Django

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 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).

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.

Hello y'all. Just would like to add my own little critique of this movie.

Django was probably the first Euro western i'd seen outside of the familiar Leone territory, and, at first i was a little dissapointed. So i watched it again, and again. Then it dawned on me just how cool it was, having been used to the choreographed pyrotechnics of much greater films(ie the leone dollars movies etc) this was a dirty, cold,bitter little movie where nobody really comes out on top, especially the movies protagonist. Yeah, i know he returned to kill and strike again, but this one stands alongside il grande silencio and Keoma as a really good example of a genre theme that would eventually be done to death. So what if it borrows from Leone? Don't forget where he borrowed from in the first place. Anyway, i would just like to say to anyone that has not seen this movie, give it a chance. One final note: in spite of our desensetisation to violence, this is still a stomach churning endeavour, with a body count like a hot day in france, and a sadistic bent that would make peter sutcliffe run for the bathroom, Django reaches parts that only a fistfull of broken fingers can!

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.