The man with the coffin

Django (1966)

In the future I guess Django will eventually become synonymous for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012), which has very little to do with this movie, apart from the name and a small cameo by Franco Nero. So this is my feeble attempt to bring some life to this classic so that it's not totally forgotten. This one has quite a many similarities to Sergio Leone's classic A Fistful of Dollars (1964), a mysterious stranger comes to a small town torn between two groups of criminals and kicks the hornet's nest. So the basic idea is quite a clear copy, but so was A Fistful of Dollars (1964) from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), so it's a bit easier to look past that. Otherwise this is a movie that stands surprisingly well with the others. Sure, it doesn't quite raise to the same level, but still well deserves a spot in the history of spaghetti westerns. Franco Nero is brilliant as Django, the coffin-dragging gunslinger. And speaking of the coffin, what's inside results in one of the most memorable scenes in the history of spaghetti westerns. At this point of his career, before he became the second big name in spaghetti westerns, Sergio Corbucci coming from mostly comedies implemented a lot of humour into the story. That humour is the key why this movie works so well. Had it taken itself too seriously it would have just turned out to be a sad ripoff from a popular movie, but as it doesn't it gets to have a voice of it's own. Don't get me wrong, it's not all laughs, there's still surprisingly good drama in there as well. And another thing that sets this one apart is that Corbucci's West is not the same dry and hot West of Leone, it's a muddy, dirty and cold God forsaken land. That creates a nice contrast on the comedy and drama. Sure the plot is rather predictable and some of the acting is quite bad, but those are things you should already expect in a spaghetti western. The theme by Luis Bacalov gets stuck to your head and some of the shots by Enzo Barboni are quite brilliant. So all in all it's a great spaghetti western and does what is expected brilliantly.
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