly dogged Navajo
Joe. According to Aliza Wong's non-fiction book, Spaghetti Westerns: A Viewers
Guide, Reynolds has even referred to Corbucci as "the wrong Sergio"
on multiple occasions. Despite his bitter feelings towards Navajo Joe, there is
a lot of fun to be found in this under-seen Spaghetti Western gem.
In the '60s, Spaghetti Westerns were primarily seen as a
means for actors to break into the industry, but these days, everybody loves
this particular subgenre. How could you not? This is a genre full of
action-packed movies, often mean-spirited and cut from revenge cloth. They cut
the nonsense that so many overrated classic Westerns get caught up in and run
straight for the action. We're talking about way less of a focus on character
drama and over-sentimental drivel, and rather a desire to see how many rounds
of ammunition can be fired off in 90 minutes or so. And before I am accused of
insisting that there is any less level of artistry at play here, let's just
take a step back for a moment and relax. These are incredibly crafted movies,
their artistry is just focused elsewhere. The very best Spaghetti Westerns feel
enormous, carry an overly badass tone throughout their entire runtime, and are
centered around a mysterious antihero who is surrounded by nothing but dirty
outlaws. Movies like the Dollars trilogy, Django, and Navajo Joe do this
extremely well.
If you look at the early filmographies of many stars that
came to prominence in the '60s and '70s, you'll find that many of them got
their start, or at least played parts, by taking roles in Spaghetti Westerns.
Classic screen presences, like Franco Nero, Lee Van Cleef, and, of course,
Clint Eastwood, worked in this stratosphere. These were typically made fast and
for cheap, so loads of Spaghetti Western filmmakers dabbled in this genre
regularly. There's a reason that the entries in the Dollars trilogy were all
released one year after the next. So, when it came time for Dino de Laurentiis
and Sergio Corbucci to cast Navajo Joe, the prospect couldn't have been easy
for Reynolds to turn down.
This had to have been compacted by his friend Clint
Eastwood, the star of the hit (and now iconic) Dollars trilogy, recommending
that Reynolds go work with "Sergio." Eastwood had to be as good of a
reference in this department as anyone, so of course, Reynolds ended up taking
the part. Production commenced, and at some point, he learned that the
filmmaker behind the project was actually Sergio Corbucci, not Leone.
This, presumably, tanked his excitement for the prospects
of the project that he was filming, yet he obviously persevered because we now
have Navajo Joe in full. In Howard Hughes' 2004 nonfiction book, Howard Hughes:
His Life and Madness, Reynolds is quoted as saying that the film was "so
awful it was only shown in prisons and airplanes because nobody could
leave." In his 1991 Emmy acceptance speech, he did reluctantly claim that
movies like Navajo Joe were worth working on, but that little morsel of praise
feels faint in comparison to the quote about walking out of planes, and years
of calling Corbucci "the wrong Sergio."
Is Navajo Joe truly all that bad though? Not in the
slightest. It isn't exactly For a Few Dollars More (a leaner and meaner
Spaghetti Western than its sequel The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), but it is a
ton of fun. In it, we follow Navajo Joe, a Native American warrior (Burt
Reynolds) who seeks revenge on the bank-robbing outlaws that slaughtered his
tribe. It's the epitome of the pulpy Spaghetti Western action that we run to
this subgenre for! There is a feeling of déjà vu here and there, but there's a
feeling of comfort in the way that these movies recycle tropes. We go to these
movies to watch our leading anti-hero seek revenge on those who wronged them,
defend a town from threatening outlaws, and develop a charmingly weakly written
romance (in this case, it was with Nicoletta Machiavelli's Estella). It's all
part of the fun.
There are brutal action scenes, every frame is covered in
grime and full of the sweatiest folks in the West, and wide lenses are thrown
on at every opportunity to capture the vast landscapes at hand. It's all topped
off with a fantastic, pissed-off leading performance from Reynolds. He might
not be Brando, but we don't need an actor of that pedigree in this role.
Reynolds walks around this movie looking like an enraged torpedo shrink-wrapped
in leather, delivering very few lines, and scowling at everyone in sight like
he wants to murder them. From our perspective, no one feels safe at the hands
of Navajo Joe — even the people that he's defending! Sometimes, you just need
someone in roles like this who has the physicality to carry you through the
character's journey, as opposed to someone not only trained at Julliard but who
wants you to feel like they trained at Julliard. The actor for Navajo Joe just
needs to look mean and be able to kill outlaws on screen. That, Reynolds does
very well (and would continue to for decades). He might have hated this movie
and sounds like he hated making it, but you wouldn't be able to tell by his
performance. Reynolds is fantastic as the titular antihero.
As for the whole "wrong Sergio" situation, Burt
Reynolds might have ended up being directed by someone that he wasn't
anticipating, but that doesn't say a thing about Corbucci's abilities. He might
not be Leone, but in some ways, that's for the better. This isn't an attempt to
knock the films of Sergio Leone, one of the greatest filmmakers to ever play
the game, but his movies can be a bit... long. Occasionally, that's totally
warranted! Some movies need to breathe and take on epic run times. That being
said, you can't really go wrong with an airtight 90-minute revenge story. Well,
Navajo Joe is technically 93 minutes long, but you get the idea. Corbucci gets
in and out of this story at the speed of a bullet.
Still, he doesn't quite have the cinematic eye that Leone
does, but that is also asking a lot of somebody. It's kind of like the
difference between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones — these are two artists
that came out of the same era. In one corner, you have a filmmaker who might
technically be more proficient and skilled, but the other knows how to make a
meaner and, dare I say it, cooler piece of art. Sometimes, that's all you need.
Corbucci, in no world, is the "wrong Sergio." You can get out of here
with that, Mr. Reynolds.
There also should be some credit thrown to Ennio
Morricone's killer score. It's a criminally overlooked entry in his enormous
body of work and just might be his most underrated score. The soundtrack is
full of his typical yelping vocalists, but this time more tortured than ever.
Of course, twangy surf rock guitars crash through the mix like a bullet through
glass, while backing vocalists call and respond to the name "Navajo
Joe" over and over again. Violins soar in the background while timpani
bang along like the thudding hooves of horses, and the track fades at its peak
as if Morricone had no way of structurally ending a piece this bombastic. It's
operatic, it's dirty, and it perfectly fits the vibe of Navajo Joe. The whole
soundtrack is all killer, with no filler from the greatest composer in the
canon of Spaghetti Westerns. There's a reason that the track, "A
Silhouette of Doom" is used by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill Vol. 2 —
it's just that good.
If you're a fan of Spaghetti Westerns, don't listen to
Burt Reynolds on this one. Instead, fire it up to catch his totally overlooked
antihero performance in Navajo Joe, get to know the other Sergio's filmography
a bit better, and thank Clint Eastwood for accidentally mixing up two
filmmakers. It might have been tough for Reynolds, but without that oversight,
we might not have this overlooked gem in the Spaghetti Western canon.
Navajo Joe is available to watch on Prime Video in the
U.S.
