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

In the opening scene a lone man walks, behind him he drags a coffin. That man is Django. He rescues a woman from bandits and, later, arrives in a town ravaged by the same bandits. The scene for confrontation is set. But why does he drag that coffin everywhere and who, or what, is in it?

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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

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mark Damon was originally considered for the role of Django.

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Goofs

The bartender Nathaniel accompanies the piano-player on the fiddle, but his violin has no bridge; the strings run off the end of the fingerboard and directly to the tailpiece. The most any player could get out of such an arrangement would be a couple of high-pitched squeaks.

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Quotes

Django: Tell Jackson I'll be waiting at the cemetary. Understand? There's just the two of us now. I'll be waiting.

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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 Blindman (1971)

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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

Mystical central figure

At least in Europe, this other spaghetti western variation of Kurosawa's Yojimbo was probably even more influential than the film that created the genre, A Fistful of Dollars, with countless imitations, rip-offs, sequels, remakes. The title hero is again very different from traditional Western heroes, but this time he is a much more mystical (almost religious) figure than even the man with no name, and the places he goes to are even dirtier and more desperate and downtrodden than any place we would find in a Leone Western.

The impressive opening sequence shows Django dragging a coffin behind him through a muddy and featureless landscape, accompanied by Bacalov's title song (not Morricone, for a change), heading for his first battle. The coffin, his dark coat, and the mystique around him make him appear like an angel of death, invoking associations with the Red Death character in Roger Corman's Masque of the Red Death. Django is not quite as untouchable and supernatural, but the body count in his trace is comparable.