Undescribable Perfection

The Worst Film Ever

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Prospector Tom Corbett(Franco Nero)is summoned to his home town only to find it under the control of land baron Jason Scott and his borderline psychopath son. Corbett finds the townsfolk are terrified to speak out or leave and those who do are murdered in cold blood. He tracks down his brother Jeff(George Hilton), who has lost his land which has forced him into alcoholism. Jeff is less than happy to see Tom who is rebuked by his brother, although Tom later convinces Jeff to aid him in his stand against Scott after he is viciously bullwhipped by the son. However as the showdown is set, Tom learns a shocking revelation...Goremaster Lucio Fulci's first attempt at an Italian horse opera is extremely impressive. Highly regarded within spaghetti western circles, Massacre Time(or The Brute and The Beast) sees genre heavyweight Franco Nero make a formidable return following his ground-breaking role as Django four months previous. The movie itself is a sign of things to come with grim overtones and some gratuitous sadism(the film begins with a unknown character being chased down by a pack of dogs and mauled alive as a group of horsemen look on).It burns slowly(the movie)and the script is a little messy and clichéd. The action scenes are peppered throughout the movie and all of them are brilliantly constructed, although it is the climatic shootout at the ranch which is the most spectacular. Franco Nero and George Hilton kick some serious ass in awesome spaghetti western fashion and the stuntwork is equally amazing. This sequence contains one of the most fantastic stunts I've ever seen in a spaghetti with Franco Nero flipping out of a buggy and cannonballing several feet in the air before landing on both feet and gunning down a group of baddies!, although this really has to be seen to be appreciated. There's also an excellent saloon fight and Tom Corbett's bullwhipping at the hands of Jason Scott's brutal son was executed with scabrous venom, it was more effective than having the hero beat up by a group of thugs. This movie belongs to Franco Nero, any red blooded spaghetti western fan will concede that he has such an imposing screen presence-especially in this movie. Sergio Endrigo's energetic title song "A Man Alone" will always be a favourite of mine.A compelling good versus evil tale with some excellent action scenes, Massacre Time stands with the greatest of the genre. 9/10

When you hear the name of Italian movie director Lucio Fulci, you probably don't immediately think of spaghetti westerns, but Fulci did direct a few before he was associated as a horror director. For the most part, Fulci does a good job with what he was given with "Massacre Time". There is genuine atmosphere, an atmosphere of gloom and doom that will put you at unease. In the moments of action, Fulci creates both excitement and the feeling that maybe the protagonists might not succeed. He also gets Nino Castelnuovo to give a GREAT performance as the sadistic Junior, enough that you'll wish that there was more of this character in the movie.The movie definitely has enough to satisfy fans of spaghetti westerns, though it's not without problems. There are a couple of major script problems, for one thing. It is NEVER explained how the character of Scott managed to take over the town, nor is his connection with the character of Tom explained. The biggest problem is that the first hour of the movie goes by VERY slowly. The movie takes an hour to do what would normally take about a half hour by a more efficient screenplay. So while this is a movie worth seeing, it's best saved for when you are in a patient mood.

There's nothing really wrong with this movie that isn't wrong with most spaghetti westerns; that is to say, most spaghetti westerns that weren't made by the giants of the genre. It has the requisite brooding hero, the sadistic villain, the grotesque supporting characters, atrocious dubbed performances and inventive violence in all the rights places.And that is really what the main problem is with this film: it's entirely by-the-numbers film-making. Now, depending on your view of Lucio Fulci he is either the grand old man of Italian exploitation cinema or a cynical old hack who jumped on whatever bandwagon happened to be rolling by at the time. In my opinion, there is too little originality and invention in his films to take anything other than the latter view.He was wasn't without talent: there are a number of individual shots in Massacre Time that have great quality. For example, there is a shot of a deserted, early-morning Laramie City, just before Tom and Jeff ride through en route to Scott's ranch, that has a beautiful but eerie quality. But moments such as that are few and far between. They are swamped by lazy scenes and plotting.For instance, Tom is beaten and humiliated by Junior who handles his whip as if it is an extension of his hand, so skillful that he can whip a wineskin out of someone's hand and transfer it to his own - while on horseback. And yet, when the final confrontation takes place he acts as if he has never been in a fight before and prefers to use his gun rather than his whip.There are plot holes all over the place too. Why, if he is such a skilled gunman, is Jeff an alcoholic bum? He is able to kill six men with his rifle on horseback before they even manage to get a shot off. Surely he could have handled the problems in Laramie better and more quickly than his seemingly less talented 'brother'? Anyway, no-one watches a spaghetti western for the water-tight plotting and coherent storyline. Which is probably why so many of them are sub-standard. But this one is always watchable, even though it has many flaws. The theme song is quite good too.4/10

The idea of a Lucio Fulci western is compelling to say the least. Known for making some of the most gory, brutal and sadistic horror movies during the eighties, Fulci's first western "Tempo Di Massacro" is an early sign of his coming transition to the splatter genre. It lacks the gore but it certainly does not lack on the brutal and sadistic trademarks which have made Fulci famous around horror circles. Alright so there were some things that were basically copied from other Italian westerns it was still a fun movie to watch and it's not like that's a big revelation considering the whole commercialized nature of the genre.The movie begins with a shot of a man being chased by a hunting party. The kind that usually hunts animals for sport only this time they're hunting people. Needless to say what happened when they caught him. Did I mention that this movie was sadistic and this is not the only proof there's more further along? Anyways "Tempo Di Massacro" stars Franco Nero as Tom Corbett a prospector whom after receiving a mysterious letter about his family, returns home. But things have changed a lot since he's been gone and Corbett realizes this as soon as he arrives. His family's ranch has been taken over by a rich landowner and his demented son (the guy that was leading the hunting party earlier). One might say that story is a slow mover, I disagree. I found it's pace to be very precise setting up the outline for the final confrontation. The story is coherent enough so that it makes sense. There are a few twists here and there so as not to get too boring when waiting for the showdown.In a movie that supposedly starred Franco Nero, his character Tom wasn't all that impressive, gone was that cynical attitude with which he portrayed the titular character in "Django" and his clothing, well it's obvious where they were taken from (small hint: an Italian western movie with Clint Eastwood). Instead more focus was put on Tom's brother Jeff played by George Hilton, a drunkard with a bit of a temper and the sadistic son of the landowner played by Nino Castelnuovo. Both these men were the highlights of the movie. Respectively performances are well done considering that this is a spaghetti western. The score by Lallo Gorri is good, very catchy song in the beginning.Now what really makes "Tempo Di Massacro" fun is it's finale. There Fulci demonstrates that he is more than capable of directing action. With commendable choreography, masterful synchronization between the shooting and victims's death. It's a hard task to create a long entertaining action scene, most of the times everything wears out after a couple of minutes not here though. Variety is the key to success in such sequences and Fulci packs the scene with outdoor, indoor shootouts making it an entertainingly diverse gunfight. The film ends with a symbolic white dove flying away, possible this is from where John Woo got his dove gimmick from.Anyways "Tempo Di Massacro" is one of the better Italian westerns out there. It's a good movie on all accounts, worth the look from fans of the genre or even horror fans intrigued with Lucio Fulci's pre-horror work.