Navajo Joe. 1966. Italy/Spain. Directed by Sergio Corbucci. Screenplay by Ugo Pirro, Piero Regnoli, Fernando Di Leo. With Burt Reynolds, Aldo Sambrell, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Fernando Rey. In Italian; English subtitles. 35mm. 93 min.
Of dubious political correctness (though charismatic as ever, even with his ridiculous moppet toupée), Burt Reynolds is Navajo Joe, the vengeful “half-breed” who promises for $1 a head to rid the town of Esperanza of a gang of bandits led by the scalp hunter who brutally murdered his wife. The backstory to Navajo Joe is as ridiculously entertaining as the film itself—Reynolds was under the impression he’d be working with Sergio Leone, not Sergio Corbucci—but Ennio Morricone’s music remains fascinating as a kind of postmodern pastiche of his earlier scores for Spaghetti Westerns. Naturally, Quentin Tarantino was inspired to use two of the film’s songs, “A Silhouette of Doom” and “The Demise of Barbara/The Return of Joe,” for climactic scenes in Kill Bill.