114 - DJANGO (1966)

The Bloody Pit

Hundreds of westerns were made in the 1960’s and 70’s by European filmmakers looking to cash-in on the success of Sergio Leone’s breakout hit A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964). Within that huge volume of movies are a number that rival Leone’s work and sometimes surpass his level of quality. While I’m not sure that there are more than a dozen westerns made by other Italians that are as brilliant as THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966) the ones made by another Sergio make the best case. Sergio Corbucci directed all kinds of films in his career but his first big hit was DJANGO (1966) and his follow up efforts with (and without) star Franco Nero are just as good as anything being made in the genre at the time. Set in a nearly deserted border town in a wet winter the film feels like a wallow in the muddiest spot on Earth. Caked in filth and dragging a coffin behind him Nero’s Django walks into this decaying hellhole with an agenda that will have the corpses piling up faster than graves can be dug.

Mark Maddox joins me to examine this classic Spaghetti Western from several angles. We note that its story is a variation of the plot of A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and we trace that tale back to its literary origins. We talk about the rather graphic violence onscreen detailing how ahead of its time it is in the harsh, bloody actions we are shown. Franco Nero’s career is discussed as is his resemblance to one of the hosts of this podcast! The unforgettable theme song gets some attention along with some information about the impressive vocalist. Of course, many other westerns get talked about as we go with our long running argument about film rating scales nearly bringing the entire show to a halt in the final few minutes. Sorry about that!

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