Burt Reynolds only agreed to make this film because he was under the impression that Sergio Leone would be directing. When he found out it was Sergio Corbucci he tried to pull out, but the contracts had already been signed and it was too late.
Burt Reynolds has joked about his dislike of this movie by referring to the film's director Sergio Corbucci as being the "wrong Sergio". Sergio Leone is the most internationally famous director of many of the successful spaghetti westerns including the Dollars Trilogy. Moreover, there was also another Sergio who directed spaghetti westerns, Sergio Sollima.
Burt Reynolds has said that this movie was the worst professional experience he has ever had in working in the film and television industry. Reynolds has publicized his aversion of the production process of making this movie in numerous interviews.
Burt Reynolds once described this movie as being "so awful, it was shown only in prisons and airplanes because nobody could leave. I killed 10,000 guys, wore a Japanese slingshot and a fright wig."
Burt Reynolds wore a black toupe hairpiece playing Navajo Joe in this movie.
A former stuntman, lead actor Burt Reynolds supervised the stunts on this picture.
Apparently, actress Nicoletta Machiavelli complained about the amount of dialogue she had in this picture and added that she felt that she didn't have a sense of place in the picture.
Apparently, director Sergio Corbucci maintained that this movie's plot was based on historical fact, referring to the U.S. Government financing the scalp bounties.
Apparently, during the production of this movie, director Sergio Corbucci drove Burt Reynolds deep into Spain's Almerian Desert and then drove off leaving him there to walk back to town.
For his score on this film, composer Ennio Morricone was credited as Leo Nichols and not as Ennio Morricone.
For the production of this film, a miniature Western town was constructed on the environs of the old railway station at Guadix, Spain. The De Laurentiis movie studios did not have a western town set on their back-lot nor did Colmenar Viejo have a railway.
In both of the 1960s big screen westerns where Burt Reynolds plays an Indian character, he is called Joe. He is Navajo Joe in Navajo Joe and Yaqui Joe Herrera in 100 Rifles.
Music score from this movie's soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone was re-used in the later movies Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Election.
Part Cherokee Indian, Burt Reynolds plays a Navajo Indian in this movie. Prior to the making of this film, Reynolds had played characters of Indian descent in two productions of television series. The first was as the half-breed blacksmith Quint Asper in _"Gunsmoke (1955)"_ whilst the other was as the New York DA's office cop Detective Lieutenant John Hawk, a full blooded Iroquois Indian, in Hawk.
Playing the lead part of the Navajo Indian Navajo Joe, Burt Reynolds was not actually of Navajo descent but of part Cherokee lineage.
Producer Dino De Laurentiis made this spaghetti western with the intention of replicating the success of A Fistful of Dollars after that movie had become a box-office hit. De Laurentiis wanted to find an American actor to rival Clint Eastwood's popularity. Reynolds had appeared in TV westerns and was part Cherokee Indian. De Laurentiis persuaded Reynolds to sign on.
Reynolds plays a Navajo Indian in this western movie. Burt Reynolds would later play a half-breed (half-white, half Yaqui Indian) native American in 100 Rifles. Reynolds is of part Cherokee Indian descent.
The horse belonging to Navajo Joe in this movie was made to look like a Pinto. It was a Dapple Gray horse partially painted the color white to resemble a Pinto.
The word Navajo of this film's title refers to the Native American Navajo Tribe of the Southwestern United States of North America. The people are also known as the Diné Tribe. The Navajo are the second largest Native American tribe of Northern America.
This film was almost entirely shot on location.