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
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