Django e Sartana no Dia da Vingança

After Sergio Corbucci's masterpiece "Django" from 1966, a whole series of so called "Django" films were released in Italy. Some of these (unofficial) sequels were quite good, some were worse, but none of them even near the original. The original "Sartana" films with Gianni Garko also spawned a bunch of rip-offs, some of them quite good, some worse. As a great fan of the Italian Western, I must say that, out of all films I've seen carrying either title "Django And Sartana...Showdown In The West" is the worst. The storyline is quite primitive, a gang of criminals take a girl hostage before they wanna flee to Mexico and then, for some reason, instead of going to Mexico they wait, and try to kill the area's two deadliest bounty hunters, Django and Sartana, before they can find them. The dialogue is pretty poor too, at least in the German dubbed version of the movie.

The characters of Django and Sartana are not even near to those in the original movies, Django, originally a cynical avenger, is a bounty hunter in this, and Sartana, usually a typical antihero looking mainly for quick cash, is suddenly somewhat of a saint, helping the poor and trying to turn the west into a better place by fighting the bad guys. This movie is aguably only watchable to my fellow fans of the genre, and they're also quite likely to be disappointed. If for anything, watch the film for Spaghetti Western veteran Gordon Mitchell, who plays the villain in this, and who saves the movie from being total garbage. If you don't know any other "Django" or "Sartana" movies, please don't judge the whole series after this movie, don't even waste your time with this one, but watch Sergio Corbucci's original "Django" of 1966 with Franco Nero (it's a masterpiece!!) or any of the great Sartana movies with Gianni Garko instead. Only watchable for Spaghetti Western enthusiasts like myself, and even then it is anything but recommendable.

DJANGO AND SARTANA'S SHOWDOWN IN THE WEST is unquestionably one of the worst spaghetti westerns ever made. Directed by the infamous Demofilo Fidani on a non-existing budget, with long intervals of absolutely nothing happening and what little does happen isn't anything to write home about either. If you must, watch it for Gordon Mitchell who is genuinly funny as the crazy gang leader who is engaged in a poker play with his mirror image for the most of the film. By the way Django and Sartana doesn't even have a showdown!

The Italians sure made a lot of westerns featuring the characters Django and Sartana. They didn't usually feature in the same film mind you, although I have seen at least one or two others where this pair do share screen-time. It was clearly a marketing ploy really, as the characterisations on offer are so vague that they could effectively go out under any names but I guess 'Buck and Hank Take the Town' was a title that just didn't cut the mustard. Needless to say in this reincarnation our there is no attempt whatsoever to have our friend Django drag a coffin around with him and both gun-men are no more than standard spaghetti loners with highly developed weapons skills. The story has bandits abduct a girl after massacring all others in a ranch. Django and Sartana are soon on the case and set out to rescue her and administer a bit of a pasting to the nefarious good-for-nothing bounders.

The synopsis, and above paragraph in general, should hopefully make it clear that there is absolutely nothing in this movie that stands out from the crowd at all. Its highly generic fare which will offer no surprises to anyone who has seen a number of Italian westerns. Having said that, it's not precisely a bad example of the sub-genre either and I thought it did go about its business in an efficient and entertaining enough manner. But, at the same time, it was undeniably pretty forgettable stuff and one which was definitely no better than a time-filler.

There is a whole lot of riding in this Demofilo Fidani western starring Hunt Powers (Jack Betts) as Django and Chet Davis as Sartana. Also on view is Gordon Mitchell as a deliciously insane bandit leader who spends a lot of time talking to himself in the mirror. Also playing poker against himself in the mirror... Shots of horsemen riding along the horizon take up screen time and build the slim story up to ninety minutes or so of questionable action. Fidani has been compared to Ed Wood, but this one is pretty well done, with a top-notch score, plenty of extras milling about in the backgrounds, some nice town sets, a few gorgeous ladies, and an incredible stunt team who flop and twitch when they're shot; no slumping to the ground for them, they usually fly from twelve to fifteen feet when shot. Fans of the genre just might have a good time with this one; others beware!

If you've been around the spaghetti western block a few times, most likely you've concluded that the "Django" and the "Sartana" in this particular spaghetti western only share the names of the characters from the official movies and nothing else, and you'd be right. That fact didn't bother me - I am used to rip-offs in Italian movies, and I just asked that the movie be entertaining. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The movie does gets to a good start, swiftly setting up the plot in the first ten minutes, and there is a pleasant (though repetitive) musical score. But other than those things, there's not much of merit on display here. After the first ten minutes, we have to sit through about a half hour of essentially NOTHING important happening. And when the movie eventually gets going, it's at a very slow pace, seemingly knowing there simply isn't that much plot here. The director adds absolutely no style or energy, and the Django and Sartana characters are given absolutely no color or personality, so you don't care if they will triumph at the end. Probably not the worst spaghetti western made, but would likely make it into a decent-sized list from the average spaghetti western connoisseur. It certainly made MY list!