Apocalypse Joe (1970)

One of my all time favorites.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

An unexpected masterpiece

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

I watched this spaghetti western under the title A MAN CALLED JOE CLIFFORD although the title APOCALYPSE JOE is much more exciting. It's a regular vehicle for western star Anthony Steffen, who certainly looked the part of a heroic gunslinger as much as Franco Nero did if not more so. This one has a plot involving Steffen inheriting a mine only to discover that it's controlled by the usual gang of corrupt and vicious types who use murder to keep opposition at bay.The twist with this western is that Steffen plays a somewhat unconventional hero with aspirations of grandeur; he'd rather be a Shakespearean actor on the stage than a fighter! This leads him to dress up and fool his enemy on occasion, although it's notable that this sub-plot is dispensed with entirely for the climax, a traditional large-scale gunfight around the town in which the bullets fly, the enemy is endlessly gunned down, and the flames billow.

Smart and lethal traveling actor and gunman Joe Clifford (a fine and credible performance by Anthony Steffen) inherits a gold mine from his uncle. Ruthless town boss Berg (splendidly played to he snarling hateful hilt by Eduardo Fajardo) controls said mine. When Joe finds out that Berg killed his uncle, he decides it's time for some major payback. Director Leopoldo Savona, who also co-wrote the clever and involving script with Eduardo Manzanos Brochero, does a solid and straightforward job with the sturdy material: the snappy pace rarely lets up for minute, the tone is fairly serious, yet playful, the thrilling shoot-outs are handled with rip-snorting flair, and there are nice moments of inspired dark humor sprinkled throughout. This film further benefits from sound acting by an able cast, with stand-out contributions from the lovely Mary Paz Pondal as sultry saloon gal Rita, Fernando Cerrulli as amiable rascally drunk Doc Klan, Giulio Baraghini as the corrupt Sheriff Floyd, and Fernando Bilbao as fierce behemoth Bodo. The large scale climactic confrontation between Joe and the townspeople versus Berg and his goons totally smokes in no uncertain terms: This extremely exciting and impressively epic set piece takes up the whole last third of the picture and really delivers the stirring goods like nobody's business. Julio Ortas' handsome widescreen cinematography gives the film a pleasing crisp look. Bruno Nicola provides a spirited and harmonic orchestral score. Highly recommended.

In the world of the Italian western we have the lofty pinnacle reached by Sergio Leone, the lower plateaus managed by Sergio Corbucci, a few other efforts (Trinity series, works by Solima) that share that space and a multitude of films piled into a dark valley of wretchedness. True exploitation films, the average Italian western manages to touch all the required genre identifiers (lone hero, nasty villain, absurd gunfights, saloon scene, etc.) without any sense of pacing or originality. When a film comes along that actually tries something different, it seems like a ray of wonderful sunlight has suddenly entered the dark valley.The idea of a gunfighter who would rather be a Shakepearean actor is interesting but the idea is never taken very far. Antonio Steffan is not a wide-ranging actor and it's really obvious whenever he is in a disguise (about four times in the whole film!). The film opens with a great scene where Clifford is performing Hamlet's famous soliloquy and he suddenly shoots four men with a gun hidden in the prop skull! Unfortunately nothing tops that image for the rest of the film. We never find out why he shot the men as the film moves on to a stock story about a stolen gold mine deed.Great title (although the name "Apocalypse Joe" is meaningless), good score and decent photography help the film along. The pacing is slow at times and the final extended gunfight is juvenile, like a bunch of kids playing in the park.Better then most Italian westerns so if you are a fan this is a good one to find. For the average movie person, it promises more then it can deliver.

This is one of the finest examples of the post-1970 "later period" Spaghetti Western, a particularly interesting period of the genre defined by ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST's effect of finally proving that a truly great John Ford era Oater could in fact be made by & with primarily Europeans. Pepper in some name brand American faces to ensure good box office and Sergio Leone and company could blow away anything coming out of the states at the same time, aside from Peckinpah.It seems as though the success of Leone's movie served to liberate the genre, and between 1970 and 1974 or so there were scores of extremely low budget Spaghetti's made right at home in Italy, no need to even traipse to Spain for exteriors. Nobody was really counting the gaffes anymore and as such directors could pull out all the stops and go for broke without sweating issues like authenticity. Some went for the action, some for the comedy, some for the sex, and some even worked in some decent film-making along the way.So with nothing to prove except to show how these movies could be done by someone with a brain, Leopoldo Savona gathered two of the genre's biggest names -- frequent co-stars Anthony Steffen and the insane Eduardo Fajardo -- equipped them with costumes, props, a script and a supporting cast of familiar faces, and basically turned them loose, essentially choreographing a huge, violent, colorful cartoon for grown-ups with some of the wildest gunfights ever staged. Throw in a characteristically airy Bruno Nicolai soundtrack and you are talking a minor masterpiece.Critics of the genre might find it to be predictable and imitative of other examples. Fans will be delighted by how the film touches on pretty much all of the important elements that made Spaghetti such a special kind of entertainment, and still manages to come up with some new angles. Anthony Steffen is in peak form as Joe Clifford, who like Gianni Garko's Sartana character is something of an artiste & con man, as often as not thinking his way out of a jam in addition to using his fists and pistol to enforce frontier justice without a badge. And Eduardo Fajardo was able to cultivate a slavering, convincing villain just as despicable as his Major Jackson character from DJANGO. The only one who can stop him is Steffen, and their showdown is one of the great unseen climaxes to an example of the genre that is so much better than it probably had to be.9/10; Not to be missed!!