Four Bullets for Joe – MVD Classics (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Spain/Italy, 1964
Director: Agustín Navarro
Writers: Fernando Galiana, Mario Guerra, José Mallorquí, Julio Porter, Vittorio Vighi
Cast: Paul Piaget, Fernando Casanova, Liz Poitel, Barbara Nelli, Angela Cavo, Paco Morán, Tullio Altamura, Rafael Bardem, Tito García, José Marco, Fernando Montes, José Riesgo, Britt Ekland

Release Date: October 24th, 2023
Approximate Running Time: 79 Minutes 39 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $19.95

"The mysterious death of a man who is about to leave a small town in Kansas with his girlfriend sets off a series of unfortunate events that will only end when her brother, the legendary and notorious gunslinger Frank Dalton (Paul Piaget, Hour of Death) exacts a ruthless and bloody revenge." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3/5

Four Bullets for Joe comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 21.8 GB

Feature: 21.3 GB

No information is provided about this transfer source. That said, it is in good shape, and any source-related debris is minor. Colors generally look good, the image looks crisp, black levels are best described as adequate, and compression is very good. Also, there appears to be some digital filtering of the image (all grain has been removed), and there are moments where the contrast looks too bright.

Audio: 3.5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in English with removable English SDH. The audio sounds clean, and dialog comes through clearly. The score often sounds noticeably louder than the rest of the soundtrack.

Extras:

Extras for this release are trailers for Hudson River Massacre, Convoy of Women, and Jailhouse Wardress.

Summary:

The narrative revolves around a man named Frank Dalton who seeks revenge for his dead sister, who was wrongfully accused and convicted of killing her lover.

Four Bullets for Joe is a Spanish western made at the beginning of the spaghetti western cycle. And yet the result is actually a film that looks more like an American-made western than a spaghetti western. That said, spaghetti westerns have a distinct style, and Four Bullets of Joe is devoid of it.

The premise retreads familiar territory, and the narrative suffers from predictability. Another weakness of the narrative is that there is too much talking and not enough action. And when the finale comes around, it lacks the spectacle that one has come to expect from a spaghetti western.

Though most spaghetti westerns were co-productions that had actors from multiple countries, most of the cast is Spanish. And when it comes to the performances, they are best described as serviceable. There is no performance that stands out. Notable cast members are Barbara Nelli (Lady Morgan’s Vengeance) in the role of the sheriff's girlfriend and Fernando Casanova (Él) in the role of the sheriff.

Though the spaghetti western genre, like most film genres, is going to have its fair share of mediocre films, it also doesn't help that filmmakers like Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, and Sergio Sollima raised the bar so ridiculously high that the gap between the good and the mediocre spaghetti westerns is vast. Case in point: Four Bullets for Joe, a spaghetti western that falls firmly into the latter category.

Four Bullets for Joe gets a serviceable audio/video presentation from MVD Classics.

Written by Michael Den Boer