"Django & Sartana" is probably the worst Spaghetti western I've seen thus far, but maybe just because of that it also provided a lot of fun and laughs. I honestly don't think it was writer/director Demofilo Fidano's deliberate choice to deliver such a bad film, which makes it all the more sad for him but all the better for us, because bad movies with good intentions are even more entertaining and hilarious. Don't feel too sorry for Mr. Fidano, by the way, because he made over twenty flicks like this and that earned him the questionable nickname "The Ed Wood of Spaghetti Westerns". Basically the concept of this dud describes itself somewhat as an avant-garde "Freddy Vs. Jason". "Django" was a hugely popular franchise started by Sergio Corbucci's classic in 1966, and it promptly skyrocketed the international career of Franco Nero. Even though the film only has one official sequel, the name Django was put on practically every Italian western film poster ever since. "Sartana" is an almost equally popular franchise with approximately twenty titles in total and the character has been played by eminent Euro-cult actors like William Berger, George Hilton and Fabio Testi. With this film, Demofilo Fidano had the brilliant idea of shooting something that featured both characters, but unfortunately his script is just too atrocious and certainly doesn't glorify any of the two principal characters. I doubt Fidano has even seen any of the other Django/Sartana movies, because their styles and personalities are completely different. Besides, even though the English titles state "showdown" and "Django against Sartana", there isn't any fight or confrontation between them at all. Quite the contrary, in fact. Both men are in pursuit of Burt Keller's gang of thieves and murders. They kidnapped a beautiful buxom blond and plan to flee to Mexico. Instead of actually doing that, the gang hangs around and patiently await for Django and Sartana to kill them. So, they kidnap a girl to assure a safe getaway, but then they stay to fight the unbeatable bounty hunters. That's how stupid the scenario is! Due to the imbecilic and simplistic plot, Demofilo Fidano does everything possible to stretch the running time. This means that nearly half of the film exist of tedious footage of various random people riding their horses and cameras zooming in on people's face even though the actual scene is already over for like 5 seconds. There even are some downright shameless padding sequences as well, like an entire game of poker in a saloon. The body count is enormous and the gunfights are exactly what makes this film so darn hilarious! The victims don't just boringly drop dead when shot here! They fly limply through the air, jump over fences, roll numerous times over the ground and some of them even make a looping! All this and more is illustrated alternately in slow-motion and regular speed and I haven't got a single idea why! The lead actors depicting Django and Sartana are pretty worthless. Django looks like he's made of plastic and Sartana actually doesn't look any older than adolescent. The girls are yummy enough and the absolute main asset of the film is the magnificent Gordon Mitchell in his role as the deranged criminal leader Burt Keller. He's an ego-maniacal lunatic who plays poker against himself in a mirror
and cheats!