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Django (1966)

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As soon as the familiar Spaghetti Western tones hit, you know you’re going to be in for a treat and that’s what this film certainly is. Franco Nero plays the character that would eventually become synonymous with his name; the mythical Django. The story takes more than it’s fair share of influence from Sergio Leone’s ‘Dollar’ trilogy, and the plot of this film is pretty much a re-run of the plot that Leone took from Kurosawa’s Yojimbo to make ‘A Fistful of Dollars’. We follow the title character, a man that carries his ‘burial suit’ around with him (that’s a coffin to you and me) and saves a young woman from being killed by a group of bandits. When Django takes her back to town, he finds himself in the middle of a feud between those bandits and a group of Mexicans, a situation that he hopes to make the best of for himself…

It’s impossible not to see how Leone’s westerns have influenced this film. However, Sergio Corbucci hasn’t merely stolen and the result is somewhat original. The classically styled score blends well with the images shown on screen, and some of the sequences in the film are truly powerful. Franco Nero may well be no Clint Eastwood, but he brings charm and credibility to his character and does well with the role, even if he is perhaps slightly too pretty to pull it off to the extent that it could have been done to. The film features lots of mud (yes, mud), and this gives it the dirty, downtrodden feel that is congruent with what audiences have come to expect from the spaghetti western sub-genre. The title tune, which is about the central character is very over the top, and almost comes across as being comical; but it’s a part of the Django film and like the rest of it; very fun and easy to like. If you like Leone’s westerns (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?), you’ll like this.