Title: Django (1966)
Director: Sergio Corbucci
Cast:
Franco Nero, Jose Bodalo, Loredana Nusciak, Eduardo Fajardo
Review:
Now that Tarantino is about to release his new western ‘Django
Unchained’ he’s got everybody watching Django movies. What’s a ‘Django’
movie you might be asking yourself, well, here’s where you’re going to learn,
read on my friends. By now, most of us are familiar with how director
Quentin Tarantino makes a film; we understand his modus operandi. Basically,
Tarantino takes a couple of films he likes, takes certain elements from them
and then does his own thing. When he made Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2, it was
obvious he was influenced by films like Lady Snow Blood (1973) and Shogun
Assassin (1980), amongst many others. These films garnered a whole lot of
attention when Tarantino’s Kill Bill films came out because people wanted to
know why Tarantino thought they were special, I know I did. To me this is a
positive thing because some of the movies that Tarantino borrows from are cult
classics that wouldn’t be seen by a lot of people otherwise; but thanks to
Tarantino being inspired by them, a lot of the films he draws from suddenly get
new releases, and so a whole new generation discovers them. The same thing is happening
with the Django movies. I recently had a chance to finally see the first Django
film, and I have to say I was genuinely impressed; I loved every second
of it!
A lot has been said about the violence quotient in Django;
and it’s true, the film is pretty violent. Maybe by today’s standards this film
isn’t all that graphic, but back in the day having a character impaled on a
cross, or having someone get their ear sliced off and fed to them was a bit too
much for some, and so, the film was banned in many countries. I can definitely
see why though, the film does have a body count of 138! A character does get
his hands crushed to smithereens by a pack of wild horses. Hundreds of Mexicans
are shot to death. So yeah, I think it’s safe to say that this movie can be
considered violent and graphic. This isn’t surprising when we take in
consideration that this is a ‘Spaghetti Western’ which means, it’s a cowboy
movie made by Italians, and Spaghetti Western’s same as Italian Horror films,
do not have a ratings system, these guys could just shoot whatever the hell
they wanted because they didn’t have to worry about a ratings system, in fact,
in all of Europe they still don’t have a ratings system, which of course I
think is fantastic. This is why Italian horror movies and Spaghetti Westerns
are more violent than your typical Hollywood films.
The story for Django is simple enough; Django arrives at a
small town so he can avenge the death of his wife. He walks in carrying a
coffin with him; nobody seems to think much of it. Django soon discovers that
the town is at war, two factions are at each others throats. The Mexicans and
another band of red hooded misfits led by a man named ‘Major Jackson’. This to
me was the biggest reference to Akiro Kurosawa’s Samurai Epic Yojimbo (1961), a
film in which a Samurai named ‘Sanjuro’ stumbles onto a town with the same
dilemma; the people of the town are suffering because two factions are at war. The
character of Django functions in the same way that Toshino Mifune’s ‘Sanjuro’ functions
in Yojimbo; he comes to set things right. He’s not a true blue good guy,
because you’ll notice right off the bat that Django has no problems in blasting
away anyone who gets in his way. He is for all intents and purposes the epitome
of the anti-hero. On the one hand he treats the ladies with the proper respect
they deserve, but on the other he has no quarrels with killing people to steal their
gold. So Django is that kind of character, a loner, a rebel who lives by the
beat of his own drum.
Django was a film made in response to Sergio Leones famous
westerns, primarily A Fist Full of Dollars (1964). When you see Django you
immediately notice some similarities with Leone’s films, the scruffy looking
characters with ugly, almost cartoonish faces. The main character is a loner,
waltzing into town to set things right. He is good with a gun. Same as in many
Leone’s films, characters are backstabbing each other all the time, so this is
the kind of film where nobody really, truly trusts each other. One second
someone is your friend, the next they betray you, and then they become your
friends again? That sort of thing. In that sense it reminded me of Sergio Leone’s
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966). Actually, it was this last film that I
thought Django had the most in common with, both films deal with a treasure, both
films end up in a cemetery; Franco Nero himself looks and acts a heck of a lot
like Clint Eastwood, the cool, silent type. I have to say, Nero looked great on
this film! He’s got that tough guy thing down flat; it’s all about the
attitude. He’s smart and cunning, always looking out for number one: himself.
The film has a pretty cool atmosphere, the town in which the
story takes place in is dreary, cold, wet, muddy…the landscape seems to be
eternally drenched in grays. The wind is howling most of the time…I loved that
about the film, it had lots of atmosphere. The score was surprisingly good as
well, the wardrobe was in my opinion detailed, in short, there’s lots of things
to like about Django. It surprised the hell out of me because I have to be honest;
I’m not a huge lover of Westerns. I’ve seen a lot of them, but for me a western
has to be really, really special in order for me to truly like it. I love The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Unforgiven
(1992), The Quick and the Dead (1995), The Wild Bunch (1969), Magnificent Seven
(1960), and of course now I will be adding Django to my list of favorite
westerns; I suggest you give it a shot even if you don’t like westerns, it’s
that good.
Rating 5 out of 5
5 comments:
A body count of 138 was undoubtedly quite shocking back in the day. :-) I don't usually particularly enjoy Westerns, but it sounds like this one is well worth checking out, particularly before watching Django Unchained.
Yeah, only recently discovered this as well. Really enjoyed it. Very stylish and violent. Much crueler than Leone's Dollars films. The ending scene in the graveyard was particularly well shot.
I've watched Strikes Again and it's not very good - more like dull Rambo than a western. Very odd.
Some of the 'rip offs' are quite good though. Django the Bastard has a great hook in that he makes gravestones for the people he's planning to kill before he shoots them!
Going to be interesting to spot what Tarantino 'borrows' from this for Unchained.
Funtimes in deed Stephanie, the violence gets crazy and Django always outsmarts everybody.
I was curious for Django Strikes Again, particularly since it was made so many years after the first one, I wonder how it plays out. Django the Bastard sounds fun, I will definetly be watching more of these Django movies.
Kill Django... Shoot If You Live is also meant to be another good one. I should think around the time Tarantino's film comes out in the cinema some cheap DVD label will release a ton of these "rip-offs".
By all means, check out Strikes Again if you get a chance. Just go in with low expectations and you might get a kick out of Nero wielding his machine gun one more time.
If you want to watch another really great 'alternative Western' with Franco Nero check out Keoma.
Thanks for the recommendations Jack, I'll jot them down and check em out if I can get a hold of them. I agree with you, I'm betting we'll see a lot of those Django movies on dvd in the coming months.
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