Acquasanta Joe (1971) Poster

(1971)

User Reviews

Review this title
12 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
4/10
Pretty bad western with some interesting points
oraklon6 October 2006
I'm actually not that big a fan of pasta-westerns, but I like director Mario Gariazzo and decided it might be worth a look for that reason. Everything Gariazzo ever directed was low budget trash, but his movies are packed with wackiness and fun ideas making them perfect viewing for the eurotrash aficionado. There's the sleazy giallo "Play Motel", the "based-on-a-true-story" cannibal-exploitation flick "Amazonia", the crime film "Bloody Hands of the Law" (in which Klaus Kinski uses a blowtorch on some poor guys crotch), the lovely but insanely stupid sci-fi sex comedy "Very Close Encounters of the 4th Kind" and my personal favorite, the very stiff alien-conspiracy flick "Eyes Behind the Stars" which predates the X-files series with about 15 years.

"Acquasanta Joe" is a pretty goofy comic western which stars Ty Hardin, Lincoln Tate and "show-me-the-money-and-i'll-act-in-anything" actor Richard Harrison. The film starts out pretty interesting but once the bank robbers Vs. bounty hunter premise has been established the film pretty much loses its paste and becomes kind of dull. In a long period in the middle the film is really going any place. "Acquasanta Joe" has some interesting points though, which makes it an acceptable time waster for more jaded viewers. First of all, I really liked the progressive rock soundtrack by composer Marcello Giombini (who made some really zany electronic stuff later in his career). Cowboys and gunfights to Hawkwind-like music, works for me... Also the movie is packed with some pretty odd moments, culminating in a canon versus bow and arrow duel at the end. That, I can honestly say i've never seen before...

See it if you're into spaghetti westerns or borrow it from a friend.

Seen on an old Swedish semi-letterboxed VHS tape from the Wahlters label.
7 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
ACQUASANTA JOE (Mario Gariazzo, 1971) **
Bunuel197614 February 2008
Like SARTANA IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH (1970), I watched this via C'Est La Vie's R2 DVD and, in hindsight, both film and disc are of similar quality. The lead is Lincoln Tate in the title role of the bounty hunter pursuing Ty Hardin's band of Renegade Union soldiers; Richard Harrison appears as one of the latter's associates who later double-crosses him.

Having watched so many Spaghetti Westerns this past week, the films' plots get intertwined in my mind – and, frankly, I can't recall much of what this one was about!; I do know that Hardin's gang carries with it a cannon to aid in their bank robberies and that his leadership is challenged at one point by a bald-headed associate whom Tate eventually dispatches with a horde of arrows in the style of Akira Kurosawa's THRONE OF BLOOD (1957). Hardin eventually joins forces with Tate to retrieve a stash of money hidden in a cave, and also involved is Hardin's half-breed (and gun-toting) woman – who has her eyes on Tate as well.

The director biography, included among the extras, makes some claim for him being a versatile film-maker but, personally, it's the first I've ever heard of him: his career spanned all sorts of genres from Spaghetti Westerns to crime thrillers, horror, sci-fi and even erotica (as it turns out, he also made the sentimental drama THE BALLOON VENDOR aka THE LAST CIRCUS SHOW [1974] – starring James Whitmore and Lee J. Cobb – which, when released in Malta back in the day, proved a huge box-office success)!
4 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Get ready for a big "Ka-boom!"
lost-in-limbo12 July 2007
A gang of ex-civil war soldiers led by Colonel Donovan uses their prized weapon of a stolen cannon to rob a bank. Bounty hunter Acquasanta Joe happened to keep his life-savings there, and so when a reward pops up for one of their double-crossing men Charlie Bennett who took off with some of the money. Joe finds him and brings him to Donovan, only to hopefully cash-in on the reward the army has for Donovan and his men.

