DJANGO
MOVIE REVIEW
Django is an Italian
spaghetti western film released in 1966 directed and co-written by Sergio Corbucci,
starring Franco Nero as the title character role alongside Loredana Nasciak,
José Bodalo, Ángel Alvarez, and Eduardo Fajardo. The film follows a Union
soldier-turned-drifter and his partner, a mixed-race prostitute, as they become
embroiled in a fierce, destructive feud between a group of Confederate red-shirts
and a group of Mexican revolutionaries. Capitalizing on the success of Sergio
Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and competing against it, Corbucci's film, like
Leone, is considered a loose and unofficial adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's
Yojimbo.
On the Mexico-United States border, Django, wearing a Union uniform
and dragging a coffin, witnesses Mexican bandits tying a prostitute,
María, to a bridge and whipping her. The
thugs are dispatched by Major Jackson's henchmen - a racist ex-Confederate
officer - who prepare to crucify Maria on a burning cross. Django shoots the
men and offers Maria protection. The couple comes to Nathaniel, a town
inhabited by a tavern and five prostitutes. Nathaniel explains that the city
was a neutral zone in the conflict between Jackson's Red Shirts and General
Hugo Rodriguez's revolutionaries.
Jackson and his
accomplices arrived at the saloon, threatening Nathaniel. Django encounters two
henchmen as they torture a courtesan and mock Jackson and his beliefs. Django
shoots the men dead and challenges Jackson to return with his allies. He then
seduces Maria.
Jackson returns with his
gang. Using his coffin machine gun, Django takes down most of them, allowing
Jackson and a few men to escape. While Nathaniel helps bury the bodies, Django
visits the grave of his ex-lover, Mercedes Zaro, who was killed by Jackson.
Hugo and his revolutionaries arrive and capture Jackson's spy brother,
Jonathan. As punishment, Hugo cuts off Jonathan's ear, forces him to eat it,
and shoots him. Later, Django instructs Hugo, whom he once saved in prison, to
steal Jackson's gold from the Mexican Army's Fort Charriba.
Under the guise of
bringing prostitutes to the soldiers, Nathaniel drives a horse-drawn carriage
containing Django, Hugo, and four revolutionaries, two of whom go by the names
Miguel and Ricardo, who allow them to massacre several soldiers - Miguel uses
Django’s machine Gun, while Django, Hugo, and Ricardo battle for gold. As Django
and the revolutionaries escape, Jackson gives chase but is forced to stop when
the thieves reach the American border. Django asks for his share of the gold,
but Hugo, who wants to use it to fund his attacks on the Mexican government,
promises to pay Django when he is in power.
When Ricardo tries to rape
Maria during the heist party, Django kills him. Hugo allows Django to spend the
night with Maria, but he chooses another prostitute. The prostitutes distracts
the men guarding the gold, and Django enters the house through the chimney.
Stealing the gold from his coffin and firing his machine gun as a diversion, Django
loads the coffin into a cart. Maria begs Django to take her with him.
Arriving at the bridge
where they first met, Django tells Maria that they must part ways, but Maria
begs him to give up the gold so they can start a new life together. When Maria's
gun misfires and the coffin falls to the sand below. Django almost drowns while
trying to retrieve the gold, and Maria is wounded by Hugo's men while trying to
rescue him. Miguel breaks Django's hands as punishment for being a thief, and
Hugo's gang heads to Mexico. Jackson and his army massacred the revolutionaries
who arrived there. Django and Maria return to the saloon, only to find
Nathaniel, whom Django tells them must kill Jackson to stop the bloodshed.
Jackson realizes that Django
is waiting for him at Tombstone Cemetery and kills Nathaniel. Resting behind Zaro’s
cross, Django pulls the trigger guard from the revolver with his teeth and
raises it against the cross as Jackson's group arrives. Believing Django to be
praying, but unable to make the sign of the cross with his deformed hands,
Jackson mockingly throws the corners of Zaro's cross. Django then pulls the
trigger on the cross, killing Jackson and his men. Django jumps out of the tomb,
leaving the pistol on Zaro's cross.
The film gained a
reputation as one of the most violent films made at the time and was
subsequently denied certification until 1993 when it received an 18 certificate
in the United Kingdom. A commercial success upon release, Django gained a large
cult following outside of Italy and is widely regarded as one of the best films
of the Spaghetti Western genre, with the direction, Nero's performance, and
Luis Bacalov's score often praised.
Although the name was
mentioned in more than 30 "sequels" until the early 1970s, capitalizing
on the success of the original film, most of these films were unofficial and
did not feature Corbucci or Nero. Nero reprised the role of Django in 1987's
Django Strikes Again, the only official sequel produced with Corbucci's
involvement. Nero made a cameo appearance in Quentin Tarantino's 2012 film
Django Unchained. Early critics and scholars of Corbucci's Westerns consider
Django the first in the director's "mud and blood" trilogy, which
includes The Great Silence and The Specialists.
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