cinema history class: django the bastard

Session: Bring Your Own Spaghetti Western, Week 1
Movie: Django the Bastard (1969)
Directed by Sergio Garrone

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
A veteran seeks vengeance against the officers who sold out his unit during the Civil War. Hilarity ensues.

Administrative Notes:
It has become a class tradition to do a month of Spaghetti Westerns (or Spaghetti Western-related films) every January. It's a change of pace -- a palate-cleanser, as Keith puts it. This year, because several of us have suggested specific SpagWests, Keith decided to let us each pick one for this month's session. This week was Joe's pick.

Reaction:

Before I start, I should note that this movie was also shown under the title The Stranger's Gundown, and that's the name slapped on the trailer above.

One of the most interesting aspects of this movie is the way Django is portrayed as almost a specter. He manages to sneak in and out of view, often showing up in crowds -- keeping himself right under the noses of his adversaries, and yet remaining unnoticed. It seems as if he's a ghost -- a fact that Dave pointed out*. This conceit would later be explored by Clint Eastwood in two of his American Westerns -- High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider.

Anthony Steffen, as Django, is clearly trying to channel Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name. He manages to keep his conversations economical, but, well, he's no Eastwood. That said, the plot is interesting, and didn't lag much. His signature move, presenting wooden crosses with the names of his intended targets and the day he will kill them, is a clever touch, and made for a great visual at the end.  

Actually, the liveliest part of our post-screening conversation concerned an insignificant detail of the movie. In the original Django starring Franco Nero, Django was a former Union soldier. In this, he was a former Confederate. There are a few reasons I say that this was insignificant. Foremost, it had absolutely no bearing on the plot. This movie, having been made in Italy in the 1960s, it's extremely unlikely that anyone involved gave any thought to what side of the war Django was on.

But one in the class found it hard to view Django as a hero -- his visceral reaction to Django as a (presumably unrepentant) Confederate soldier. But, given the context of when it was made, I think it's a mistake to judge the movie as bad on the basis of that one insignificant detail. 

Ratings:

Me: 7.5
Dave: 9.95
Ethan: 6
Joe: 10
Sean: 2 out of 4

*I would have, but since he got to share his comments before me, he beat me to the punch. The fiend!