Django the Bastard (1974)

All in all, this is a pretty good example of the spaghetti western genre. Aside from a few brief instances in my youth, I haven't really seen that many spaghetti westerns yet (apart from the more popular Clint Eastwood ones), so this was a good introductory experience for me. DJANGO THE BASTARD has the right look and feel about it, with crisp photography capturing the barren desert land and the isolated town just right. The director Sergio Garrone was an old hand at these type of films and his solid direction proves this, providing plenty of interesting camera angles (most notably in the excellent opening scene, showing a stranger walking into town via P.O.V. shots) and good editing. An excellent music score also helps, utilising the classic guitar string music associated with the genre and changing mood when needed to make things more exciting, whenever the situation calls for it.For me, the cast is totally full of unknowns, yet all cast members are fine in their respective roles. The baddies are typically repulsive, although Paolo Gozlino lends just the right touch of class as the boss. Lu Kanante, on the other hand, is a snivelling psychopath who shoots up a street full of men and women while laughing manically. His sudden death is well deserved and a welcome end for this repulsive weirdo. The woman playing his wife (didn't get her name) is also very good, and thankfully her character is a well-rounded one, a woman out for her own benefits. Anthony Steffen takes the role of Django, and while he doesn't have the same screen presence as Clint Eastwood - or, indeed, Franco Nero - he's more than adequate at carrying the film when needed and invests his role with a likability towards the end which really gets us rooting for him.There are plenty of shootouts to enjoy, although a few are poorly edited and therefore lack the necessary thrills. One gun battle between gangs of men is particularly well choreographed. The final twenty minutes are basically a protracted cat and mouse game between Django and the hired hands out to kill him, and is pretty tense. While the film isn't very violent (there's hardly a drop of blood on show), there's a neat trick involving an unfortunate victim getting impaled on a cleaver sticking through a door - you'd have to see it to understand. I also welcomed the addition of a few macabre horror elements into the brew, such as Django placing crosses in front of his victims before killing them, or a few scenes set in cemeteries. There's also an ambiguity surrounding the character of Django, who may or may not be a ghost. This makes things even better in my opinion. DJANGO THE BASTARD may not be a particularly original film, taking too much from what has come before it and relying on a strict revenge theme rather than branching out in new directions, but the execution is fine, making this an easy and enjoyable film to watch.

Django il bastardo directed by Sergio Garrone is a good intersting take on the mutitude of Django movies I have seen. The best are still the original with Franco Nero & the one Terence Hill did. I really feel that the biggest weakness of Django il bastardo was Antonio De Teffè (AKA Anthony Steffen) as Django. He had a great coldness about him but it almost goes a bit too stiff at times. A rather traditional revenge plot that is always ok by me & with a bit of a supernatural tone to it.. Which is both creepy & makes for a good weird western. There are some great scenes in this movie.. The flashback scenes were well done in the sense that you as the viewer are not treated with the "in case you didn't get the hints we dropped.. This is what happened" that I see in other westerns from this era. I would have liked a less rigid Django but Antonio De Teffè did create a different character for Django that I did enjoy. Is he a ghost? Is he real? The crosses bearing the names of the victims, the soon-to-be victims faces reading the crosses with their names on them.. Great stuff. There are some really great scenes, good acting, and a twist on a character I have always enjoyed. I love the soundtrack, again with the usual chants of Django which never get old to me. Worth checking out for sure.

A most unusual item for an Italian western - or for a western from any source. There were probably two-dozen films featuring the Django character first made famous by Franco Nero in Sergio Corbucci's DJANGO in 1966 - and that's just counting the ones with Django in the title. That film spawned as many imitators as the Sergio Leone film FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, and while not all featured the name "Django" in the title, there was a character with that name doing all of the shooting. From what I've seen of a sample of them, they all appear to have the commonality of a hero clad entirely in black. This one stars Anthony Steffen (Antonio De Teffè) who was previously in A FEW DOLLARS FOR DJANGO - thus proving the inspirational sources, or at least the desire to repeat their respective successes. Whatever Steffen lacks in the terms of Eastwood's or even Nero's charisma, he makes up for in his having co-authored the very original screenplay with director Sergio Garrone.Coincidentally, what this may lack in terms of originality of being yet another Django outing, it is actually more of an inspirational venture than an imitation. A gunman apparently returns from the dead to seek vengeance on those who betrayed him. Sound familiar? Does HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER come to mind? Other characters have flashbacks of him in his final moments - in the Eastwood film it is his character who has the flashbacks. Both films feature the gunman spinning around in a chair to shoot a few enemies, but actually that was more an homage on the part of Eastwood and this film's director, Sergio Garrone, to a similar scene in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE. The final shot of both THE STRANGER'S GUNDOWN and HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER is most similar in theme if not in actual execution - in here Django walks rather than rides away.This Django appears in rooms and locales out of nowhere, adding to the horror content - along with a music score similar to the both the Eastwood film, and especially to some Hammer horror outings. One of his calling cards is to announce his arrival with a cross designed as a tombstone - the next victim's name and his date of death is marked on it. Unlike most vengeance seekers, Django is clearly here to avenge his own death. In another scene, he sends three dispatched villains back to town propped on horses with cross-like supports behind them in order that no one realizes until they are close that these men have gone to that great round-up in the sky. The performances are what one would expect - and after all, hard to gauge via the often flat English dubbing. While Paolo Gozlino makes little impression as the head bad guy Rod Murdoch, the character's nutty brother Luke does, here Luciano Rossi provides the film's best performance with a character reminiscent of Klaus Kinski's hunchback in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE - minus the physical affliction. Luke is considered to be so stupid that his brother Rod had to pay a woman to marry him. But Luke isn't so dumb as he's able to capture Django twice - if only momentarily, but that's more than any other character manages to accomplish. Luke is clearly more crazy than dumb, but so are the guys in the Murdoch gang who play a game of catch with a stick of lighted dynamite.Much of the daylight cinematography is poorly lit, yet Gino Santini does an admirable job in the night scenes of which there are plenty. It has its slow spots, and the Civil War scenes appear to be done on the cheap, but overall the "few dollars" appear to have been spent wisely. Not that the VCI transfer helps any - there are lines and scratches, and some color distortion, but at 10 bucks for the DVD, I was happy enough just getting a widescreen transfer.

This unusual horror film is one of the best examples of the spaghetti western genre. The plot is the standard "lone stranger seeking revenge," but in this instance, it's not clear if the stranger is a man or just a ghost. This aspect of the story, which is heightened by spooky music and scenes in fog-filled cemeteries, really sets this film apart.The soundtrack is also excellent, with lots of distorted guitars and sci-fi organ music.