Customer Reviews

Django & Django Strikes Again

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Django was director's Sergio Corbucci pet project for a couple of years (he hardly finished the film, as half way through he ran out of money). It features italian actor Franco Nero in one of his first roles ever (he had been working as a fireman prior to making this film), and the film would spawn many other rip off's in name only. It remained so popular, that in Germany whenever there is a film with Franco Nero in it, they use the Django name (even if the film takes place nowadays). As far as the story goes, it features a black-clad gunslinger dragging a coffin through the mud, he arrives in a border town and pulls out a machine-gun from his coffin, killing about everyone in sight. The bad guys, of course don't appreciate this, and start torturing the locals. Among the tortures, there is the infamous ear-slicing scene that probably inspired Tarantino's in Reservoir Dogs, only that here it goes beyond anything you could have imagined (I'm referring to the uncut and uncensored version of this film, which I hope is the same as this DVD). Afterwards, a series of further tortures and sadism ensues, until our hero, against all odds, must beat the bad fuys in a cemetary. An incredible film, not for the faint-hearted, that included among it's crew members, director of photography Enzo Barboni, who would later on make the Trinity films (featuring a Franco Nero look-alike in Terence Hill) and Ruggero Deodato, who would make the infamous Cannibal Holocaust (when will this gorefest be released in DVD?). Django would also influence the Jimmy Cliff reggae gangster film The Harder They Come, which covers pretty much the same story. Django Strikes Again, on the other hand, is among the worst sequels ever made (hence, the overall 3 stars, 5 for Django and 1 for the sequel). Almost entirely shot in Colombia, South America (? ), featuring some of the country's worst local actors along the way. The least said about this inept sequel the better (when will Giulio Questi's Django Kill... If You Live Shoot! starring Tomas Milian be released?).

I won't argue here, the four westerns directed by Sergio Leone in the sixties fly high above the hundreds of spaghetti westerns shot in Spain, Greece, Portugal, Italy or Iceland during the same blessed period. However, this not a reason to overlook the cinematographic works of the outsiders of the italian master. Take Sergio Corbucci's DJANGO for instance. True that Franco Nero doesn't have Clint Eastwood's presence, true that DJANGO's supporting characters can't be compared with Gian-Maria Volontè or Klaus Kinski's hysterical apparitions.

So what, why leave this movie in the overpopulated Purgatory of forgotten movies. I was excited by the duels presented in Django, not by the machine-gun duels too predictible, but rather by the duel in Nathaniel's saloon or the final duel in a cemetery between a Franco Nero dealing with a crushed hand and the bad guys wearing red clothes so that you (and Django) can't miss them when the gunfight starts.

DJANGO STRIKES BACK, set in Mexico but shot in beautiful Colombia 20 years later, is not so exciting but you absolutely have to watch once the prologue of the movie, presented in italian with subtitles. Two pistoleros, well over the 60 years old mark, desperately try, after an hilarious gunfight, to remember the name of this legend of the West, the Man with the machine-gun. The irony of this scene is an excellent homage to Sergio Leone.

Two mini-interviews with Franco Nero, an interactive game for your kids, production notes and trailers complete this limited Anchor Bay edition.

A DVD zone outsiders.

This is a fantastic DVD set with two very entertaining Django movies starring Franco Nero. Both flicks are fun stuff and this is a terrific DVD package with some cool extra features. IT'S GREAT! THANKS ANCHOR BAY!

Not sure about director 'Ted Archer' but one thing is certain: 'Ted Archer' is not Guiseppe Colizzi or Sergio Carbucci! -- however 'Ted' is still a gifted director all the same. Likewise not sure if 'Django Strikes Again' truly qualifies as a spaghetti western or just as an offbeat Italian film? Whatever the case diehard Italian film/spaghetti western lovers will love this movie but everyone else will probably loathe it as we can see from the one-star reviews already submitted. For those of us who love the imagination and intention of these Italian films the movie does not disappoint, especially with the characteristically eccentric performance of Donald Pleasance, as well as a very mature and thoughtful rendition from Franco Nero. The transfer to DVD is excellent in region zero - a nice surprise as well! Italian film/spaghetti western movie lovers will rate this film as four stars, while all others will probably give only one star. In the end though as a creative work it is a great effort based upon a lofty ideal which the film does not quite reach however four out of five stars for trying!

One cannot downplay the fact that DJANGO obviously inspired a number of films, from the spaghetti western through modern cinema. One scene is copied nearly exactly in Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS. Still, appearing two years after Sergio Leone's FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, DJANGO itself was already copying the trilogy of films that have defined the genre. The entire plot of the first film, for example, is nearly exactly that of FISTFUL... and several scenes appear to have been lifted from FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965). The title character as well is an obvious copy of Eastwood's "man with no name." Still, the film is enjoyable, though the direction is uneven and there are several definite lags in the action where you're tempted to turn off the film altogether. The ending redeems these shortcomings, however, and leaves one feeling that the venture was worthwhile.

The audio track on this DVD, from the usually marvelous Anchor Bay, is the major disappointment. While the film looks good, the horrible dubbing is a major distraction and it's clear that the English dialogue does not match what was originally scripted. I know that Anchor Bay works hard to put together the best possible print of a film and sometimes that means dubbed audio instead of subtitled - and it sometimes works if the film itself is good enough to rise above it, but DJANGO is not quite that good. In the liner notes Anchor Bay acknowledges that "in spite of a biting, well-written script for the film, much of [Django's] hard-edged dialogue and tough-guy turns of phrase are lost in a workmanlike translation for the English dub, as is his grizzled baritone vocal delivery, voiced over by a much higher-pitched actor."

