DJANGO
1966 Italy / Spain
Director: Sergio Corbucci . Interpreters
: Franco Nero, Loredana Nusciak, José Bódalo , Eduardo Fajardo, Angel Alvarez, Rafael Albaicin, Gino Pernice, Luciano Rossi, Jose Terron, Silvana Bacci, Simon Arriaga, Ivan Scratuglia, Erik Schippers, Jose Canalejas , Remo de Angelis, Rafael Vaquero, Guillermo Mendez. Screenplay
: Sergio and Bruno Corbucci.
Photo: Enzo Barboni. Mounting
: Baragli Nino and Sergio Montanari.
Music: Luis Enríquez Bacalov.
Producers: Sergio Corbucci and Manolo Bolognini.
SYNOPSIS : Django is an enigmatic gunslinger who wanders aimlessly and dragging a coffin pit two factions (a group of Confederates led by Colonel Jackson and some Mexican revolutionaries headed by General Rodriguez) that vie for control a semi-abandoned village on the border between Mexico and the United States.
This is a spaghetti that film became a cult favorite among fans of this subgenre and was instrumental in the development of western made in Europe. The film begins with a coffin carried by a man and ends with a plane of a cross on which rests a colt, between the two images tells a story with marked religious connotations of sin, guilt and redemption (the gunman after being subjected to brutal torture he realizes that has been driven by greed and just what should have been done much earlier). The religious references are numerous: the hero behaves like an avenging angel who frees the oppressed, even seeking their own benefit, of a "military " foreign (we are in a borderland between Mexico and the U.S.), the first person who saves a prostitute named Mary who, like Mary Magdalene, will be true throughout the film, the character is betrayed and tortured by those who came to deliver, the foreign army is composed of forty men, magic number that is repeated in the Scriptures, the owner of the saloon that will support you after have been tortured and protect Mary is called Nathaniel, Hebrew name that means something as a gift of God are numerous references to the cross-fire as a purifier of sins, and so on.
Co, 1966 with its director Sergio Corbucci, who had already participated in two eurowesterns ("Slaughter in the Grand Canyon" and "Minnesota Clay" ) became one of the greatest representatives of this subgenus, while its star Franco Nero, who had acted as an actor in a film, it became one of the biggest stars of Westerns made in Europe . Also repeated on two other collaborative core projects first: "Pay to Kill" and "Peers" both set in full Mexican revolution and in which Nero almost repeated the same character of European mercenaries.
The great success of spaghetti, for me, is that Corbucci carried further the principles and findings of Sergio Leone:
By moving the action from the sunny landscapes of Almeria to the muddy landscape of Madrid and surroundings (the film was shot basically in Colmenar Viejo and La Pedriza) brings out the dirty aesthetic, Feist and disheveled, showing us characters who, with his clothes soiled and muddy, move by real mud. And this must be added a ghost town abandoned semi decadent and in which only remain the owner of the saloon and a decrepit prostitutes (the presentation of them is great).
There is a greater glorification of violence. The movie is not only one of the spaghetti in which there are more dead, at least the ones I've seen, but is characterized by rawness, and pointed in his previous westerns of the violent scenes: Mary flogging the presentation of Jackson in a kind of target shooting with Mexicans, famous in which General Rodriguez, who shows us how cruel and sadistic as Jackson, he cuts off the ear of one of Jackson's men and forces to eat (which inspired Tarantino to another no less famous in his "Reservoir Dogs" ) or one in which the director is recreated Rodriguez while men fractured hands Django (idea would resume in, superior to me, "Into Great Silence" ). So no wonder that in 1966 had problems being released in some countries (in Spain was released in Britain censured and could not see, from what I read, until 1993)
are promoted the characteristic traits of Leo's antihero, and increase its brevity and its amorality (both Man without a name and Manco, although characterized by their greed, are capable of carrying out some kind of action shows some generosity on the other hand, while looking Django here, almost to the end, his own benefit).
Moreover, Corbucci gives us a handful of scenes of high impact, unlike what happens in most of the spaghetti, remain in memory:
-The beginning with the protagonist dragging the coffin (the symbol of a painful past) through the mud is hypnotic and you hooked to the film, besides showing a man who seems to wander without a fixed course.
