Django

Sergio Corbucci's "Django", as well as his "The Great Silence" are two massively underrated spaghetti-westerns that co-founded the genre, along with Sergio Leone's Dollars-trilogy. Okay, this no "Once Upon a Time in the West" when it comes to atmosphere or plotting, but it is a magnificently mounted action ride with an utterly cool lead hero and an enormous body count. "Django" remained banned in several countries for a long time because of its explicit, comic-book like violence, and you'll see that this wasn't without reason, as the bad guys get slaughtered by the dozen in a good old-fashioned gunslinger way. The movie opens terrifically, with a sleazy title song and vicious images of a lonely cowboy wandering through the Southern wastelands with a coffin in tow. The man is Django and his coffin contains whatever he requires to fulfill his difficult goal: single-handedly finishing the war between the racist Major Jackson and Mexican bandidos by annihilating them all. Corbucci implements a straightforward, no-nonsense filming style with some great visuals and very creative camera angles. There are some ingenious aspects (Django's act of vengeance with molested hands) as well as some delicious clichés moments (wrestling prostitutes, extended bar fight sequences...). This film may not be a very intellectual form of entertainment, but it sure is fun and produced with a certain degree of class.

Followed by a numberless amount of sequels, rip-offs and wannabes that are hardly worth purchasing. Stick to the original and have a blast!

Django (Franco Nero – The Fifth Cord, Hitch-Hike) is a gristled man-of-action who strolls the desert dragging his coffin of hell behind him. Django sets up shop one day at the local whorehouse of a veritable ghost town set up between the two warring factions of Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo – Nightmare City, Oasis of the Zombies) with his red hooded militia and General Hugo (José Bódalo – Companeros) with his Mexican ex-patriots. Django's no nonsense style quickly puts him smack in the middle of the fun as secrets are revealed and sides are played against each other.

Sergio Corbucci (Super Fuzz) directs this classic Italian spaghetti western. The script (while being pretty typical of the genre) manages to make Django a classic antihero thanks for the most part to Franco Nero's portrayal. The script's lack of originality doesn't stop it from having some clever set-pieces, nasty violence and even a bit of dark humor (some of my favorite sequences: the clearing of the whorehouse "Don't Touch my coffin", the "ear" scene and the Mexican skeet shoot). The music is wonderful (topped of by a fun theme song sung by someone trying to channel Elvis). The cast of Italian regulars nail their parts with mucho gusto. Any fan of violent westerns Italiano-style should belly up to the bar and give Django's coffin of wonders a watch. But don't mess with it

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.

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"

At least in Europe, this other spaghetti western variation of Kurosawa's Yojimbo was probably even more influential than the film that created the genre, A Fistful of Dollars, with countless imitations, rip-offs, sequels, remakes. The title hero is again very different from traditional Western heroes, but this time he is a much more mystical (almost religious) figure than even the man with no name, and the places he goes to are even dirtier and more desperate and downtrodden than any place we would find in a Leone Western.

The impressive opening sequence shows Django dragging a coffin behind him through a muddy and featureless landscape, accompanied by Bacalov's title song (not Morricone, for a change), heading for his first battle. The coffin, his dark coat, and the mystique around him make him appear like an angel of death, invoking associations with the Red Death character in Roger Corman's Masque of the Red Death. Django is not quite as untouchable and supernatural, but the body count in his trace is comparable.