Django

If you've already seen Leone's FISTFULL OF DOLLARS a million times like I have, then you might be a little dissapointed when watching this one, since it's basically the same thing. Only difference here is that there's a little bit of gore which can upset a few people. And the dubbing is pretty awful, It sounds like the same guy who voices over 3 other characters in the film.

I could go on about some other distractions, but I'm not here to pan this flick.As a matter of fact, I LIKE IT! You have to realize that this film was a stepping-stone for the action genre that has continued to this day. So give credit where credit is due!

Perhaps my favorite part of the film is the opener, Django himself, walking (What? No horse?) through a dark,cold,muddy world, dragging his good ol' mysterious coffin and being accompanied by the music of the title song (A catchy tune which sounds like a combination of Elvis and the Moody Blues).

What follows next is common in "Spaghetti-land", so If you love these films or have never seen any, be obliged to take a peek at this flick.

This cult movie centers on Django(Franco Nero), a stranger man without identity , at the beginning he saves a woman (Loredana Nusciak). Later on , he is going to a village dragging a coffin behind him . The little town is located in the US-Mexican border . There he will take on two rivals , a Yankee group (leading Eduardo Fajardo) and a Mexican bunch (commanding Jose Bodalo). The colonel Jackson band is formed by a type of Ku-Klux-Klan hoodlums and he wears a red foulard . Django befriends the owner of the saloon (Angel Alvarez , a character-alike to Silvanito from ¨Fistful of dollars¨). Django seeks vengeance and go after the dastardly nasties because of his wife lies into a tomb captioning Mercedes Zaro (1839-1869) .

It is an exciting western co-produced by Italy/Spain with breathtaking showdown between the starring and his enemies . The highlights of the film are the confrontation at the village full of mud and dirtiness , between the baddies hooded with a red scarf and Django wielding a machine gun (though with anachronism , because being actually a 'Maxim model' that was made in 1880 and isn't utilized the usual 'Gatlin' machine-gun) and there he does a real massacre . Besides , the attack at fort where Django and henchmen cause a cruel slaughter , and , of course , the final showdown at the graveyard . Django is named as homage to ¨Django Reinhardt¨ , the famous American musician who introduced his particular guitar . There are special remembrances to Leone's Westerns , thus: ¨Fistful of dollars¨ about the facing off between two bands and ¨The good, ugly and evil¨ regarding the cemetery duel . The film blends violence , blood , shootouts and it is fast moving except for the saloon's episode that's a little bit slow-moving . There are many technicians and assistants who will have a long career , as cameraman Enzo Barboni or E.B.Clucher (filmmaker of ¨Trinity¨ series with Terence Hill , Bud Spencer) who does an excellent photography with barren outdoors , dirty landscapes under a glimmer sun and foggy clouds , shot on outskirts of Madrid in La Pedriza , Torremocha Del Jarama and Colmenar Viejo . The musician Luis Enrique Bacalov (author of ¨The Postman and Pablo Neruda¨ which won an Oscar and composed lots of Spaghetti) creates a good soundtrack with Ennio Morricone influence . In addition , assistant direction by Ruggiero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust). The picture was no authorized to minor 18 years and prohibited in various countries for its violence , for example , in England , but in France , Germany was a real hit and in Japan there is one ¨Fondazione Django¨ too . Sergio Corbucci direction is good ; after that , he would make several Spaghetti classics : ¨The great silence¨, ¨Compañeros¨ and ¨the Mercenary¨ and other considerable Paella Westerns : ¨Hellbenders¨, ¨Far west story¨ , ¨Johnny Oro¨ and ¨Navajo Joe¨.

It is followed by an official sequel titled ¨Django strikes again (1987)¨ by Nello Rossati alias Ted Archer with Franco Nero who has left his previous life of violence in favor of a existence as monk , though returns when his daughter is kidnapped . Furthermore, numerous unofficial sequels , rip-offs , and copies , such as : ¨Django the last killer (67)¨ by Giuseppe Vari with George Eastman ; Django dares Sartana¨ (69) by Pascuale Squitieri ; Django Il Bastardo¨(1969) by Sergi Garrone with Anthony Steffen , ¨Django shoots first (1974)¨ by Alberto De Martino with Glen Saxon and Evelyn Stewart.

