Django

Sergio Corbucci is not really a great director, but if I hear his name I perk up in a genre-geek sort of way. Having seen a couple other movies by him, Navajo Joe and Il Grande Silenzio, I knew what to expect with Django, which is some of the same only (hopefully) more violent and serious and convoluted. Actually, the story in Django isn't too convoluted, just if you don't pay close attention, which is easy once or twice. It doesn't have the weird, cool energy of Grande Silenzio or the camp of Navajo Joe. But it stands on its own as a solid entry- the most well-known of all spaghetti westerns in Europe (yes, more than Leone, who was also a God there), and, well... if you watch the dubbed version from Anchor Bay video and come out unscathed, more power to you.

Franco Nero is in his iconic role as the title character (sing it with me, "Djangoooo!"), a man dragging a coffin into town and with some payback to deliver against a man named Jackson, and is actually caught up in two warring factions: a group of red-suited KKK members, and a crazy group of Mexicans, with women thrown from here to there and in-between. Django, of course, doesn't want to get involved with that, but he does, and it becomes a whole big thing not too unfamiliar to those who've seen their share of Leone pictures. In fact, this was the first in a whole franchise of Django- some official and most not, leading up to this year with Miike's amazing remake- and I could likely see this as being the best without having seen one other. It's just a guess, I could be wrong. Certainly it would be hard to top the body count, which nears 150 (or maybe it's more), if not all of the performances.

Then again, it's the look of most of the characters that becomes more and more striking as the movie goes on, including one snarling gunman with bad teeth and big gums (I forget his name), and the stone-faced Jackson himself who Django has the chance to kill early on but leaves alive (somewhat bewilderingly, then again there would be no film and less conflict for otherwise amazing comic-book gunslinger Django). What Corbucci can deliver alongside his cast of mostly bit players and hamming-uppers, is a kind of tough but loose style; he won't go to extremes like Leone with a close-up or a far-away angle, he'll just zoom and veer right into the action and get all of the bloody, crazy killings right up close and fast as possible. He's a good exploitation director and a decent stylist, with a little artistry and a warped form of professionalism. It must be fun and/or rough work being on his set.

So, for any and all genre fans, spaghetti western or just crazy-action film, you'll see why Django gets its rep, for better or for worse, usually the better. It's sometimes sloppy and occasionally not altogether well-made, but it soaks up its audience with its character as he kills quick with his huge cannon of a machine gun and has a final scene at a cemetery that is in the books somewhere as a mark of a true bad-ass. Just make sure, for the love of Pete, to try and steer clear of the English dubbing, as it's a mind-numbing experience (or just hilarious too).

There is a lot of noise and attention surrounding this movie, including how violent and macabre it is...well, it definitely lives up to the hype. Spaghetti Western fans rank this film right up there with Leone's trilogy, and I can see why. It should be noted, however, that while this movie was violent by 1960s standards, it's pretty standard fare for today, so don't go into this expecting to be shocked. Also, the production values are low, they look even lower than the Leone movies, so don't go expecting pricy Hollywood sets and props. Finally, the English dubbing is just atrocious. So why is this movie still considered special? Simply consider it for its place in time, and remember that this was a couple years before the Wild Bunch and Bonnie and Clyde, and no doubt influenced those films to some degree. If you can take your action movies with a grain of salt and give this one a chance, you'll be surprised!

Django is the mysterious Civil War veteran, all decked out in a black trenchcoat who arrives at a Tex/Mex bordertown horseless, and dragging only a mysterious coffin through the mud. The town is alternately controlled by two warring gangs, one run by Major Jackson, a former Confederate soldier now commanding a cult of red-hooded Klan-like fanatics! Their goal seems to be to wipe out as many Mexicans as possible and grab all the money and gold they can. Their enemies, the Mexican gang, may not necessarily be racists but they are surely evil. Django, the dark stranger, walks right into the middle of this feud and the bullets start flying fast and furious!

Which side will he choose? Why does he refuse to shoot the evil Major Jackson the first time he has the chance? Why does he think he can take on a gang of 50 of Jackson's men single-handedly? And just what is inside that coffin of his???

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.

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.

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.