Giù la testa... hombre

The Ballad of Django is a meandering mess of a movie! This spaghetti western is simply a collection of scenes from other (and much better!) films supposedly tied together by "Django" telling how he brought in different outlaws. Hunt Powers (John Cameron) brings nothing to the role of Django. Skip this one unless you just HAVE to have every Django movie made and even THAT may not be a good enough excuse to see this one!!

A quite usual trashy Italo-Western, stupid storyline full of clichés and lack of logic, some mediocre actors, dirty settings, lots of punch-fights and people shoot dead on a massive scale.

This has nothing to do with Django. - At least not in my German translated version, this German DVD-release is called "Adios Companeros" and has Macho Callaghan fighting against Butch Cassidy and Ironhead because their gang killed his one (he's the only survivor). Then you have Butch Cassidy and Ironhead fighting each other because they quarreled and the gang split. And you have Ironhead fighting against everyone because he's just the biggest and most greedy asshole anyway. Yeah, that's it, no more cleverness in the storyline, hehe.

A small role by Klaus Kinski as Reverend Cotton is remarkable (that's why I bought this DVD). In one scene he attempts to separate two men fighting by hitting them and screaming "I said love!" and in another scene he wins a competition in throwing horseshoes and goes nuts for a second - FANTASTICFANTASTICFANTASTIC!!!

It's also remarkable that JOE d'AMATO aka Aristide Massaccesi did the cinematography - I love this master of incompetent exploitation-thrash, so it was an "aahhh" for me.

I agree that Klaus Kinski's performance was, as usual, stunning, especially when he attempts to seperate the two men fighting by hitting them and screaming: "I said love!" hehe... Is that a spaghetti western? In its own way, I think it is. The director is Italian. There weren't any fancy editing or haunting score though. Nor a striking character. Nor an amazing performance. The movie is pretty straightforward, almost real. Settling scores. Revenge. The lone and mysterious anti-hero. Gangs. Violence. All-in-all, it was so-so, but not a total waste of time. There were some fun moments. But it was just too...plain. You know what I mean? I bought it for less than a buck, so I didn't lose much. ;-)

Butch Cassidy (Hunt Powers), Ironhead (Gordon Mitchell) and their gang shoot a group of people to steal their horses. However, one of their victims, Macho Callagan (Jeff Cameron), survives and pursues the gang members. The penniless Macho wins a gun at a gamble and can begin to take revenge. Quite cleverly, he earns the gang's trust first to set Ironhead and Butch against each other.

One of the better Westerns by low budget director Demofilo Fidani, still it serves only the most modest demands. Klaus Kinski plays a small but funny part as a reverend.

Note: "Giu la testa, hombre" is sometimes confused with "Per una bara piena di dollari" from the same director with similar cast. Best way to distinguish them: in that other movie, Kinski plays a bigger part as the boss of the bandits.

The only remarkable fact is the participation of Klaus Kinski who plays a priest. Don't ask me why he does it! A bad, bad movie overall.