Review of Massacre at Grand Canyon

It's hard to believe that this movie is indeed a Spaghetti-Western. The movie was produced in Italy in the same year as Sergio Leone's Dollar series is about to start. You can really tell that director was really trying to carbon copy, the old American style westerns. Due to this reasons, the movie is kinda bland, unlike the Sergio Leon's film-making style that was a bit more entertaining. The movie was such a disappointment when it came out; with such an epic name like 'Grand Canyon Massacre'. It's doesn't have a high body count. Yes, there were some shoot outs, but they wasn't any one-sided slaughter, or massacre. Also, the movie didn't even have the cool ass location of the Grand Canyon. Why is this movie, call Grand Canyon Massacre if it doesn't have any of that? Directed by Sergio Corbucci whom went under the pseudonym name of Stanley Corbett. The movie is a returning cowboy Wes Evans (James Mitchum) whom after searching for his father's killer, return home, only to find himself involved in a bloody land dispute between three families, the Dancers, the Whitmores, and the Masons. The movie plot is just a recycle plot that been use in Westerns since the days of 1953's 'Shane'. This movie nearly mirrors that movie to everything that happens on screen. The movie is pretty boring. Even the gun-fight in the middle was stop for more talking. The film builds to a dramatic, but ultimately predictable conclusion. Honestly, the last 20 minutes of the movie was pretty entertaining, but why are they fighting in the same area as in middle of the film. You would have thought the bad guys would had learn, not to fight there, as they were getting gun-down earlier. Anyways, the rest of the film was such a snore. It really took me a while to get through this movie and I love old school westerns. I think the movie was supposedly going to be about the Whitman massacre of 1847, since the movie had a similar family call the Whitmore, but the movie didn't play out like the real life events. Actors and directors names were changed to make them look more American. Actors were also imported from the States to get a marquee name on the billing such was the case of James Mitchum, the son of fame actor, Robert Mitchum. He's a spitting image of his famous father. He did inherit his dad's sexy, sleepy eyes and taciturn good looks. Like his father, Robert Mitchum, he would had been better in anti-hero role, or villain. Not this all out boring plain hero. Robert Mitchum was truly talented man. He was able to still manage to scare the hell out of me in movies like 1955's Night of the Hunter, and 1962's Cape Fear. Now that's acting, sadly James Mitchum couldn't show the same edge; that his father has, with his Boy Scout role. Still, he actually hold the film together for the most part, even with his flat performance. The supporting cast is just forgettable. It is not at all easy to keep track of who is who. Honestly, it was hard to tell the different between the Dancers, Masons, and the Whitmores. Characters that stood out like Nancy (Jill Powers) were just one-dimensional. She was just a damsel in distress with little depth, whom only purpose in the film is to get rescue time after time by Wes. George Ardisson as Tully Dancer was a rare bad-guy role for the actor. He really seems to relish it, but mostly felt-lost in the crowd. The movie did had a solid production, but nothing stood out. The soundtrack from composer Gianni Ferrio is a mix of European and American influences. There are parts throughout the film where there are only some guitar shuffles which fit perfectly and sound beautiful, but the main theme is awful. The opening theme song is way too cheesy. The image and audio quality is very good for such a quite rare movie. It has aged well in most DVD released. The colors are clear and strong, but some notable speckles. In one short scene the print quality is much lower, VHS quality. The movie still have sharpness enough to be watchable, but there are a few brief moments in the second half, where the image quality moderately strong roars down. Overall: I cannot particularly recommended this movie. Corbucci fans looking for films of the quality of his later productions will be probably be disappointed. All of his famous trademarks like the 'look under the rim of a hat' shot and distinctive gunfight angles are missing but he does go in for some good hand-held shooting during a fist-fight sequence. The next year, 1965 was a defining year for westerns. Producers realized the potential for shooting Westerns in Europe, and story lines like the old Classic American Westerns weren't in most audience's interest, anymore. They wanted more complex story lines like those, saw in Sergio Leone's 1964's hit 'Fistful of Dollars'. You can see how much Sergio Leone's film-making style influence director Sergio Corbucci's next big work, 1966's Django. When you watch this movie compare to Django, you can really tell how much two years can change the genre. Sergio Leone's film-making style would indeed reinvented the genre. So if you want to see what a Spaghetti Western was like before that. Check it out. Just note, that's it's not so grand.