Not Dynamite Enough
'Dynamite Joe' Ford (Rik Van Nutter) is a special government agent with a penchant for girls and gunpowder, usually using dynamite when ever dealing with bad guys and dangerous situations. Joe finds himself with another thing beginning with the letter G to deal with when the government get in touch with him. They are having trouble getting gold through a territory where the Comancheros are and they want Joe to escort a shipment of gold through the area. Trouble is not so much how he is going to get it through but who can he trust?
"Dynamite Joe" starts with a beautiful opening shot which with Rik Van Nutter wearing a Mexican shawl reminiscent to those Clint Eastwood wore lifts your hopes that this will be decent. In fact the tracking cinematography in this opening scene is just beautiful as it follows behind Van Nutter?s character. Sadly whilst the cinematography isn't bad in the rest of "Dynamite Joe", the actual story and action, is pretty ordinary with Joe escorting a stagecoach made of gold and dealing with double crossers on his journey as well as various women and also a whiskery side kick who enjoys a tipple.
The thing about "Dynamite Joe" is that it isn't interested in being mean, moody and stylish but simply some light hearted Spaghetti Western fun. That means there is plenty of comedy from the characters to what Joe manages to achieve with a stick of dynamite and of course the plan, to make a stage coach out of gold. Whilst this is going on we get some classic Spaghetti Western cinematography as such we get shots taken from below legs as well as some equally typical Spaghetti Western action. But sadly the light hearted tone and the generic nature of the scenes, ends up making this ordinary with Rik Van Nutter ending up quite forgettable as Joe.
What this all boils down to is that "Dynamite Joe" starts well but quickly drifts off due to it trying to be light hearted fun which makes it ordinary but forgettable.
