Sergio Corbucci (Director)
Big news this week! Quintin Tarantino announced his next movie. He has written and is in the process of casting a Spaghetti Western called Django Unchained. From the reports I have read it is going to be another masterpiece. This film is set to star Franco Nero and Christoph Waltz. I of course can't wait!
That movie is most likely going to take heavy influence from this western. Django is about a drifter who was a former fighter from the north in the Civil War. This stranger totes around a mysterious coffin behind him through all sorts of grime and muck. Django stumbles across a hooker being beaten and fights off her offenders without ever even lifting the brim of his over sized hat. He and she then make their way back to town to find that the only business is a house of ill repute. The same one the woman worked at before she ran off.
Django finds himself in the middle of a war between the white Col. and the Mexican General. With a vested interest in both sides losing Django plays both sides against one another in an attempt to get the better of both of them.
This movie follows the tradition of the westerns made by Italian directors. It is shockingly brutal in its portrayal of violence and it's views on feminism. Apparently this movie was banned in several countries for it's content. I didn't find it to be all that gory. Maybe I am just jaded, but I see worse than this quite a bit now. The most visceral of the scenes is where a man's ear is cut off and fed to him. A scene that QT would "borrow" for his film Reservoir Dogs.
Many of this films scenes and themes would be borrowed for years to come. Robert Rodriguez would almost focus the main character of El Mariachi after Django. This film has a cult following and is shown in repertory theaters all over the country if you can find one. This movie also has one of either the greatest escapes in movie history, or one of the stupidest. I'm not sure.
One part that I loved was the opening and closing theme music. It sounded like a bad Elvis impersonator. I also like it that Nero played what could have been a really campy role totally straight. And that is why I think this film has such a following. His performance should be ranked among some of films most bad ass. I give Django ★★★.
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