Django (1966)

[cigar joe]

It's a moot point with me I don't like it all that much to begin with.

[titoli]

I can't understand what Rocky Roberts(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcYn_NQdzKg) :

has to do with the main theme of this movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNUpbYwj57k

[Groggy]

Django (1966) is probably the most famous - or infamous - Spaghetti Western not directed by Sergio Leone. Its massive gundowns and gory violence set the standard for '60s graphic violence, and its coffin-wielding protagonist spawned dozens of unofficial sequels and rip-offs. Reputation and influence aside, Django works as a bit of inspired madness, even if it lacks the craft and artistry of the best Spaghettis.

A mysterious drifter named Django (Franco Nero) rolls into a small border town dragging a coffin and sporting a Union army uniform. After rescuing half-breed hooker Maria (Loredana Nusciak) from some toughs, Django finds himself caught up in a private war between Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo), an ex-Confederate with a gang of red-hooded Klansmen, and General Rodriguez (Jose Badalo), an egomaniacal "revolutionary" with a private army. Django has his own motivation for being in town, but it takes a lot of blood, bullets and double-crosses to sort things out.

Django seems calculated specifically to one-up Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, with a nearly-identical plot and set-pieces carried to cartoonish extremes. Where Clint Eastwood can simultaneously gun down four heavies in Fistful, Django shoots down fifty or so bad guys with a machine gun. Where Fistful's bad guys machine gun a company of Mexican troops for gold, Django's villains square off against the entire Mexican army. Where Clint endures a brutal beating by the Rojos, Django gets his hands crushed beneath horse's hooves. For fun, throw in ear mutilation, mud-wrestling hookers, a quick-sand pit and red-hooded Klansmen.

On more substantial levels, Django features an extremely thin plot and cartoonish characters. Django's given a shallow revenge motivation that doesn't inspire much empathy, and his actions are incredibly inconsistent. Django leaves Major Jackson alive after his first showdown, then goes gallavanting off with Rodriguez to steal some gold? Call me a mission creep but what exactly does this achieve? Other set-pieces are headscratchers: Django's attempt to sneak a coffin full of gold away from the bad guys is pretty silly, and the mud-wrestling scene is neither erotic nor funny.

What saves Django from being relegated to the Spaghetti scrap heap is Sergio Corbucchi's stylish direction. Corbucchi's better-suited for lightweight shoot-'em-ups than his The Great Silence and Companeros, which interject half-baked "social commentary" to no effect. Here, Corbucchi handles his action scenes with aplomb: Django's machine gun ambush and Rodriguez's raid on the Mexican fort are staged with excitement and creativity. This film is easily the goriest Western prior to The Wild Bunch and Corbucchi handily one-ups Peckinpah in sheer sadism. Carlo Simi's creative setwork also deserves mention, with one of the muddiest, most unappealing Western towns in film history. Luis Bacalov's score is pretty generic, complete with a cheesy Frankie Laine-style ballad.

Franco Nero runs a close second to Clint Eastwood as the quintessential Spaghetti hero. He's a bit more talkative than Clint but no more emotive, and just as badass in the clutch. Jose Badalo is ridiculously over-the-top, but Eduardo Fajardo gives an intense performance as Jackson, a hateful though underdeveloped bad guy. There's also Loredana Nusciak as Maria, an appealingly feisty love interest, and Angel Alvarez in the Jose Calvo role of kindly bartender.

Overall, Django is a nice piece of gore-splattered pulp. High art it is not, but it's unquestionably entertaining in its own twisted way.

http://nothingiswrittenfilm.blogspot.com/2011/04/django.html

[Novecento]

[Overall, Django is a nice piece of gore-splattered pulp. High art it is not...

It's in the MoMA

[Groggy]

It's in the MoMA

It's so ugly it could be a Modern-Art Masterpiece!

[Banjo]

Just booked my ticket to see a London screening of Django at the Covent Garden Odean on Saturday 28th May.This will be precluded by an onstage interview with Franco Nero who will also introduce the film as well as signing copies of Kevin Grant's new SW book for which he has contributed the foreword:-

http://www.fabpress.com/vsearch.php?T=home

Can't wait!  

[cigar joe]

Cool, ask what's up with the new Spaghetti Western they were trying to make if you get the chance.

[Banjo]

Cool, ask what's up with the new Spaghetti Western they were trying to make if you get the chance.

Yes CJ i'm very keen to find out about this if i do get the chance.

[Dust Devil]

Lucky Banjo!

[Banjo]

Well i had a great time yesterday.Got to shake Nero's hand and got him to sign the book which btw looks massively brilliant-it took me the whole train journey home just to glance through the hundreds of illustrations.

The book signing session was followed by Nero appearing onstage to receive a lifetime achievement award and to discuss the sw genre in general.After which he received questions from members of the audience filling us in with some hilarious anectotes(including a tense encounter between muscle posing Charles Bronson with equally musclebound Enzo Castellari(who initially Nero found to be very odd and didn't want to work with!),working with Telly Savales on Redneck,UFO's on the set of THe MERCENARY,how really it was he who directed ("the director was always on the phone for money")ENTER THE NINJA for which he forgoed starring in VICTOR/VICTORIA with Julie Andrews ).He was charming,very funny and displayed an incredible memory with his answers.

Nero confirmed that himself and Castellari are working on THE ANGEL,THE UGLY & THE WISE but did not go into further details apart from mentioning that Tarantino has agreed to play a cameo.Nero is aware of talk that Tarantino wants him to reciprocate in DJANGO UNCHAINED but he hasn't yet asked Nero personally so he cannot confirm any role at present.

And to cap all that i got to see DJANGO on the big screen!

[cigar joe]

cool

[marmota-b]

It sounds like good time.

[Dust Devil]

 

[drinkanddestroy]

Just saw this movie for the first time. What can I say -- it's insanely outrageously way over the top, just as I've come to expect from non-Leone spags! (the only others I've seen are The Big Gundown, Death Rides a Horse, and The Mercenary). Obviously a ripoff of FOD (and how about the machine gun in the wagon!). I used the English audio, and the dubbing was just awful; next time, I will use the Italian audio with English subtitles.

btw, in his opening shootout, Django uses 6 shots... then another as one of the dying men is reaching for his gun.

And in the final shootout, you can clearly hear 7 shots.

But since everything in spags was over the top, why not 6-shooters that fire 7 shots? 

[drinkanddestroy]

To get myself pumped for the release of Django Unchained (only 4 days away!), I wanna watch Django again, so I just put it at the top of my Netflix queue. It'll be my first viewing of the blu ray.

I just noticed that the Netflix page says the aspect ratio of the dvd as 1.78:1, while the blu ray as 1.66:1. I presume this is a mistake, and that the AR of both the dvd and blu ray is 1.66:1. Am I correct on this?

I looked at the Beaver page, and he indeed lists the AR of the Blue Underground dvd as 1.66:1 (I have to say that only thing I ever use Beaver is basic info like to see what a disc's aspect ratios or bonus features are; he's good for that, but I don't pay any attention to the shit that idiot writes... and btw, why does he only list AR's for dvd's, and never for blu ray discs?)

Amazon (which is probably as untrustworthy on disc details as is Netflix) does list the dvd's AR, as well as the blu ray's, at 1.66:1).

I am going to see the blu ray now anyway, but I am just wondering if anyone can confirm that the Blue Underground dvd's AR is 1.66:1. (IF Netflix is correct that the dvd's AR is 1.78:1, then does anyone know if that's cuz they cropped the top and bottom, or cuz they show more on the sides?)