User Reviews

"Spara Joe... e così sia!" stars Richard Harrison as Joe Dakota, a man who lives a quiet life, fishing and hunting, until... By unfortunate circumstances, bandits (Jose Torres, Rick Boyd and others) attack him and blind him. Hoping that his eyesight will slowly recover, Joe is picking up a gun to fight the villains, and only one woman is helping him along while he is handicapped.

Below average western with plenty of cruelty. It remained the only western by its director Emilio Miraglia, who delivered better works in the horror genre ("The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave", "The Red Queen Kills 7 Times").

The Jack's (José Torres) gang (formed by Gaspar 'Indio' González as Francis , Rick Boyd , Antonio Cantafora and Roberto Maldera as Ted) robs a bank at a little town , but Ted takes the stolen money and flees , then Jack and his heinous band are detained and imprisoned . Escaping Ted from the bandits he is wounded and is healed by man named Joe (Richard Harrison) . Meanwhile , the outlaws who break out of jail search for the stranger called Dakota Joe who has the map to a get the stolen fortune and taken by Ted in the bank robbery. Later on , there happens a relentless and merciless chase.

This moving Ravioli Western packs thrills , shootouts , noisy action , riding pursuits , but being an inferior and twilight entry in this prolific Spaghetti genre . Italian production filmed in Laccio , Rome , Italy , being full of familiar faces , assaults , exaggerated characters , gun-down , lots of shots , fights and with some looks that say it all , including an exciting and twisted ending that is the best part of the movie . Furthermore , including breif nudism by the beautiful Franca Polesello . Starring Richard Harrison who stands out his strong , piercing eyes and striking look , featuring as a man escaping from a band of cutthroats . Harrison is so-so as a peaceful man who heals ill people and turns a tough avenger when he is blinded by the ominous group of attackers , as he ravages the screen , he jumps , leaps and bounds , hits and runs ; besides , receiving violent punches , wounds , tortures and finally blinded . Worthwhile watching for a demonstration of the confrontation between the two-fisted Richard Harrison against the dangerous and ambitious killers . Richard Harrison played in Hollywood some minor roles as ¨Kronos¨, ¨South Pacific¨ and ¨Master of world . Then , Harrison jumped at the chance when offered the first character in 1961 ,¨The Invincible Gladiator¨ , which was filming in Europe . He wound up settling in Italy for the next two decades . To avoid being penned in too much as a muscle man , he sought characters in routine spaghetti westerns as ¨Texas the Red¨, ¨Gringo¨, ¨Reverendo Colt¨ , ¨One Hundred Thousand Dollars for Ringo¨, ¨Stagecoach of the Condemned¨ , ¨Gunfight at High Noon¨ and this ¨Joe Dakota¨ , even the main role from ¨For a fistful of dollars¨ was offered to Richard Harrison , but he turned down and explaining : Maybe my greatest contribution to cinema was not doing Fistful of Dollars, and recommending Clint Eastwood for the part . Support cast is frankly good , thanks to the familiar secondary actors .Here appear important secondaries from Spaghetti Western , such as : José Torres , Gaspar 'Indio' González, Roberto Maldera , Corrado Olmi and Federico Boido or Rick Boyd and Antonio Cantafora or Michael Coby .

There are fine technicians , nice assistant direction and mediocre production design , creating an atmospheric scenario across the Italian outdoors , including the stark landscapes , dunes , rocks , and mountains . Adequate and evocative cinematography by Silvio Fraschetti , but a perfect remastering being necessary . Enjoyable musical score by Vasili Kojucharov as Maestro Vasco in Spaghetti style . This ¨Spara Joe... e così sia!¨or ¨Dakota Joe¨ or ¨Shoot Joe and Shoot again¨ was lousily directed by Emilio Miraglia as Hal Brady . He was a Second Unit Director or Assistant Director in 20 films and subsequently turned to filmmaking in a few titles , directing Giallo , Thriller and Western such as : The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave , The Red , Queen Kills Seven Times , At Any Price or The Vatican affaire , The Falling Man , Assassination and Dakota Joe . Rating . 3.5/10 . Below average . Only for Richard Harrison fans and Spaghetti western completists .