Django (1966 film)

Django
The upper left of the poster reads "Euro International Films presenta". To the left, a man, wearing a scarf, a black coat and a hat, is looking towards his left and holding a Colt Single Action Army. To the right, a pained women is tied to a wooden bridge, a Mexican lies dead on the ground, and another has been shot. On the bottom of the poster are the title (in large red lettering) and the credits.
Italian film poster by Rodolfo Gasparri[1]
Directed bySergio Corbucci
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Sergio Corbucci
  • Bruno Corbucci
Based on
Produced by
  • Sergio Corbucci
  • Manolo Bolognini
Starring
CinematographyEnzo Barboni
Edited by
Music byLuis Bacalov
Color processEastmancolor
Production
companies
  • B.R.C. Produzione Film
  • Tecisa
Distributed byEuro International Films
Release date
  • 6 April 1966 (1966-04-06)
Running time
92 minutes
Countries
  • Italy
  • Spain
LanguageItalian
Box office
  • ₤1.026 billion (Italy)
  • 823,052 admissions (France)[3]
  • $25,916 (2012 re-release)[4]

Django (/ˈdʒæŋɡoʊ/ JANG-goh)[5] is a 1966 spaghetti Western film directed and co-written by Sergio Corbucci, starring Franco Nero (in his breakthrough role) as the title character alongside Loredana Nusciak, José Bódalo, Ángel Álvarez, and Eduardo Fajardo.[6] The film follows a Union soldier-turned-drifter and his companion, a mixed-race prostitute, who become embroiled in a bitter, destructive feud between a gang of Confederate Red Shirts and a band of Mexican revolutionaries. Intended to capitalize on and rival the success of Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, Corbucci's film is, like Leone's, considered to be a loose, unofficial adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.[2][7][8]

The film earned a reputation as one of the most violent films ever made at the time, and was subsequently refused a certificate in the United Kingdom until 1993, when it was issued an 18 certificate (the film was downgraded to a 15 certificate in 2004). A commercial success upon release, Django has garnered a large cult following outside of Italy and is widely regarded as one of the best films of the Spaghetti Western genre, with the direction, Nero's performance, and Luis Bacalov's soundtrack most frequently being praised.

Although the name is referenced in over 30 "sequels" from the time of the film's release until the early 1970s in an effort to capitalize on the success of the original, most of these films were unofficial, featuring neither Corbucci nor Nero. Nero reprised his role as Django in 1987's Django Strikes Again, the only official sequel produced with Corbucci's involvement. Nero also made a cameo appearance in Quentin Tarantino's 2012 film Django Unchained, an homage to Corbucci's original. A Francesca Comencini-directed Italian-French TV series of the same name premiered in 2023. Retrospective critics and scholars of Corbucci's Westerns have also deemed Django to be the first in the director's "Mud and Blood" trilogy, which also includes The Great Silence and The Specialists.[9]

  1. ^ Hughes, 2009
  2. ^ a b Giusti, 2007, pp. 144-146
  3. ^ "Django Box Office". Box Office Story. Archived from the original on August 8, 2015. Retrieved October 6, 2015.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mojo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ The D is silent.
  6. ^ "Once Upon a Time in Italy - A Spaghetti Western Roundup at Film Forum". The New York Times. 2012-06-03. Archived from the original on 2012-06-09. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  7. ^ Django (Django: The One and Only) (DVD). Los Angeles, California: Blue Underground. 1966.
  8. ^ Cox, 2009
  9. ^ Hughes, Howard (2020). Western Excess: Sergio Corbucci and The Specialists (booklet). Eureka Entertainment. p. 8. EKA70382.