Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Tuesday's Overlooked Movie: Django (1966)

This is the original Django film directed by Sergio Corbucci, who's one of the more important Italowestern directors, not in the rank of Sergio Leone or even Sergio Sollima, but follows rather close behind.

I'm not hot on Italian spaghetti westerns, but there's certain grandiose about them I'm slowly getting warm to. I still think Leone is a bit overrated, but there's no danger of thinking Corbucci is overrated. There's no place for him in the cinematic canon, though there are some nice stylistic touches in Django. Some of the picture compositions are striking as well. The noisy renaissance acting is very far away from the stoic Hollywood acting of the westerns, not to mention the outrageous violence. I think at least 150 people die in the film. 

All this said, I found Django mildly entertaining and quite funny at times. None of it makes any sense, but I don't think anyone thought it should. More Overlooked Movies here

4 comments:

Todd Mason said...

I think DJANGO might be more beloved by most American spaghet' fans. I can't remember at the moment if I've ever seen it.

MHz Worldview will begin broadcasting the YARES, PRIVATE EYE telefilm series in the US in January. Any good?

Juri said...

You mean VARES? They've been getting quite a lot of bad reviews in here, though the films have been popular, as well as the books. But I've read two or three and I didn't like them.

Todd Mason said...

VARES, indeed. The kind of days I've been having are conducive to typos.

Perhaps I'll see the films before you do...

Anders E said...

Apparently DJANGO, and in fact the entire genre, was very popular in Jamaica. Not only did DJANGO feature in THE HARDER THEY COME, but it also inspired a quite a lot of reggae at the time. The best known song is THE RETURN OF DJANGO by The Upsetters, but this one is also very good and the video description is quite informative about the phenomena. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9NUy69rXEk