Django (1966)

A coffin-dragging gunslinger and a half-breed prostitute become embroiled in a bitter feud between a Klan of Southern racists and a band of Mexican Revolutionaries.

Director:

Sergio Corbucci

Writers:

Sergio Corbucci (story), Bruno Corbucci (story)

Stars:

Franco Nero, José Canalejas, José Bódalo

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Franco Nero	...	Django
José Bódalo	...	Gen. Hugo Rodriguez (as José Bodalo)
Loredana Nusciak	...	Maria
Ángel Álvarez	...	Nathaniel the Bartender (as Angel Alvarez)
Gino Pernice	...	Brother Jonathan (as Jimmy Douglas)
Simón Arriaga	...	Miguel (as Simon Arriaga)
Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia	...	Klan Member (as Ivan Scratuglia)
Remo De Angelis	...	Ricardo (as Erik Schippers)
Rafael Albaicín	...	Member of Hugo's Gang (as Raphael Albaicin)
José Canalejas	...	Member of Hugo's Gang (as José Canalecas)
Eduardo Fajardo	...	Major Jackson

Storyline

Squelching across a God-forsaken ghost town near the US/Mexican border, always dragging a heavy coffin, blue-eyed Django, a drifting, mud-spattered, former Union soldier, saves runaway María from certain death. But, the wooden container with the mysterious content has already caught the attention of the racist ex-Confederate officer, Major Jackson, and his gang of white supremacists, and before long, things get nasty. Now, the guns have the final say, and as if that weren't enough, Jackson's sworn enemy, General Hugo Rodríguez, and his feared revolutionaries, enter the picture, wanting to have a piece of the action. Can Django, the taciturn stranger with the lighting-fast right hand, take on two armies of murderous henchmen, and live to tell the tale?

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Plot Keywords:

spaghetti western | coffin | revisionist western | django | cowboy | 

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Taglines:

A century ago on the low hills along the border between the southern states and turbulent Mexico, a mystery man appeared... a man with a sad, impenetrable face. Who was that man? What was his secret?

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Genres:

Action | Western

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Major's men wear red scarves over their faces to hide the fact that, because so many extras were otherwise employed on other pictures in the area at the time, they were left with only the "ugliest" ones, who were deemed not menacing enough.

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Goofs

In several scenes, Django's machine gun fires uninterrupted for minutes on end. A machine gun of that kind would most likely overheat in the time used to fire the weapon.

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Quotes

Nataniele: If you're a coffin maker... sure did pick a good town to settle, sure did.

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Alternate Versions

The USA DVD has both the original version, spoken in Italian, and a dubbed English version.

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Connections

Spoofed in Lupin the 3rd: The Mad Fantoma Mark III (1978)

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Soundtracks

Django (theme)
Lyrics by Franco Migliacci (as Migliacci) and Robert Mellin (uncredited)
Composed by Luis Bacalov (as Enriquez)
Conducted by Bruno Nicolai (uncredited)
Performed by Rocky Roberts
Published by General Music [it]

User Reviews

Paint your wagon....RED WITH BLOOD!

Sergio Corbucci's "Django", as well as his "The Great Silence" are two massively underrated spaghetti-westerns that co-founded the genre, along with Sergio Leone's Dollars-trilogy. Okay, this no "Once Upon a Time in the West" when it comes to atmosphere or plotting, but it is a magnificently mounted action ride with an utterly cool lead hero and an enormous body count. "Django" remained banned in several countries for a long time because of its explicit, comic-book like violence, and you'll see that this wasn't without reason, as the bad guys get slaughtered by the dozen in a good old-fashioned gunslinger way. The movie opens terrifically, with a sleazy title song and vicious images of a lonely cowboy wandering through the Southern wastelands with a coffin in tow. The man is Django and his coffin contains whatever he requires to fulfill his difficult goal: single-handedly finishing the war between the racist Major Jackson and Mexican bandidos by annihilating them all. Corbucci implements a straightforward, no-nonsense filming style with some great visuals and very creative camera angles. There are some ingenious aspects (Django's act of vengeance with molested hands) as well as some delicious clichés moments (wrestling prostitutes, extended bar fight sequences...). This film may not be a very intellectual form of entertainment, but it sure is fun and produced with a certain degree of class.

Followed by a numberless amount of sequels, rip-offs and wannabes that are hardly worth purchasing. Stick to the original and have a blast!

Details

Country:

Italy Spain

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

December 1966 (USA)

Also Known As:

Jango

Filming Locations:

Elios Film, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,150, 23 December 2012

Gross USA:

$25,916

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$25,916

Company Credits

Production Co:

B.R.C. Produzione S.r.l., Tecisa

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min 87 min (censored) 88 min (censored)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) (uncredited)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1