For most part Mario Gariazzo's "Acquasanta Joe" is a second rate, cut and dry spaghetti western with few unusual marks creeping in. The problem I had was that it felt extremely uneventful (very flabby midsection) and despite few effective sequences, the highly obscene comedic developments (which always tried to be goofy) had myself cringing. More often everything just seemed to sit there, lacking strong characters, action and script. Gariazzo's direction is very low scale, brutish and tight, but there's no flair or distinctive style brimming from it. Which was needed to make sure the energy levels stood up, and keep certain bizarre moments from falling down flat. There are some decent set pieces, when the cannon is in use, but the uneven blend has too much filler and bland air. 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 material doesn't surprise and stays traditional in all aspects, but it holds a confident structure to it. Marcello Giombini's nippy music score is an uncanny assortment (some funky modern guitar riffs) that actually worked. Franco Villa's cinematography threw many swift, fast and odd camera angles amongst the grit. 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. Ty Hardin's turn as Donovan is mainly feeble, however he has some minor sparks. Richard Harrison was enjoyable enough, as the deserter Charlie. Silvia Monelli doesn't do nothing much but look all steely. Only spaghetti fans should bother, but nonetheless rather disappointing.
3 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Better than some, though it's still only okay
Wizard-827 October 2012
It was around this time during the spaghetti western craze that many spaghetti westerns started to add some comic elements, some being outright comedies. "Holy Water Joe" (a.k.a. "Acquasanta Joe") plays it straight for the most part, but there are several scenes that are clearly there to generate laughs. When this comic side of the movie is placed against the serious side, it is sometimes jarring, because the movie has several sequences where people are viciously gunned down or threatened with hanging or being blasted by a cannon. Apart from that flaw, I didn't find the movie as terrible as some of the other IMDb users did. I'm not saying it's a great or even good western, but I found it lively enough to pass the time (though not much more.) If you are a fan of the spaghetti western genre, it's probably safe enough to give it a try.
4 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Limited spaghetti western with limited budget
Nightgaunt21 March 2006
I rated this one with solid 5/10 points. It's very limited in various ways. Let's face it, most Italian westerns weren't blessed with a high budget, this wasn't either and it shows. The action takes place mostly somewhere in a canyon or woods, you barely get to see. Still, it's entertaining. The characters are stereotypes, starting with the hero Holy Water Joe, the ruthless but cunning headhunter who brings down a pack of bandits that robbed the bank he put all his earnings in. The action is quite fast and though this kind of movie naturally isn't a grade A product it's fairly entertaining. The soundtrack is quite interesting, as it contains both the usual orchestration for spaghetti westerns as well as some 60/70s style music. A product of it's time I guess. However, I felt entertained by this one and for that it gets a bonus pushing it to 5 of 10 points, with the entertainment factor higher than that.
5 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Holy Water will not save this movie for most fans. I found it a bit interesting still even if it's kinda boring. It's a bit dry.
ironhorse_iv6 August 2013
Warning: Spoilers
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.
5 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Not the best, but not the worst Spaghetti western I've seen
rleegray-569-5815823 June 2017
To me you have to really be a fan of this genre to enjoy this Spaghetti western. The biggest problem to me is the script. There are way too many plot holes that are just never explained, and questions as to why they are doing this or that. There are some good action scenes and moments. I loved the last 15 or 20 minutes of the movie just for the action alone. I will say another problem with the movie at times was the music score, which seemed way too lighthearted or comical at times for what was happening on screen turning moments that should have been played for more dramatic effect into comedy. My last problem with the movie was with the English dubbing -- at least on the version I watched. The voices seemed too alike at times as if a person not very talented was doing both parts at the same time, and didn't know how to disguise their voice well. In conclusion, I say if you are a fan of the genre, don't pass this one up. It is worth it for the action at times alone.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Average Spaghetti Western starred by three tarnished American actors : Hardin , Lincoln , and Harrison
ma-cortes19 October 2021
At at the end of the American Civil War (1861-1865) a jobless band of robber soldiers commanded by a rebel Colonel (Ty Hardin) steal at a bank where the earnings to date of a tough bouty hunter called Acquasanta Joe (Lincoln Tate) are deposited. After that, the latter goes after them to retrieve his savings , but then things go wrong .

This run-of-the-mill spaghetti Western contains bank robbery, thrills , crossfire , explosion , treason, plot twists , crosses , double-crosses and brief doses of humor with tongue in cheek. So-so Spaghetti Western including regular ingredients as violent confrontation , shootouts , betrayals and with the novelty of an Union army cannon that a gang of cutthroats uses to get their purports . Stars Ty Hardin who can be remembered as a TV figure star in the Sixties as Bronco series (1958-1962) , from here he starred secondary roles in WWII films as PT 109 , Merrill's Marauders , Battle of Bugle . But he then emigrated to Italy to play some Spaghetti , warfares and Euro-thrillers . Unlike his fellow Clint Eastwood he didn't get successes and Ty became involved in B-films and routine Spaghettis , like this one . Equally , it stars Lincoln Tate , another failed American B-actor who also performed Spaghettis and other second-class films . Along with some familar faces from Pasta , Peplum or Euro-spy sub-genres, such as : Mario Novelli or Anthony Freeman , Alfredo Rizzo , Ferdinado Poggi co-writer too , Federico Boido or Rick Boyd . And , of course , Richard Harrison , co-director so well, he played lots of action movies , Westerns , Sword and Sandals and thrillers throughout a long career around forty years , starting in USA and, subsequently , mostly developed in Italy .