"The confrontation with the men of Jackson holding Django Gun is great.
"The outcome is marvelous and a visual richness seldom surpassed in this subgenre, and it shows us, finally, a hero in a supreme effort to get back to the straight path abandoned it long ago.
And all this must be added an outstanding job of setting work of one of the greatest practitioners of this subgenre, Carlo Simi, and a great soundtrack of Argentina Luis Enriquez Bacalov that has a great theme song highly successful in his day, repeated throughout the film in different variations and a successful and varied number of incidental issues, some Mexican-inspired, fully inserted into the action but obviously not up to the principal.
As for interpretations, Franco Nero I think is gorgeous as the gunman lethal short, because we know that in a country where "a word is too little and two" have to be very hard to survive. With him Loredana Nusciak woman of great beauty, perfectly fits the role of Mary the prostitute who will save Django and who, with his attitude, get it redeems and two great side developed a successful career with numerous appearances in this subgenre: Eduardo Fajardo as the chief American and José Bódalo as the head of the robbers, two people representing two sides of same coin. Both comply with their roles, but I sincerely believe that they could have gotten more out if they had developed more characters that are fairly stereotyped as racist the first Southern man with a behavior close to that of Ku Kus Klan, while the second is presented as a somewhat uneducated Mexican, womanizer and party animal. I think special mention must be made by Angel Alvarez, another of those great English film side, which is Nathaniel embodying perfect.
So much for that, to me, are the positive aspects of the film to explain the fame of it, but I think, having seen three times in the last year, which weakens it in the history ( suspiciously similar to "A Fistful of Dollars" ) and after about forty minutes of fast paced and a great work in the direction of Corbucci, the film drops drastically in the central part approximately from the unnecessary scene the fight in the mud of the prostitutes and the arrival of Mexican bandits, and will not return to pick up the portentous graveyard scene. In this part it seems that the film lurching and history, as well as losing credibility, is characterized by uncertainty. Even the work becomes more routine Corbucci.
Through a friend I can see the full version goes on sale in Argentina with a quality far superior to the edition sold pretty sloppy at the time by Filmax. Let's see if once taken such as English distributors.
In short, despite its imperfections, which in any case I think they are lower than their findings, a film in the evolution of the spaghetti western that summarizes how few stylistic and thematic characteristics of this subgenre. Therefore essential for any fan who wants to understand what was done in the western Europe.
SCORE:
HISTORY: 7
AMBIENTE: 10
ADDRESS: 8
ACTORS: 8
MUSIC: 8
MEDIA: 8.2
Additional Review
This is a spaghetti that film became a cult favorite among fans of this subgenre and was instrumental in the development of western made in Europe. The film begins with a coffin carried by a man and ends with a plane of a cross on which rests a colt, between the two images tells a story with marked religious connotations of sin, guilt and redemption (the gunman after being subjected to brutal torture he realizes that has been driven by greed and just what should have been done much earlier). The religious references are numerous: the hero behaves like an avenging angel who frees the oppressed, even seeking their own benefit, of a "military " foreign (we are in a borderland between Mexico and the U.S.), the first person who saves a prostitute named Mary who, like Mary Magdalene, will be true throughout the film, the character is betrayed and tortured by those who came to deliver, the foreign army is composed of forty men, magic number that is repeated in the Scriptures, the owner of the saloon that will support you after have been tortured and protect Mary is called Nathaniel, Hebrew name that means something as a gift of God are numerous references to the cross-fire as a purifier of sins, and so on.
Co, 1966 with its director Sergio Corbucci, who had already participated in two eurowesterns ("Slaughter in the Grand Canyon" and "Minnesota Clay" ) became one of the greatest representatives of this subgenus, while its star Franco Nero, who had acted as an actor in a film, it became one of the biggest stars of Westerns made in Europe . Also repeated on two other collaborative core projects first: "Pay to Kill" and "Peers" both set in full Mexican revolution and in which Nero almost repeated the same character of European mercenaries.
