Django sfida Sartana

The title of this movie is somewhat misleading, for while the eponymous duo do briefly clash ,for they most part they work together against their mutual enemies ,the bad guys.

Django (Tony Kendall) has a brother ,Steve ,who is employed by a frontier bank and has a reputation as a womaniser.He is set up on a false charge of bank robbery ,caught while entertaining a lady of the night and summarily hung without trial despite the best endeavours of the local Sheriff to save him from the lynch mob.His alleged partner in the crime was Sartana-who is equally guiltless of the deed .Django descends on the town but turns away without wreaking vengeance and sets out after Sartana .After a brief but intense fist fight they are made aware of the truth .The criminal was the banker himself(Jose Torres) ,and to compound his villainy he took his own niece captive as a hostage should the need arise .Django and Sartana combine forces to exact revenge and rescue the girl There are some touches of the well nigh obligatory sadism associated with the Spaghetti Western but for the most part this a traditional Western well enough executed without being outstanding .

I am a big fan of westerns, especially spaghetti, some are above average and i think this is one of them. It has a good, well thought out story and there is plenty of action and gun-play, ( fist fights and shoot outs ) to keep your attention. I also think the actors playing Django ( Tony Kendall ) and Sartana (George Ardisson ) are very good. The actual plot keeps you hooked and there are also a few surprises along the way. One thing i really liked was the rousing music score and the title song. There are of course many Django and Sartana movies some very good, some not so good, i have seen most of them and i think that, this is, one of the better one's and would recommend that if you get the chance,catch it.

If you are familiar with the spaghetti western genre, you have probably correctly guessed that "Django Defies Sartana" was a cash-in, naming its protagonists after the heroes of past popular spaghetti westerns. Actually, the Sartana character in this movie does have some resemblance to the original Sartana character, though the Django character does not (no machine gun, among other things.) But I didn't care if the movie was a rip-off or not, I just wanted it to be entertaining. The movie does get to a slow start, with the plot not starting until a quarter of the running time has passed. But when the plot kicks in, the movie does manage to keep some interest in the viewer, with some action and various plot twists. I'm not saying this is a GREAT spaghetti western, but fans of the genre will probably find it decent enough. And it's the closest we'll ever get to uniting Django and Sartana in the same film!

While Django is away, the town bank is cleaned out and the bank president killed. Django's brother is lynched by an angry mob, who believe he and Sartana responsible, sending Django on a mission of vengeance...against Sartana!

This has a few effective moments, like when Django discovers his brother's corpse and his first encounter with Sartana. Most of the time though, it's just plain slow, with forgettable title performances by Tony Kendall and George Ardisson. Things pick up in the final third of the movie, though not nearly enough for a recommendation.

If you ask me, Django doesn't get nearly enough revenge here. He should have made like Clint Eastwood in Hang 'Em High and High Plains Drifter, by violently killing the lynch mob and burning the whole crummy town to the ground!

Django (Tony Kendall) is in a search party hunting down the criminal Carlos. Meanwhile, Sartana (George Ardisson) arrives in his town, and the bank owner Philip Singer (Bernard Farber) asks his clerk Steve (John Alvar), who is Django's brother, to offer three thousand dollars to Sartana for him to leave the town. Sartana does not accept the offer and Steve leaves his hotel room and meets a prostitute to party with her. When Singer and his niece are kidnapped on the road and the bank's safe is found empty, the locals believe that Sartana and Steve robbed the bank. A group of vigilantes catch Steve, hang him and leave his corpse in the rain. Then Django returns, he meets his mute friend (José Torres) and finds the body of Steve. Django buries Steve and heads with Mute to seek out Sartana. They fight each other and Django learns that Sartana is innocent and has neither kidnapped Singer and his niece nor robbed the bank. Django, Sartana and Mute team-up and look for the real thief.

"Django sfida Sartana" is a spaghetti western with a simple storyline of revenge, but very entertaining. Like other Italian western from the 70's, the edition is poor, the acting is wooden and the weapons do not need to be recharged. But who cares, the film is not bad and amuses. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Django Desafia Sartana" ("Django Challenges Sartana")