Share and Follow
Euro International Films
Sometimes, capturing the right ambiance can elevate a film to cinematic greatness. This is certainly the case with Sergio Corbucci’s iconic 1966 spaghetti Western, “Django,” now available for free on Pluto TV. The film’s somber and jaded mood arguably overshadows its fragmented storyline, simplistic characters, and sensationalized violence. Following in the footsteps of Sergio Leone’s seminal works like 1964’s “A Fistful of Dollars”—the film that Clint Eastwood credits for transforming his career—and 1965’s “For a Few Dollars More,” Corbucci’s “Django” seized the genre’s burgeoning popularity by delivering a work that was both shockingly brutal and intriguingly innovative for its era.
Filmed with a limited budget across Italy and Spain, “Django” achieved commercial success and kicked off Corbucci’s unofficial “Mud and Blood” trilogy, propelling Franco Nero into stardom. Nero reprised this iconic role once more in the only official sequel, 1987’s “Django Strikes Again,” and paid homage to it several times throughout his career, most notably in Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed “Django Unchained,” which drew inspiration from Corbucci’s original film.
Because of its intense and graphic violence, “Django” faced bans in the U.K. and several other countries for almost 30 years, only seeing a video release in 1993. In hindsight, these bold decisions contributed to its cult status, preserving its fierce and unrestrained essence for nearly six decades. However, it is the film’s raw, barren beauty captured through its direction and cinematography, paired with Nero’s compelling presence, that has cemented “Django” as a timeless classic in the Western genre.
Euro International Films
Django’s brute vision of revenge, justice, and greed
Euro International Films
The film opens with a striking image: a gritty and lone gunslinger, Django (Franco Nero), dressed in a Union soldier uniform and dragging a wooden coffin in the mud on the U.S.-Mexico border while Luis Bacalov’s balladic theme roars in the background. An iconic intro (that Tarantino borrowed along with the titular name) immediately sets the mood, followed closely by a bloody encounter. As Mexican bandits are tying up a mixed-race sex worker, Maria (Loredana Nusciak), and planning to whip her to death, Django quietly observes from a distance. Then, a group of Red Shirts, under the command of ex-Confederate Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo), intervenes and massacres the gang. Maria is left alive but only to be crucified by the vicious supremacists when Django steps in, shoots them dead, and saves her.
Together, the two head to the town close by, populated only by sex workers, a bartender, and a devout Christian who turns out to be a spy. The place serves as a barren and dilapidated neutral zone between Jackson’s group and the Mexican revolutionaries who arecurrently at war with each other.
When Django arrives, he’s caught in the middle of the conflict, but he’s got a reason to be there. He’s out for revenge — with a plan to avenge his dead lover, murdered by Jackson — yet when the Major pays him a visit with an entourage, Django spares him after killing his men. Shooting him “would be taking advantage,” he remarks. Instead, he tells him to gather all his soldiers and come back for a proper fight. As we later learn, Django also aims to get rich in the process of eliminating Jackson and his bunch, and he needs the Major alive for that. General Rodriguez (Jose Bodalo), the leader of the revolutionaries, whom he happens to know first-hand, is also a key player in the heist.
Rampant yet stylishly elaborate violence made Django a classic
Euro International Films
Based on the plot, it’s not hard to realize that racism, revenge, injustice, and excessive violence (among other familiar Western themes) are the cornerstones of Sergio Corbucci’s film. We’re reassured of that multiple times, most memorably by the Mexican General who introduces the titular character to his men with the line: “This is Django, a thief, a murderer, and an outlaw, but he means more to me than a brother.” Django is no hero or saint, and he gets his comeuppance for his sins along with everybody else.
Although the screenplay becomes more disorderly the further we get in the story, it’s largely redeemed by Corbucci’s stylishly pioneering direction, Enzo Barboni’s raw and evocative cinematography, and Luis Bacalov’s heart-achingly beautiful score. Words matter less in “Django” than the sheer scale of its powerful images — often contrasting flat, listless dialogue — because Corbucci (who co-wrote the script with his brothers Bruno and Franco Rossetti) prefers to speak to us through action and savagery. “Django” is filled with both (from rapid gunfights to mass murders to gory mutilations), and they’re arguably the most vivid and impressive bits that solely focus on delivering a harsh and dark Western exempt from any romanticizing.
Combined with Franco Nero’s gravitas and an apt supporting cast — Angel Alvarez’s constantly worried and subservient bartender is a hoot as far as the film’s black humor goes — “Django” remains a flawed but exceptionally sturdy and salient piece of Italian cinema. No wonder that it spawned over 30 unofficial sequels after its release, as well as numerous efforts from various filmmakers, like Tarantino, who tried to imitate or pay homage to its singular style. It may not have reached the lofty position that some of Sergio Leone’s must-watch spaghetti Westerns hold in the genre, but it’s still an undeniable classic that has stood the test of time.
