Wonderful Westerns: ‘Django’ (1966)
We now enter a quite possibly the most famous sub-genre of Westerns, and that is the Spaghetti Western. For those that are unaware: a Spaghetti Western is a Western film that’s filmed in Italy and is directed by an Italian director. Pretty simple.
While the Spaghetti Western and tradition Western have a lot in common, there are many things that make the former stand out significantly when it comes to the genre. Long takes, extreme closeups, a score by Ennio Morricone or Luis Bacalov, antiheroes, quickdraw duels, and one or two moments that can be seen as slightly silly.
But for our first outing into the dusty landscapes of Italy, we’re not going to be looking at a Sergio Leone film; we’ll be looking at a film by a different Sergio — Sergio Corbucci.
Corbucci’s Westerns are definitely a horse of a different color, and Django is a perfect example of this. The story of a wandering, coffin-dragging Civil War vet named Django (Franco Nero) as he comes to a border town and is caught in the middle of a feud between the KKK and a group of Mexican bandits.
I’m sure some of you are pointing out that this sounds very similar to Leone’s Western A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and, in a way, yes (for the record: yes, I will talk about Leone’s Man With No Name trilogy at some point). But with Django, we’re shown a much more brutal and savage west. You get this straight out of the gate during the open credits.
We see the eponymous gunman sluggishly marching while dragging a coffin through the dirt and mud. Just watching that first scene, two scenes strike you: one, this is almost the polar opposite of the typical Western with a hero riding through a marvelous, if not dusty, landscape. Here, we see a sad former cavalry soldier (just based on his pants) drudging through the mud to his destination. Two, it’s obvious Tarantino is a fan given how very similar this is to the opening scene of his Western, Django Unchained (2012).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQKKOjXIwuA
Speaking of the opening, I’d like to take a moment and say that the song used in the intro by Luis Bacalov is without a doubt one my favorite movie songs of all time. From Bacalov’s excellent arrangement to Rocky Roberts almost Orbison-like voice, it’s just so amazing!
Now Django himself isn’t too far off from Clint Eastwood’s no-named drifting gunman, but there’s one difference between them: their motivation. Eastwood’s character — who I’ll refer to as Joe (his character name Fistful) — is looking to redeem himself because of an event in his past. But for Django, he’s pretty much giving up on life because of an event in his past, which does have ties to one of the villains, Maj. Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo).
Another aspect of this film’s rather gritty nature is for the fact that for a while this was considered one of the most violent movies. Though, of course, given how we’ve had films like Saw (2004), that has since changed. But think about it: during this time, no one had seen a movie in which a guy gets his ear cut off and then brutally shot. Although, that’s not the worst part. No, the most brutal part comes near the end with Django and… well, I don’t want to spoil anything, but look up famed guitarist Django Reinhardt and take a look at his hand. That should give a foreshadowing of future events.
While this isn’t my favorite Spaghetti Western, or even my favorite Corbucci film, it’s still a pretty good film and its cool to see how this influenced Tarantino and Django Unchained. Give it a watch. As for the countless “sequels” out there, only one is an official sequel released in 1987 called Django 2 and features Nero reprising his role. I haven’t seen it so I can’t say anything about it yet. If you have, let me know what you thought in the comments!
