Lucio Fulci was an awesome human being and still pretty much a deity in my crazy little world! Mainly for his gore flicks and giallos, but here he proves that even westerns can be a specialty of his. "Four of the Apocalypse" isn't really that impressive, but his unofficial contribution/cash-in to the Django series is fantastic entertainment, with a solid story, exhilarating music and several truly cool gunfights. Franco Nero, the number one male symbol of Italian Westerns, stars as a Texan gold digger who's called back to this hometown by his old friend. It seems like the entire town has been monopolized by a certain Mr. Scott and his men can get away free with randomly killing everyone they please, including women, children and elderly folks. Even Tom Corbett's parental farm has been taken over by Scott and his brother Jeff became a low-keyed alcoholic...even more than he already was. It's up to Django (although he's not called Django) to reinstate law & order and to revive his brother's desire to kill. "Massacre Time" is actually a rather unusual western. No matter how cool and charismatic Franco Nero is, he's really getting his butt whooped by George Hilton, who plays his hard-drinking yet straight-shooting brother Jeff. It's a fast-paced genre-highlight, with a delightful 'shoot-first-ask-questions-later' mentality as well as a handful of ingenious twists in the plot. No nonsense, just hard boiled macho-action, particularly during the last half hour. The song "Back Home Someday" sung by Sergio Endrigo is easily the best western song I ever heard. Highly recommended, if you're fortunate enough to stumble across a decent copy.
*Note: user-comment dedicated to Dario_2nd! The man with the largest collection of films imaginable.
*Note: user-comment dedicated to Dario_2nd! The man with the largest collection of films imaginable.