The one official sequel, DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN, accompanies the original as a second disc and is of similar quality. While the audio is much improved over the original, too much time has passed and, away from the Old West setting, the character inevitably fails.

It is a pity that these are not better films because Anchor Bay has done one hell of a job with the packaging, especially with the collectible booklet which features poster art and descriptions of most of the over 50 unofficial sequels to DJANGO that appeared between the original and DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN.

Regardless of its flaws, however, this is a keeper, simply because it's not a film you're likely to find elsewhere in any better condition and certainly not accompanied by as many extras as Anchor Bay has included with this package - and it stands as one of the better examples of the genre, despite its inferioty to the Leone/Eastwood pictures. And buy this one while you can if you're interested in both films, because Anchor Bay plans to release DJANGO in an "unlimited" edition, but without DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN.

DJANGO has a wonderfully gritty feel to it. It and other Italian westerns of it's time (e.g., "The Dollars Trilogy") had an enormous effect on American cinema -- first in the Western genre (even the later John Wayne films drew from the Italian West) and then branching into mainstream affairs. Though the character of the antihero, so popular in the spaghetti westerns, had long existed in American film, he lived (and usually died) in the crime noir genre almost exclusively. Until Italy made its mark, westerns were inhabited by absolutes: good guys wore white and bad guys wore black. But if something as pure as the good old fashioned western could be polluted by the noirish antihero elements, so could (and would) all other genres. And so it went.

Franco Nero, as the title character, Django, fulfills perfectly the classic spaghetti western role (as did Eastwood in his own projects). He is the unstoppable, immoral, gunfighter whose only weakness is his conscience. Seemingly indefatigable, he falters only slightly when his heart is touched, and is undone -- only to return to conquer all his opposition. Eastwood follows the identical path in FISTFULL OF DOLLARS.

All told, DJANGO is a fun and entertaining, though not light and inconsequential, glance back to the beginnings of the modern western. My only real complaint with the DVD release is the lack of option concerning subtitles and the original-language track. Especially after the packaging material laments the poor English-language dubbing, I would've been excited to hear the original track (with English subs, of course!).

What a great find for those interested in the spaghetti Western! _Django_ is one of the great films from this tradition, a true classic.

Set in an other-worldly town, where the streets are always muddy, the film creates an unusual, haunting atmosphere. Into this forgotten town trudges the man in black, Django (played by Franco Nero), dragging a coffin behind him. In the coffin is his trusty Gatling gun, which he proceeds to whip out and mow down scores of bad guys.

Director Sergio Corbucci created a truly memorable experience with this film, one of the most violent of all spaghetti Westerns. It is truly on a par with the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood collaborations that most people associate with the genre.

Unfortunately, _Django Strikes Again_ isn't quite in the same league. It is certainly an entertaining film, with Django (again played by Nero) now a monk, perhaps to make up for his former ways, called back into action against a band of slavers who patrol the Amazon River in an armored steamship! You can't get much further from the typical landscape of the Western than the Amazon jungle, which is only one area where the sequel is a bit of a misfire. It's nice to see Franco Nero back in action, but the film doesn't compare well to the original.

Still, Anchor Bay, the company which released this double bill, must be congratulated for taking a chance with this material. Hopefully, sales of this title will warrant the release of more spaghetti Western classics (such as _The Big Gundown_ and _The Great Silence_).

This film is the perfect counterpoint to Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West," which rewards the patient viewer with a slowly unfolding mythic tale that ends up transcending both the American and Spaghetti western genres. Corbucci, as always, is an impatient director, beginning his film not with an interminable wait for a train, but with a simple image of a gunfighter hauling a coffin and saddle (most people forget that little detail) behind him through a muddy wasteland. Enzo Barboni's exquisite camerawork and Luis Bacalov's witty score punctuates this frenetic, modest film. If it weren't for the literally dozens of interchangeable villains (Corbucci has Major Jackson's cretins wear red scarves seemingly so Django and the audience can tell bystanders from bad guys), this probably wouldn't have been such an influential film in Europe. But the extremity of the violence, combined with the comic-book style stunt-work and photography (John Woo points to Peckinpah as a major influence, but one has to wonder how many times he watched Corbucci, too!), is probably what made it such a phenomenon. There's art to this movie--but an art diametrically opposed to Leone's works. For whereas Leone is all suspense--a series of build-ups and crescendi, almost classical in their orientation, concluding with a final, overwhelmingly tense battle--Corbucci seems always in a hurry to get on to the *next* battle. Men fall like ten-pins; bullets fly thick as a swarm of bees; and it's all over usually before any level of suspense ever begins to build. Only the concluding scene, with the mysterious Django struggling to use his beloved's (?) cemetery cross as a desperate replacement for his mangled hands, gestures to anything more than the sum of the film's parts. Great fun for those who don't mind a "Wild Bunch"-like bodycount to go with a whole lot of style but not a whole lot of substance.

Django and its sequel are well known to fans of the Spaghetti Western, legendary for their action, nerve, and impact on the genre. The original is very similar to A Fistful of Dollars (lone gunman comes to a wretched town with two gangs ruling it) but the film appears even more low-budget and nasty than the Leone film. For SW fans, the dvd release is a dream come true. Django Strikes Again is an excellent action film made long after the SW fad had run its course. It manages to be true to the conventions of the genre while still being palatable to a wide modern audience. It has many amazing action scenes, and definitely was worthy of a USA release...but none of the Django films ever appeared here theatrically (and there were over 50 sequels to the original!). Nero is good as the mysterious gunfighter and has matured into a solid presence onscreen. Filmed in Colombia, Django Strikes Back is recommended to any fan of the action genre.

I give the fist movie 3 stars (Django). The other disk...... throw it away I give that movie -3 stars for wasting 90 min. of my life. Buy the vesion that only has Django.