The great success of spaghetti, for me, is that Corbucci carried further the principles and findings of Sergio Leone:
By moving the action from the sunny landscapes of Almeria to the muddy landscape of Madrid and surroundings (the film was shot basically in Colmenar Viejo and La Pedriza) brings out the dirty aesthetic, Feist and disheveled, showing us characters who, with his clothes soiled and muddy, move by real mud. And this must be added a ghost town abandoned semi decadent and in which only remain the owner of the saloon and a decrepit prostitutes (the presentation of them is great).
There is a greater glorification of violence. The movie is not only one of the spaghetti in which there are more dead, at least the ones I've seen, but is characterized by rawness, and pointed in his previous westerns of the violent scenes: Mary flogging the presentation of Jackson in a kind of target shooting with Mexicans, famous in which General Rodriguez, who shows us how cruel and sadistic as Jackson, he cuts off the ear of one of Jackson's men and forces to eat (which inspired Tarantino to another no less famous in his "Reservoir Dogs" ) or one in which the director is recreated Rodriguez while men fractured hands Django (idea would resume in, superior to me, "Into Great Silence" ). So no wonder that in 1966 had problems being released in some countries (in Spain was released in Britain censured and could not see, from what I read, until 1993)
are promoted the characteristic traits of Leo's antihero, and increase its brevity and its amorality (both Man without a name and Manco, although characterized by their greed, are capable of carrying out some kind of action shows some generosity on the other hand, while looking Django here, almost to the end, his own benefit).
Moreover, Corbucci gives us a handful of scenes of high impact, unlike what happens in most of the spaghetti, remain in memory:
-The beginning with the protagonist dragging the coffin (the symbol of a painful past) through the mud is hypnotic and you hooked to the film, besides showing a man who seems to wander without a fixed course.
"The confrontation with the men of Jackson holding Django Gun is great.
"The outcome is marvelous and a visual richness seldom surpassed in this subgenre, and it shows us, finally, a hero in a supreme effort to get back to the straight path abandoned it long ago.
And all this must be added an outstanding job of setting work of one of the greatest practitioners of this subgenre, Carlo Simi, and a great soundtrack of Argentina Luis Enriquez Bacalov that has a great theme song highly successful in his day, repeated throughout the film in different variations and a successful and varied number of incidental issues, some Mexican-inspired, fully inserted into the action but obviously not up to the principal.
As for interpretations, Franco Nero I think is gorgeous as the gunman lethal short, because we know that in a country where "a word is too little and two" have to be very hard to survive. With him Loredana Nusciak woman of great beauty, perfectly fits the role of Mary the prostitute who will save Django and who, with his attitude, get it redeems and two great side developed a successful career with numerous appearances in this subgenre: Eduardo Fajardo as the chief American and José Bódalo as the head of the robbers, two people representing two sides of same coin. Both comply with their roles, but I sincerely believe that they could have gotten more out if they had developed more characters that are fairly stereotyped as racist the first Southern man with a behavior close to that of Ku Kus Klan, while the second is presented as a somewhat uneducated Mexican, womanizer and party animal. I think special mention must be made by Angel Alvarez, another of those great English film side, which is Nathaniel embodying perfect.
So much for that, to me, are the positive aspects of the film to explain the fame of it, but I think, having seen three times in the last year, which weakens it in the history ( suspiciously similar to "A Fistful of Dollars" ) and after about forty minutes of fast paced and a great work in the direction of Corbucci, the film drops drastically in the central part approximately from the unnecessary scene the fight in the mud of the prostitutes and the arrival of Mexican bandits, and will not return to pick up the portentous graveyard scene. In this part it seems that the film lurching and history, as well as losing credibility, is characterized by uncertainty. Even the work becomes more routine Corbucci.
Through a friend I can see the full version goes on sale in Argentina with a quality far superior to the edition sold pretty sloppy at the time by Filmax. Let's see if once taken such as English distributors.
In short, despite its imperfections, which in any case I think they are lower than their findings, a film in the evolution of the spaghetti western that summarizes how few stylistic and thematic characteristics of this subgenre. Therefore essential for any fan who wants to understand what was done in the western Europe.
SCORE:
HISTORY: 7
AMBIENTE: 10
ADDRESS: 8
ACTORS: 8
MUSIC: 8
MEDIA: 8.2
Additional Review
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