Django, Prepare a Coffin (1968)

For most of us the only interaction we've ever had when it came to spaghetti westerns (those westerns made by Italian directors and companies in the 60s and 70s) were the Clint Eastwood films in the genre. What many may not be aware of is the fact that there were a ton of these movies made. In addition to that was the fact that several series were made in the genre. Perhaps the most well-known was Django. With director Quentin Tarantino bringing the character into today's films a few years ago, interest in the previous movies has piqued the interest of movie fans. Now one has received the Arrow Video treatment.DJANGO PREPARE A COFFIN begins with Django (Terence Hill) turning down a job opportunity from David Barry (Horst Frank) after saving him from an angry land owner. Barry is in the process of taking as much land as possible and building an empire for himself in the hope of becoming a large political figure for the area. After turning down the job, Django, his wife and a small group of settlers head out only to be ambushed, shot and left for dead by Barry's men. Django survives and sets out on a trail of vengeance. He moves to a nearby location where no one knows who he is and takes on the job of local hangman. But this isn't actually the case. Each of his "victims" is instructed on how to behave when they are hung. The reality is that he has them rigged to just appear dead. In return for their lives Django is assembling a group of men he considers innocent and victims of an unjust system as well. These are the men he hopes to use as his gang when taking on the despicable Barry. Apparently he didn't choose the men carefully enough as one leads the rest to abandon him and steal a shipment of gold before Barry's gang can reach it. His treachery continues and Django is caught by Barry and his men and tortured. Left while they attempt to catch the men who stole the gold, Django finds a way to set himself free and continues on his quest for revenge against both Barry and the men that betrayed him.The movie offers plenty of action and story, perhaps more than many films in the genre. Django is the clear hero here but he doesn't use the heroic methods we've become accustomed to in most westerns. He's quick with a gun but uses his head to better effect. Hill is the perfect choice for the role having had success in several other spaghetti westerns before and after, most notably the Trinity series. But that comedic attitude isn't on display here, instead opting for a more deadly character portrayal. Not having collected movies in this genre before my best guess is that quality prints have been hard to find and both bootleg and lesser quality prints have had to suffice for fans. Not so any longer as Arrow Video has given this film their standard love and care. What we have is a stunning quality print to view for fans and just movie lovers both. Perhaps the only thing lacking in their version is the amount of extras to be found. I'm not a lover of extras but that's become different with Arrow. Their extras are almost always new and refreshing compared to most. Here they limit it to a short called Django Explained" a new interview with Spaghetti Western expert and author Kevin Grant and the theatrical trailer.That being said it remains a quality product and one that fans will want to add to their collection. Non-fans will want to make sure they give it a watch just to see how good these movies were. And Arrow fans will add this to their collections as well, knowing the quality they'll receive when they do so.

Django, you are a gullible one. Haven't you seen all them Spaghetti Westerns starring Horst Frank? He's not a good employer! Django finds this out the hard way when, following a successful election for Frank, Django gets ambushed transporting gold, his wife gets killed, and he gets turned into a vigilante killer! Worse still, he ends up taking a job as the hangman, but with motives! His motives involve not actually hanging folks as they are being framed by Horst Frank and sidekick giant George Eastman. So Django is forming his own little army of not-dead guys to get revenge on Frank and Eastman. Can he trust them? There's a gigantic amount of double crossing in this film which almost threatens to derail the entire film. Some of Django's guy double cross him, and then each other, until you stop caring about what's happening on screen and hope that at some point people will stop double crossing each other and you can just get to the big fight at the end.George Eastman is good in this one and has a memorable death. Terence Hill in non-comedy mode is pretty good (He's basically Franco Nero with a pointier nose) and I'm watching too many of these films now as Horst Frank seems to be in most of them and it's hard to separate what he does in one film from the other.This one plays out like an average Spag Western but there are enough quirks in there to make worth watching once. I love the way Arrow DVD have very slyly packaged the film so that unsuspecting folks would be it thinking they've bought Django Unchained!

Slow, boring and visually dead, this stinker doesn't come close to the original. The reason isn't mysterious: the director Ferdinando Baldi was no Sergio Corbucci.An assistant of the great Leone, Corbucci was a poet of ugliness. His mud-soaked towns, leering hookers, sadistic racists, and unforgettable image of Franco Nero dragging his coffin through it all made Django (1966) a high point in the genre. This was the western without Hollywood's vigorous airbrushing: Django an anti-hero shooting holes in the Klan and unsavory allies alike, his penitential coffin hauled through the muck of a corrupt post-Civil War society.Baldi is just a hack trying his best. Operating with no budget and rather less of a script, he turns in something like a bad, overlong TV episode. You get the watchable Terrence Hill, but few will want to suffer the bland cinematography and craptacular pace.

Here is a early film of Terence Hill as Django, the legendary machine-gunning mystery man always bent on revenge. This is a terrific film and the best Django since the original with Franco Nero. Terence Hill plays the part perfectly & along with a very good cast. Django had always been one of my favorite western characters. The character is always so dark and without the pretentiousness that some westerns have at times. If you like westerns that are dark & all about revenge you will really enjoy this. The soundtrack is great with the usual belting out of "DJANGOOOO!!!" that you'll find in various songs that are in the other 857645645645645 Django movies. If you ever find a copy of this film pick it up for sure, it is almost impossible to find these days.