Hello y'all. Just would like to add my own little critique of this movie.

Django was probably the first Euro western i'd seen outside of the familiar Leone territory, and, at first i was a little dissapointed. So i watched it again, and again. Then it dawned on me just how cool it was, having been used to the choreographed pyrotechnics of much greater films(ie the leone dollars movies etc) this was a dirty, cold,bitter little movie where nobody really comes out on top, especially the movies protagonist. Yeah, i know he returned to kill and strike again, but this one stands alongside il grande silencio and Keoma as a really good example of a genre theme that would eventually be done to death. So what if it borrows from Leone? Don't forget where he borrowed from in the first place. Anyway, i would just like to say to anyone that has not seen this movie, give it a chance. One final note: in spite of our desensetisation to violence, this is still a stomach churning endeavour, with a body count like a hot day in france, and a sadistic bent that would make peter sutcliffe run for the bathroom, Django reaches parts that only a fistfull of broken fingers can!

Franco Nero is Django, a man dragging a coffin behind him, seeking vengeance for the wrongs dealt to him and his loved one in the Western staple. When we first meet him he saves a hybrid girl from being horse-whipped. But which side is he playing for, and where do his loyalties really lie? Very enjoyable and the theme song is great, but avoid the dubbed version I implore you, as it's one of the worst one I've ever heard. Perhaps not as well known or as good as "the Man with No Name" trilogy, but well worth seeing none the less.

My Grade: B

Blue Underground DVD Extras: Part of BU's Spaghetti Western Collection. "Django- The One and Only" (13 minute documentary); Poster & Stills gallery; Talent Bios for Sergio Corbucci and Franco Nero; Theatrical Trailer (I have this film released by Anchor Bay as well, and while the BU version is superior, I'm keeping that one too because it has a nifty Django shoot out game and came paired with "Django Strikes Again")

Easter Eggs: Highlight the coffin for Trailers of "Django Kill!", "Run, Man, Run", and "A Man called Blade"

As 1964's A Fistful Of Dollars was a huge hit, director Sergio Corbucci answered with his own Spaghetti Western in 1966, the classic Django. Where Sergio Leone filled his films with beautiful sweeping vistas and made good use of the Spanish locations, Corbucci's look for Django was very nihilistic and bleak as was it's tone. Filmed in winter, the landscapes are barren and dead and the streets of the town are filled with mud and the sky seems mostly always gray. The films' heroes are different too as Eastywood's "Joe" is an opportunist who plays two rival gangs against each other in a dangerous game to profit from both. Franco Nero's Django, on the other hand, is a former soldier who returns to a small town dragging a coffin behind him and seeking vengeance for the loss of a loved one. Django is a man whose heart and soul have been torn out by the Civil War and the murder of his wife and he doesn't care how many have to die before he exacts his revenge on the evil Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo) for her death. And death is indeed what lies within the coffin he takes with him everywhere as Jackson and his men will soon find out. The loner gunslinger Django also plays two gangs against each other for his own gain but, his gain is far more personal then profitable. The film's graveyard shootout finale is also very bleak and makes one wonder if Corbucci is asking us whether Django's surrounding himself with so much death has made him an outcast amongst the living. Django is a hard and violent tale under Corbucci's direction and Franco Nero's Django is a hard and violent man who, unlike Eastwood's charming anti-hero, is a man on a path to hell and plans on taking as many with him as possible. His flashes of humanity are brief and seem only directed at the saloon girl Maria, who falls for the dark loner. But, even Maria is not immune to the violence that follows this man wherever he goes. Django is an interesting entry in the Spaghetti Western genre and seems to be the dark opposite of Leone's series with Eastwood. And as such has earned it's own classic status and is rightfully regarded as one of the genres best examples.