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| Big Sky Video (Australia). All Regions, PAL. 1.66:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 2.0, Italian DD 2.0 87 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Sergio Corbucci
Starring: Franco Nero,
José Bódalo, Loredana Nusciak, Ángel
Álvarez
Screenplay: José
Gutiérrez Maesso, Piero Vivarelli, Bruno
Corbucci, Sergio Corbucci
Country: Italy |
Saddle up, partners, as Digital Retribution
goes into territory rarely seen 'round these
parts: the western. The western was an important
part of cinemas evolution, giving a cheap way
for many film makers to show heroism, and simple
morality plays in a classical American setting.
The first American western was the silent 'The
Great Train Robbery', released in 1903,
and spawned an entire genre, and the careers of
directors like Howard Hawks and John Ford. Italian
filmmakers, realizing that a quick buck could
be made in America, jumped on the bandwagon and
produced some of the more well known Westerns
during the 60s and 70s. These films, known as
'spaghetti westerns, are notable for their
replacing the American romanticism of the west,
with violence and bloodshed. In actual fact, the
more well known westerns, such as Once
Upon a Time in the West, and The
Good, The Bad and the Ugly were produced
during these times, making a star of a lesser
known actor Clint Eastwood, a hit director of
Serio Leone, made Enrico Morricone THE man for
western music and somewhere along the line gave
Dario Argento one of his first scriptwriting jobs.
Amongst these sometimes hilarious films, came Django.
Django (Franco Nero) is a man who has abandoned
society, and travels the wilds of the American/
Mexican border, dragging a coffin behind him.
Upon seeing a young lady in trouble from some
lecherous locals, Django decides to step in and
save her, executing the miscreants who were abusing
her. He takes the girl, Maria (Lordana Nusciak)
to the closest town, where he discovers the bandits
he executed are part of gang run by a renegade
Major, who own the town, and the people in it.
A loner in black discovers an injustice against
innocents? Get your six shooters, cause thems
fightin' words.
From the opening strains of the song 'Django'
sung with a grand attempt of being reminiscent
of Elvis Presley's Flaming Star, you pretty
much well know what you are in for: the hero wears
black, the bad guys twirl their moustaches and
laugh, the girls dance between the line of demure
and slutty, and guns are the answer to everybody's
problems. The dubbing is bad, but being a movie
where blatantly fake blood drips from the screen
like spilt bolognaise sauce, it is excusable,
and probably expected. Franco Nero cuts a grand
and handsome Clint Eastwood-esque figure, his
icy blue eyes gaze through any scene like a knife
through butter and his screen presence is quite
intimidating.
This film was incredibly popular at its time,
and spawned many unofficial sequels, this mainly
being due to the fact that many European countries
would stick the word 'Django' into
the title of ANY film that Franco Nero starred
in. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to this
film, like most westerns I guess, and it seems
a little hokey. |
| Video |
| The film has restored scenes that have not been
're-mastered' to fit in seamlessly.
In general the picture is OK, but these reintroduced
scenes are apparent from the amount of artefacts,
stains and scratches that fly across the screen.
The color mix is vibrant and in general the picture
has held up well. |
| Audio |
| This being dubbed, the sound is obviously not
going to be in sync with any of the visuals at all.
Now I can understand this being so with the dialogue,
but the sound effects are all over the place as
well, guns fire with the BANG coming a split second
later and bands play music different to what you
are hearing. Funnily enough this doesn't take
away from the feature; it just makes it more antiquated.
The original Italian language track is also provided,
minus English subtitles. |
| Extra Features |
Django: The One and Only (13 minutes 27 seconds)
is a documentary both about Franco Nero and the
character of Django. I actually found this little
featurette more interesting than the feature itself.
Theatrical Trailer (2 minutes 52 seconds) is one
of those SEE!! HEAR!! Type of trailers, with the
voiceover so generic it could have been for any
spaghetti western ever made.
There is also text Filmographies for Nero and Corbucci. |
| The Verdict |
While I am not a fan of the western genre, I will
say I have a great love for the way Sergio Leone
set a scene and filmed his Wild West stereotypes.
Unfortunately, Django doesn't
really cut the mustard, due its aging quite badly.
What was probably a highlight of western adventure
is now hammy and really worthwhile only for comedy
value. This is not for the horror or violence fan
at all.
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