Review of Acquasanta Joe

Acquasanta Joe as it's known in Italian is just one of those films that probably won't stand out in Spaghetti Westerns history. I do like the movie directed by Mario Gariazzo, but it was very slow pace, and kinda boring at parts. Depending where you are, there is multiply titles for this film. If you live in the United States, this film goes with the name 'Holy Water Joe', and if you happen to watch it in Spanish, it's call 'Los Violentos De Texas'. Any other language dubbing has Joe in the title, so it's might be easier to find if you choose to watch it. Still, this movie is rare as hell. It took me a while to find this movie that nearly nobody barely heard of. So this movie will probably not win any popularity contest out there. The story goes like this, a gang of robbers made out of ex-civil war veterans lead by Colonel Jeff Donovan (Ty Hardin) rob a bank holding bounty hunter Acquasanta Joe's (Lincoln Tate) earnings with a stolen Union cannon. When he heard that the gang was looking for a traitor; Joe pursues the backstabber Charlie Bennett (Richard Harrison) and capture him so that he can bring him to Donovan and to his money. For most part Mario Gariazzo's "Acquasanta Joe" is a second rate spaghetti western full of a very flabby midsection and few effective sequences. There is no flair to Gariazzo's directing style. Franco Villa's cinematography threw many swift, fast and odd camera angles amongst the grit. It really did look amazing as a western, but the film looks cheap and low end. Like something made for TV. It can't seem to hide it or use it to its advantage. The oddest scene in the film in my opinion, is where Acquasanta Joe is running up a hill with a bow and arrow to stop the cannon from being used. The whole scene just reminds me of 1975's Monty Python's Holy Grail scene with John Cheese charging up a castle shot multiplies times. It goes way too long, and just doesn't look dramatic enough. It looks so badly done. At less, you see that action. There were times, where you barely saw anything due to it being in a dark canyon or hidden so well due to the forest greens. The movie is full of those one shot kills that is so cheesy in 1960's and 1970's Spaghetti Westerns film. Surprising this movie has a large amount of death rate: 22 kills in this film. Not all scenes were bad, I did like the scene where the deserter Charlie Bennett tries to escape on foot, only to catch by Joe with the horse. It was humorous for me. Sadly, most of the humor in the film didn't work, or wasn't funny to me. Marcello Giombini's cool progressive rock music score is an uncanny assortment with some funky modern guitar riffs did worked for me. It was Hawkwind in a way. Still, some of the music sounds too cartoony to be taken serious. I just didn't like the comedy tracks. The performances are pretty forgettable, but tolerable. The hazy Lincoln Tate in the central turn as the protagonist Joe is kinda lacking, especially with his presence. Lincoln Tate is no Clint Eastwood, but Acquasanta Joe sure dress like Eastwood and look like him. Still, I would doubt Eastwood's hero character wouldn't be asking for mercy for not to kill him like a coward. One of the most confusing part about this film is that Richard Harrison got to play a double role, not only as Charlie Bennett, but another character in the film, that isn't relation. So you might get confused just as me. Ty Hardin's turn as Donovan is mainly frail, however he has some minor flickers of courage. Silvia Monelli doesn't do nothing much but look all determined. Since this movie were originally released in Italian, so most of the films featured multilingual casts and sound was post-synched, most "western all'italiana" do not have an official dominant language. This film dubbing sounds awful in bad speaking English. Plus, the movie mostly got a United Kingdom released, with a PAL/Region 2 DVD: so it wouldn't play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. If you do find a good copy. It's still entertaining enough for any fan of Spaghetti Westerns, but what a mess.