Django **** (1966, Franco Nero, Loredana Nusciak, José Bódalo, Ángel Álvarez, José Canalejas) – Classic Movie Review 4926

Co-writer/ director Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 key Spaghetti Western Django stars Franco Nero as the iconic flinty-eyed Django, a coffin-dragging gunslinger who starts off by rescuing half-breed prostitute Maria (Loredana Nusciak) from Mexican bandits.

He then sniffs opportunity when he arrives at a border town split by a feud between the bandits and a Ku Klux Klan of American Deep South racists.

Corbucci’s famous, very popular movie is a memorable, atmospheric and striking, though slightly overcooked Spaghetti Western, confidently and imaginatively filmed by director Corbucci, and stuffed with plenty of trigger-happy violence. The body count is 180, including 79 kills from Franco Nero. Its graphic violent content led to it being banned in several countries. It was rejected by the UK censors until 1993 and not rated in the US.

It set off a long-running hit series of increasingly violent Spaghetti Westerns more than 30 unofficial sequels. Almost every Franco Nero Western released in Germany includes the Django name. But Django Strikes Again is the only official sequel produced with Corbucci’s involvement.

Also in the cast are Ángel Álvarez, José Bódalo, Eduardo Fajardo, Gino Pernice [Jimmy Douglas], Simone Arriaga, Ivan Scratuglia, Rafael Vaquero, José Canalejas, Raphael Albaicin, Erik Schippers and Luciano Rossi (film debut).

Django is directed by Sergio Corbucci, runs 91 minutes or 87 minutes (censored), is made by B R C Produzione and Tecisa, is released by Euro International Film (Italy), and is written by Sergio Corbucci, Bruno Corbucci, Franco Rossetti, Piero Vivarelli, Fernando Di Leo and José Gutiérrez Maesso, based on a story by Sergio Corbucci and Bruno Corbucci, is shot in Eastmancolor by Enzo Barboni, produced by Sergio Corbucci and Manolo Bolognini, scored by Luis Bacalov, and designed by Carlo Simi.

Like several other films, it bears a resemblance to the plot of Dashiell Hammett’s novel Red Harvest. They include director Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 Japanese adventure Yojimbo, Clint Eastwood’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Walter Hill’s Last Man Standing (1996) starring Bruce Willis, both remakes of Yojimbo.

Tony Russel provides Django’s voice on the dubbed English-language version.

Django is a reference to renowned jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.

Quentin Tarantino successfully revived the character in Django Unchained (2012). Tarantino uses this film’s theme song in the opening credits and Franco Nero makes a cameo opposite Jamie Foxx’s Django.

Corbucci is also the maker of Il Grande Silenzio [The Big Silence] [The Great Silence] (1968) and A Professional Gun [Il Mercenario] [The Mercenary] (1968).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4926

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