The motion picture was regularly directed by Mario Gariazzo , as it has several flaws , gaps , shortfalls and failures . Gariazzo was an Italian craftsman who wrote and directed all kinds of genres , such as : Sci-Fi : Brother from space , Eyes behind stars , Very Close Encounters of the fourth phase ; Terror : The Obsessed ; Erotic or Softcore : Erotic flash , Top Model, Sor Emmanuel , Play Motel ; Action : Il Carabinieri , Execution Squad , and Spaghetti Westerns : this Acquasanta Joe, Good will fogive my pistol , The Masked thief , Long day of massacre , Day of judgement also starred by Ty Hardin along with Rosalba Neri, Rossano Brazzi . Rating : 4.5/10. Below average . Only for Spaghetti Western aficionados.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
a strange mixture of spaghetti western violence and zany comedy. Ty Hardin makes it worth the watch.
b_kite2 August 2018
A bounty hunter who goes by the name of "Holy Water Joe" or "Acquasanta Joe" decides to put all of his savings into a bank. However, when gangster Donovan and his gang rob the bank, he sets out to get his money back. But, rivalry in the gang makes things complicated, as the union army also is interested in finally putting the gang to rest. "Holy Water Joe" gets four stars. Two for the performance from Ty Hardin of "Bronco" fame who absolutely steals the show with his nutty performance, and two more stars for the grand gun-cannon-bow and arrow battle at the end, other then that its a strange mixture of spaghetti western violence and zany comedy, with a rather bland forgetful lead in Lincoln Tate.
2 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
3/10
A muddled, directionless, mostly incomprehensible mess
bensonmum230 May 2017
A bounty hunter named Acquasanta Joe (Lincoln Tate) has deposited all of his money into an Austin, TX bank. Unfortunately for Joe, a gang of ex-Confederate soldiers uses a stolen cannon to rob the bank, taking Joe's money. Joe sets off to get his money back and, as a bonus, hopes to get any reward for the capture of the gang.

Acquasanta Joe (or Holy Water Joe) is a disaster of a movie. I enjoyed the opening robbery scene and the final showdown, but that's about it. Everything in-between (you know, the other hour+ of the movie) is a muddled, directionless, mostly incomprehensible mess. Nothing makes much sense. I'm not someone who needs to be spoon-fed plot points, but it felt like half the movie was missing. For example, one of the main plot points that drives pretty much the whole movie involves one of the characters in the gang stealing the money from the bank heist from the other members of the gang. We never see it happen and only know about it because we're told it happened. Unbelievable! You'd think that something this important, something that impacts a huge portion of the movie, would have appeared on screen. Next, Director Mario Gariazzo attempted to mix comedy into what is otherwise a fairly serious film to disastrous results. The bits of comedy are totally misplaced and never brought so much as a smile to my face - just audible groans. It things weren't bad enough and to make matters even worse, what is presented on screen is about as dull as anything I can remember seeing in a SW. Getting through Acquasanta Joe was tough going for me. I had to wake myself at least three times. I'm not really familiar with Lincoln Tate, but he makes for the most unappealing lead I've seen recently. His lazy style of acting only serves to ratchet up the dullness in the film. He's awful. Finally, I don't mind a low- budget film, but the lack of funds here is noticeable. I never expect historical authenticity when I watch a SW, but the wardrobe worn by several of the characters in Acquasanta Joe looked like something the actors might have been wearing when they walked in off the street. I found it very distracting.

In the end, Acquasanta Joe is about as bad a SW I've seen in a long, long time. If it weren't for the first 15 minutes and the final 15 minutes, I'd rate it a whole lot lower.
2 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Meet the bank's best customer
unbrokenmetal13 May 2017
Colonel Donovan (Ty Hardin) and his right hand man Charlie Bennett (Richard Harrison) are planning a bank robbery, disguised as soldiers. The successful bounty hunter Acquasanta Joe (Lincoln Tate) was the bank's best customer and loses all his well earned money. Of course, Joe chases the bandits. He finds that Bennett cheated Donovan and ran with the money. Now Joe doesn't hunt Bennett to bring him into a prison - he wants to bring him to his former boss instead, because that's even worse. However when he catches Bennett, the money has disappeared...

Another cheap western, but not all bad. Richard Harrison has the best role, because he can put some comedy into his portrayal of Bennett as a shameless crook, coward and traitor. Ty Hardin plays a sympathetic rogue who really has to struggle between Bennett on one side and Acquasanta Joe on the other - and decides to use creative weaponry. Lincoln Tate, however, is not memorable in the title role.
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Spaghettimbicility
Wuchakk13 May 2017
Released in 1971, "Holy Water Joe" (aka "Acquasanta Joe") is an Italio Western about a gang of outlaws who steal a Union cannon and use it to rob a bank that contains the savings of bounty hunter Holy Water Joe (Lincoln Tate). Of course, he aims to set things aright. Ty Hardin plays the leader of the outlaws while Silvia Monelli appears as the lone female member of the gang, a half-breed. Richard Harrison is also on hand.

This combines the tone of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966) with (sort of) the plot of Elvis' "Charro!" (1969). The cast is good and I like the score with its pieces of anachronistic early 70's rock, which goes to show that "Young Guns" (1988) wasn't the first Western to do this, not by a long shot. Unfortunately, the tone incongruently mixes gravity with goofiness and it prevents the viewer from taking the story serious. The comedy's simply not amusing. Worse, the story is dull, particularly the first half. Thankfully, I started to catch a grip by the second half and somewhat enjoyed the pic. But this is Exhibit A in why Spaghetti Westerns have a bad rep.

The film runs 88 minutes and was presumably shot in Spain. DIRECTORS: Mario Gariazzo & (uncredited) Richard Harrison. WRITERS: Gariazzo & Ferdinando Poggi.

GRADE: C-
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Clear your history

Recently Viewed