One of the best Italian westerns, Tempo di massacro (1966) is an interesting and enjoyable riff on many of the genres recurrent themes. It is one the must-see films for any fan of the genre. Known mostly for his horror films, Lucio Fulci directed two westerns, this and Quattro dell'apocalisse, I (1975). Horror fans would probably prefer Quattro dell'apocalisse, I (1975) but Spaghetti Western fans would most likely prefer this one, made during the first post-Fistful of Dollars (1964) tidal wave and having the Leonesque ethos of that initial cinematic flood.
Fistful of Dollars (1964) was a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961) which was itself based on Dashiell Hammett's classic hardboiled thriller Red Harvest (1929). The various elaborations and translations of this basic story led to many of the unique features of the Italian western, most specifically the strange catholic/Marxist resurrection/revolution plot in which the action is often driven by the hero's attempt to resolve some central mystery (often in the form of an ambiguous flashback, as per Leone). What is really interesting about Tempo di Massacro (1966) is that it plays a lot like a hardboiled detective story along the lines of The Big Sleep (1939) with Franco Nero's character Tom Corbett playing the role of the detective. Called back home after an absence of several years, he finds his hometown inexplicably distorted and that he is somehow central to this change and to its undoing. The Scotts, father and son, form a brutal aristocracy that is degrading and desolating the community. Their private conflicts embroil and destroy the lives of the townspeople. With its dark tangle of confused lineages and identities (in the manner of classical Greek, Roman, or "freudian" mythology), the movie is a Gothic family western like Pistolero dell'Ave Maria, Il (1969), Ritorno di Ringo, Il (1965), or Texas, addio (1966).
The movie stars two of the genre's most popular actors, Franco Nero and George Hilton. Nero starred in three classic westerns in 1966: Django (1966), Tempo di massacro (1966), and Texas, addio (1966). Hilton (Born in Uruguay) never achieved the level of international fame that Nero did, but he starred in a number of Euro-cult classics. His westerns include movies such as Desesperados, Los (1969) and Professionisti per un massacro (1967). Nero is a little wooden in this role, but Hilton is great as the drunken, reckless brother, Jeff Corbett. Unfortunately, the dubbing is terrible in the English version.
While Fulci does a good job at reproducing Leone's style in the use of widescreen and angles, he does add a sense of claustrophobic pressure all his own. The violence has a strange angular quality with a focus on geometry and impossible, artificial kinetics. As with other films that it was competing at the box office with, their was a focus on more exotic, baroque violence. However, unlike some later films, the violence was in the service of the plot and the atmosphere of the film.
The final gunfight is a variation of the finale of Leone's For a Few Dollars More(1965) in which heroes and villains stalk each other, with the heroes using misdirection and deception to prey on their opponents who accept to-readily surface appearances. In most of these westerns one of the qualities that makes the hero/anti-hero superior is their ability to understand what another person thinking, what their motives are, and how things look from another's perspective. Parolini's movies such as Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte (1968) represent the most extreme development of this theme.
Fistful of Dollars (1964) was a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961) which was itself based on Dashiell Hammett's classic hardboiled thriller Red Harvest (1929). The various elaborations and translations of this basic story led to many of the unique features of the Italian western, most specifically the strange catholic/Marxist resurrection/revolution plot in which the action is often driven by the hero's attempt to resolve some central mystery (often in the form of an ambiguous flashback, as per Leone). What is really interesting about Tempo di Massacro (1966) is that it plays a lot like a hardboiled detective story along the lines of The Big Sleep (1939) with Franco Nero's character Tom Corbett playing the role of the detective. Called back home after an absence of several years, he finds his hometown inexplicably distorted and that he is somehow central to this change and to its undoing. The Scotts, father and son, form a brutal aristocracy that is degrading and desolating the community. Their private conflicts embroil and destroy the lives of the townspeople. With its dark tangle of confused lineages and identities (in the manner of classical Greek, Roman, or "freudian" mythology), the movie is a Gothic family western like Pistolero dell'Ave Maria, Il (1969), Ritorno di Ringo, Il (1965), or Texas, addio (1966).
The movie stars two of the genre's most popular actors, Franco Nero and George Hilton. Nero starred in three classic westerns in 1966: Django (1966), Tempo di massacro (1966), and Texas, addio (1966). Hilton (Born in Uruguay) never achieved the level of international fame that Nero did, but he starred in a number of Euro-cult classics. His westerns include movies such as Desesperados, Los (1969) and Professionisti per un massacro (1967). Nero is a little wooden in this role, but Hilton is great as the drunken, reckless brother, Jeff Corbett. Unfortunately, the dubbing is terrible in the English version.
While Fulci does a good job at reproducing Leone's style in the use of widescreen and angles, he does add a sense of claustrophobic pressure all his own. The violence has a strange angular quality with a focus on geometry and impossible, artificial kinetics. As with other films that it was competing at the box office with, their was a focus on more exotic, baroque violence. However, unlike some later films, the violence was in the service of the plot and the atmosphere of the film.
The final gunfight is a variation of the finale of Leone's For a Few Dollars More(1965) in which heroes and villains stalk each other, with the heroes using misdirection and deception to prey on their opponents who accept to-readily surface appearances. In most of these westerns one of the qualities that makes the hero/anti-hero superior is their ability to understand what another person thinking, what their motives are, and how things look from another's perspective. Parolini's movies such as Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte (1968) represent the most extreme development of this theme.