6/10
Somewhat strange and unsual tone that deserves a watch
18 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
(1969) Django The B-stard/ Django the Avenger/ The Strangers Gundown/ Django il bastardo DUBBED SPAGHETTI WESTERN

Co-written and directed by Sergio Garrone that has Django (Anthony Steffen) arriving into town, bringing with him is a grave yard stake with Sam Hawkins (Victoriano Gazzarra) name on it. With the day Sam's and year he died. Except that he is very much alive, as Django plants it on front of the saloon where much of his gunmen is able to see it. And they in turn confront him about it and they are all shot dead before they are able to grab their guns first. The next scene has best of friends, Howard Ross (Jean Louis) making a wager with Rod Murdock (Paolo Gozlino) showcasing two different people tossing a stick of a lit dynamite to one another back and forth. Upon Rod Murdock gazing over the crowd he thinks he has spotted Django, until he became distracted when his friend paid him and looking at the same area again, he has disappeared. It was at midnight, and this time, Django confronts Howard Ross about a previous incident, and he manages to have him follow Django to the graveyard, with Howard seeing his grave yard stake over an empty burial. And just as he begins shooting, Django shoots him Howard dead he conveniently falls into the empty plot. When word has got around Rod Murdock's two friends are deceased, he then instructs and gives two of his loyal men, Brett (Carlo Gaddi) and Williams (Teodoro Corrà) thousands of dollars to find professional gun men to protect him and his younger crazy brother, Hugh Murdock(Lu Kamante). After Rod Murdock receives a grave yard stake that says he is going to be killed on the following day. Scaring Rod Murdock after this premonition, he then orders his new band of gun men to kick all of the townspeople out. Especially after, Hugh kills the town's sheriff in cold blood, as well as other residents, viewers finally realize that the two Murdock's pretty much owns the small town. After Django passes by a saloon and spots a specific liquor bottle, it was at this point, we go back to memory lane, that Django used to be part of the confederacy when his best friend, Evans sneaks a bottle of liquor into camp, and Django decides to share it with his superiors, Major Rod Murdock, Captain Howard Ross and Lieutenant Sam Hawkins 13 years ago. And after finding they were not in their tent, and discovering that the knife that was used to kill the guardsman belonged to one of them, they then put two and two together that after the ambush by the Yankees that the infantry group was being double crossed. That they were being bribed with money by the other side, assuming that the entire confederacy army had been dead, Django happens to be the only survivor. Meanwhile Rod's younger brother, Hugh devises a scheme to send his money hungry wife, (Emy Rossi Scotti) to send her to hand Django a bunch of money stored in small container. But as soon as she successfully sees him, Hugh then pulls a gun on him. Django manages to escape with Hugh manage to injure him. At this point Django has no gun and is escaping with his life, who manage to scare a portion of his pre-paid gun men that want to return the money given to them. After all been said and done, this only leaves four remaining gun men left with Hugh slipping away to head to the town's church. He manages to sneak a noose around Django's neck, but his plan backfired when Django manages to grab a knife from his boot, forcing Hugh to fall to his death. When one of Rod's men notifies him about it, he frantically goes after Hugh assuming he might still be alive at the church. Django takes advantage of this managing to shoot and kill the remaining of his gunmen before the final confrontation with by the time rod comes out, he sees a wooden stake placed on front of him so he can see it, and Django successfully reaches for his gun first, Rod plops right on front of the stake. And as he leaves Hughes wife then goes after Django holding the container full of money.

When I first saw this movie, I was unable to get into it, because it did not consist some of the same tone as the first "Django" movie that starred Franco Nero. But then after watching it again, I realize this movie has some original aspects to it by turning the hero "Django" into a kind of a mythical figure that cannot be tampered with. Perhaps if I had saw this with it's original language of either Spanish or Italian with English subtitles, I would have notice it's originality in terms of the approach.
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