Django

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"

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

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.

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!

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.