Django (film)
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| Django | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Sergio Corbucci |
| Produced by | Sergio Corbucci Manolo Bolognini |
| Written by | Sergio Corbucci Piero Vivarelli Bruno Corbucci José Gutiérrez Maesso Franco Rossetti |
| Starring | Franco Nero José Bódalo Loredana Nusciak |
| Music by | Luis Enriquez Bacalov |
| Distributed by | Blue Underground Anchor Bay Entertainment (USA) |
| Release date(s) | April 6, 1966 (Italy) September 21, 1967 (Spain) |
| Running time | 90 minutes. |
| Language | Italian English Spanish |
| IMDb profile | |
Django is a 1966 Italian film directed by Sergio Corbucci and starring Franco Nero in the title role. It became very popular in Europe and is considered a cult film in the USA. It is considered by many as one of the best examples of the spaghetti western with a stirring musical score, gunfights and a quiet anti-hero (which actor Franco Nero played in many subsequent Western films) who famously dragged a coffin. The film's unique look was the work of production designer Carlo Simi who created costumes and sets for Corbucci's earlier film Minnesota Clay, and who worked frequently with Sergio Leone.
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[edit] Plot
Django is a gun runner who drags around a coffin that conceals a machine gun. He rescues a young woman, María, from being murdered by Confederate renegades turned Ku Klux Klan, led by Major Jackson. After killing most of Jackson's men, Django makes a deal with a Mexican General (Rodriguez) who is in conflict with Jackson, and the two steal a large quantity of gold. When the General is slow in paying for his supplies, Django steals the gold. Unfortunately, the gold falls into quicksand. When Rodriguez catches up to the them, María is shot (though she survives) and Django's hands are crushed. Rodríguez and his men are massacred by Jackson, who then goes looking for Django in a cemetery. However, Django, who has bitten the trigger-guard off his pistol, kills Jackson and his five surviving men.
[edit] Sequels
Django was a sensation the moment it premiered. It received an 18-certificate in Italy due to its violence: Bolognini says Corbucci 'forgot' to cut out the ear-severing scene when the censors requested he remove it. There are rumored to be over 100 unofficial sequels, though only 31 have been counted. Four were made the same year, in 1966. Most of these films have nothing to do with Corbucci's original: Italian copyright law seems to have been very loose in the 1960s and 70s and filmmakers frequently borrowed the names of the protagonists of other successful films - Django, Ringo, Joe, Sartana, and Sabata frequently appeared.
In 1987, Ted Archer's Django 2 or Django Strikes Again! (Italian title: Django 2: Il Grande Ritorno) claims to be the only official sequel. Franco Nero plays an older Django, who is now a monk. Donald Pleasence also stars.
[edit] Remake
Takashi Miike remade the film under the title Sukiyaki Western: Django. It is a variation on the main theme from Django and includes the infamous chaingun in the coffin.[1]
[edit] Cultural references
- The infamous "ear cutting scene" in the Quentin Tarantino film, Reservoir Dogs, was inspired by this film which shows the Mexican leader cutting the ear off of one of Major Jackson's men.
- Django is the film being watched by the theater audience in The Harder They Come, which is about a Jamaican outlaw styled after Ivan Rhygin.
- Lee Perry's second album is titled Return of Django, and he has released tracks called "Django (Ol' Man River)" and "Django shoots first".
- An episode of Cowboy Bebop features a character dragging a coffin.
- The video game and anime series Gungrave features the main character carrying a coffin full of weapons.
- In Tenchi Universe, the character Nagi enters the climatic battle while dragging a coffin to the Western-looking city on Venus.
- Mr. Black, a boss in the video game Red Dead Revolver, carries a coffin with a chaingun inside of it.
- The main character in the Boktai video game series is named Django; characters named Ringo and Sabata also appear. When Django defeats each Immortal boss, it retreats into its coffin, and Django must drag the coffin to a room where it can be properly destroyed.
- Renowned punk band Rancid has a song inspired by the movie, aptly titled "Django" on their album Indestructible. The chorus is Django!/You drag your coffin around/You drag your coffin around/You drag your coffin around. Django!/You drag your coffin around/All around town/Just like a dead man does"
- One man metal band Thrones covers the theme song to Django on the album Sperm Whale.
- In the Rob Zombie song "Feel So Numb" the opening lyrics to the third verse are "Django drag a coffin nail across your back".
- Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi trilogy's main character is a modern-day nameless gunslinger who carries a guitar case full of various weapons rather than a coffin.
- The anime series Burst Angel, or Bakuretsu Tenshi in Japanese, contains a Mech named Jango, which is probably an alteration of Django. This theory is supported by the fact that Jango's shadow resembles that of an old west gunslinger, and when being transported for repairs and the like, Jango is housed in a coffin shaped container. Jango's theme music also brings to mind the kind of flamenco guitar pieces often found in spaghetti westerns.
- Danzig music video Crawl Across Your Killing Floor features Glenn Danzig dragging a coffin.
- Filipino billiards player Francisco "Django" Bustamante, the 2006 World Cup of Pool co-winner (with countryman Efren Reyes), earned his nickname after having been called "Django" by his friends; he eventually adopted it as his professional name.[1]
- The Western-inspired anime series Trigun features a character named Nicholas D. Wolfwood who carries an enormous metal cross everywhere he goes. The cross contains an arsenal of guns and can be used as one itself.
[edit] References
- ^ 2002 AZBilliards Player of the Year interview with Bustamante.
