Django

Rating:
Summary: Mud, Blood and Brilliance
Review: This is a classic spaghetti western and an unforgettable film. Filmed on a low budget in the Spanish winter of 65/66, it shows an inventiveness and exuberance that takes the whole genre forward by the scruff of the neck. Hauntingly atmospheric, brilliantly designed and full of almost non-stop action, it repays endless viewings. A particular bonus with this release is the option of a subtitled Italian-language track, which means (a) that you don't have to listen to the awful English version and (b)you get a taste of the original script, which sometimes differs markedly from the dubbed version. The extras include enlightening interviews with Franco Nero and Ruggero Deodato, and a bonus 10-minute monochrome short (stylised and wordless) featuring Nero as an ageing gunslinger, which is worth a look. The main disappointment is the poor quality of some scenes due to the DVD being sourced from a damaged negative. According to the sleeve, this had been found in an Italian vault, "untouched for three decades" - but the British Film Institute was able to source a pristine version for the UK cinema and video release in 1991. Apart from that, full marks for presentation. If you want a lesson in how to make an action masterpiece on a shoestring budget then this is the film for you.

Rating:
Summary: Italian Film Making at its Worst- BORING
Review: This is an overated film and I have heard that it was always great. Once I got around to renting it, I was sorely mislead, not only by all the hype this piece of junk got, but by the reviews, who wrote them anyways? If you watch the DVD extra on the making of the film, the actor talks about how they didn't have a script or money for most of the film, and I said to myself, "that is why its so bad." And truly, this is one bad piece of film making, played by bad actors, on bad, dirty sets on some abandoned Spanish/Italian back lot. The absurd plot puts Django, some half drunk injun carrying a loaded coffin with a 800 lb Maxim machine gun, which was used out of context in the film, because it never was cooled or ran out of bullets. He visits a sect of "red hooded" hooligans who look stupid with the red hoods as they shoot mexicans for fun. Okay, who wrote the script, a 12 year old? The Mexican bandits are even worse, they shoot anyone. There's a terrible scene where Djano shoots 120 of the red hooded bad guys without burning the barrel of the gun or running out of ammo, nice touch. In effect, this is a film without a basis, and the only thing remotely resembling interest is the young, blue eyed, non-English speaking early role of (Nero). Grade D.



Rating:
Summary: A guy who loves spaghetti westerns is disapointed
Review: Too many Corbucci films are inept, sloppy, and cartoonish. Speed Racer can be less cartoonsish. (see Navajo Joe). Django is not the worst but it is also no exception.
Two clever ideas in the film - a laconic anti-hero drags around a coffin with a machine gun inside
and a showdown in a graveyard with an interesting use of a cross.
That's it.
Otherwise -
Silly unconvincing action scenes - Django holds off dozens of incredibly stupid bad guys by sitting behind a log in the middle of a street. No one thinks to come up from the sides and behind?
Bad guys come off like Snidely Whiplash. And this may be insulting to poor Snidely.
The editing is uninspired.
Continuity errors (for some inexplicable reason a unconsious woman keeps changing positions on bridge - this is actually funny)
The violence and action are unrealistic and stupid. Just because Tarantino may have borrowed the infamous ear-eating scene does not make the movie any better. Incidentally the ear looks like a fig, and the scene is even sillier with the inane acting and dubbing involved.
Franco Nero's understated anti-hero style acting is completely ruined be hokey dialogue and a dubbed voice that sounds like Casper Milquetoast.
Worst of all - there is no film-making-style, especially for a spaghetti western.
Anchor Bay's version looks and sounds only OK but I doubt the film ever looked or sounded very good.
Quality spaghetti westerns can be very engaging but its hard to understand why this one was so popular Maybe it comes off better dubbed into German - for some reason it was very popular in Germany.
I gave this film two stars but not for its merits but for its place in history as being the predecessor of many other far superior spaghetti westerns. Had the sound, picture, dialgue and dubbing quality been better I may have squeezed out three stars.