Django (1966)

New, ruthless, violent and armed with both a Gatling gun and
a catchy adult contemporary theme song!
With the recent announcement of Quentin Tarrentino's script "Django Unleashed" moving into pre-production and casting (Big Willie Smith, really?), there is likely to be renewed fan interest in all things "Django." Despite the fact that there are many, MANY movies that carry the moniker "Django" as part of their titles, there is only one ear-cutting, blood-letting, finger-smashing, coffin-toting, Gatling-wielding Spaghetti Western icon worthy of the name, the one introduced in Sergio Corbucci's genre-classic Django starring Franco Nero.

Ranked fifth on the Spaghetti Western Databases Essential Top 20 Films, Dajngo, is described in the following way: "Violence is a trademark of the genre. Corbucci upped the anti with ears bitten off priests and citizens slaughtered with a machine gun, but the skilled pistolero with the army coat and the coffin are what makes this a cult favorite."

Though I had previously described Nero as a "more wooden Gianno Garko" in my consideration of Keoma the Warrior (1976), that presence actually works to great effect in Nero's portrayal of the world weary gunman in this film. Partially set in a dank, muddy border town, Django plays both sides of the Mexican-American feud, using each against he other in a revenge shell-game that often sees our (anti-)hero facing tremendous odds, a number of which he fails to overcome without first suffering a great deal.

Online scuttlebutt has it that Franco Nero will be returning in some capacity to the screen with a role in Tarrentino's film, so there is no better time to check out the real deal. Available as a downloadable film on Netflix, Django has all the earmarks of a classic, entertaining Spaghetti Western: violence, brooding leading man, poor dialogue overdub, and gritty action.