The
script by Sergio and his brother Bruno Corbucci is certainly
strong - like Leone before him, Corbucci tries to turn genre
conventions on their head and does so from the very first scene when
the lead character arrives without a horse, almost unheard of in the
Western. The character of Django takes Eastwood's anti-hero role even
further and would become an inspiration for many of the later Spaghetti
Western characters, unlike many of these however he is very fleshed out
here with some interesting character traits. Although he shows kindness
to Maria there is no love implied at all (at least not in the Italian
language script, the English translation adds some hints of interest), his also very fixated with gold
and prepare to go to great lengths to get hold of it, usually the trait
of a villain. Amazingly this lust for
the gold makes him forget about seeking revenge on Jackson and he
is prepared to head off with the gold, start anew and bury his past
forever - this is a side to the character rarely explored in the myriad
of sequels where he is usually a pure avenger.
Less effective though is the character of Major Jackson and
his entourage who are made into Klu Klux Klan style figures with red
hoods and who are seen carrying burning crosses and attempting to burn
Maria at the start of the film to '
purify her sins'. In a common Corbucci sequence we see Jackson himself enjoying shooting the sport of shooting random Mexican prisioners who '
refused to pay'.
This characterisation does come across as rather unnecessary, the film would
have worked fine if Jackson's group were merely ex-American Confederate
soldiers trying to smoke out the group of Mexican revolutionaries
hiding in
their states. This would have made neither side implicitly
bad
and given the film an interesting edge. As it is, Jackson is made into
an irredemably bad and even evil character, at odds with the rest of
the characters
who rarely fall into either camp. The Mexicans are pretty standard
revolutionaries although they seem to be rather too thin on the ground
even for a small revolution.
The Mexican revolution would become a focal point of many of the more political Westerns, including Corbucci's own
Companeros
(1970) but here it forms only a backdrop to the film and Corbucci
himself avoids any of the political messages of his later works and
although there is certainly racism present from the Major Jackson
character, it is not as important as it was made in his earlier
Navajo Joe
(1966). Instead Corbucci seems to have focused all his efforts on
giving the film a grim and near nihilistic atmosphere and does so in a
way that none of the later immitators were ever able to replicate. The
film moves quite slowly but the action scenes are well timed and none
come off as gratiuitous. The climax and conclusion fit perfectly to the
film's tone.
Behind the camera, Sergio Corbucci was already an experienced Western director, helming
Minnesota Clay (1965) and
Massacre at Grand Canyon (1965) the year before and
Navajo Joe (1966) earlier that year.
Django
allowed him a chance to show off some very strong directoral style -
the fist fighting scenes are very strong, with fast camera angles and
point-of-view handheld camera shots to bring the viewer into the
action. Corbucci
uses the unusual 1.66:1 format for this film, most Westerns using the
wider 2.35:1 scope ratio to help convey 'epic' landscapes. This ratio
allows the action to seem much smaller in scale bringing a more
desolate, dirty feel to the picture, and works well with the interior
scenes and the zooming
and facial close-ups that Corbucci uses frequently, he would use it
well again in
The Great Silence (1969).
Set and costume
design is very distinctive, the muddy streets of the main town and the
dirty abandoned buildings look a long way from the usual dusty, desert
towns and match the script's attempts to invert the genre norms. The
distinctive red hoods of Jackson's men give them a very sinister look,
like something out of a German gothic horror film or Krimi.
Stunts
are kept to a minimum and look
realistic, only a fist-fight in the saloon showing any real stunt work
and while there is a little blood on show and a character gets his ear
brutally
cut-off, this is a long way from the later blood soaked, squib
packed productions, which all generally helps the film manage a
much more
realistic feel than many of the other Spaghetti Westerns. The
soundtrack by Luis Enríquez Bacalov is simply superb and pushes the
film into iconic territory. The theme
of the opening
Django
ballad crops up frequently in various instrumental variances
throughout the film, Jackson and his men gets a heavy and sinister
sounding string theme while Rodriguez's gang get a lively guitar
accompaniment. Only at the very ending does the music sound inappropriate,
rather too upbeat and lively.
