Django Kill... If you Live Shoot (1967)

Before 1965, the European Westerns were hardly distinguishable from their American counterparts. 1966 saw the Spaghetti Western take on a distinctive new tone with the dark anti-heroic Django (1966). By 1967 the Europeans realised that they had a free reign over the Western and along with Mario Lanfranchi's bizarre Death Sentence (1968) came Django Kill.

After a raid on a US Cavalry force, a group of American and Mexican bandits head into the desert, but the American force lead by Oaks turns the tables on the Mexicans and kills them all. That night one of the Mexicans, known only as the stranger (Tomas Milian) rises from the grave with the help of two Indian guides. Meanwhile, the bandits head for the nearest town and end up in a village known only as the 'unhappy place' - realising who they are, the townspeople massacre the bandits and string them up, but Oaks evades them. The stranger arrives in town and shoots Oaks with golden bullets. Soon a dispute arises over the gold that the bandits were carrying, between Templer and Oldsman two of the town leaders and the curious Mr Sorrow who lives out of town with an all male gang of black-clad cowboys. Mr Sorrow's men capture Templer's son Evan (Ray Lovelock) as a hostage, but the lust for gold means that Templer refuses to hand it over, and eventually leads to an all out conflict between the men, with the stranger right in the middle.

The Stranger and Oaks raid the Cavalry; The Stranger gets shot at

The first thing to note is that despite the title, this is not a Django film - Milian's character never has a name - but commercial pressures of the time saw it released as Django Kill in America and Others Pray... Django Shoots in Germany.

The storyline takes a relatively simple Western story (a man returning to seek revenge on people who betrayed him) but twists it into a moral tale on the danger of greed - almost everyone who dies in the film was either trying to get the gold, or killed by someone who wanted it. From the strange atmosphere in the town to Mr. Sorrow and his band of homo-sexual S&M cowboys, this film is very strange and distinctive - the ending is just weird and leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but given the film's overall atmosphere, is quite fitting. Pacing is incredibly slow and there are few action scenes, there is however a lot of characterisation and interplay between the various townspeople. Ultimately, the slow pacing does take its toll, and the film is very hard to sit through at times and does drag in places.

Giulio Questi and editor/co-writer Franco Arcalli give the film a very distinctive style that seperates it from the majority of the Spaghetti Westerns - a few flashback sequences have some almost-strobe editing with clips just three frames long - fortunately, this trick is only used a couple of times, any more and it could be nauseating. The soundtrack, from Ivan Vandor (who also composed for The Passenger (1975)), is a minor and downbeat twist on the standard Spaghetti Western tracks and fits the film very well.

Tomas Milian founded his career in the Spaghetti Western with The Bounty Killer (1966) his first leading role, and Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown (1966) and Face to Face (1967) bringing to a world-wide audience - Milian looks very strong here as the dark and mysterious stranger. Ray Lovelock, just 17 here, is making his cinematic debut and looks pretty good in a relatively limited role. The rest of the cast are fine although there are not many familiar faces.

Django Kill is one of the more unique Spaghetti Westerns, with a rather strange and menacing atmosphere throughout - however, the storyline does drag in places. Recommended to experienced fans of the Euro-Western, but certainly not a good one for newcomers.

It it a sequel?	No, this film is unconnected to Sergio Corbucci's Django (1966).
Anyone famous in it?	Tomas Milian - euro-cult star, very big in the Spaghetti Westerns, including Companeros (1970) Ray Lovelock - the star of cult euro-zombie favourite
Directed by anyone interesting?	Giulio Questi - director of the weird giallo Death Laid an Egg (1968)
Any violence?	Some shootouts and a couple of very bloody scenes. Blood is typically bright red and not the surgically realistic gore of the 1980s.
Any sex?	Some implied but nothing seen.
Who is it for?	Recommended for any Spaghetti Western fans who have 'seen it all', not for newcomers.
Good soundtrack?	A minor tonal variation on the standard SW themes.

Visuals	2.35:1 anamorphic wide-screen. Colour. The image is very good with only occasional print damage and some grain. Night scenes look crystal clear. The additional scenes, previously cut from the film, are not of a lower quality.
Audio	Italian and English language tracks - Dolby digital mono. Both tracks sound fine, English is slighty better. Note: the English track is missing in a couple of brief scenes, which play with the Italian track instead.
Subtitles	English #1 - Complete translation of the Italian soundtrack. English #2 - Translations for the brief scenes that have no English audio.
Run Time	Main feature - 1hr 56m 33s
Extras	The disc includes: Django, Tell! Interesting interviews with Milian, Lovelock and director Giulio Questi. Part subtitled. (20m 37s) Original Trailer, includes no footage from the film at all. (1m 22s) Slideshow of stills and promotional artwork. Manual scrolling - 38 images. Talent Bios - Milian and Questi: onscreen text, quite detailed. Easter Egg: Trailers for other Blue Underground Spaghetti Westerns DVDs. (10m 41s) Easter Egg: Additional part interview with Milian and Lovelock, about setting up a rock band. (4m 37s)
Region	Region 0 (ALL) - NTSC
Other regions?	British DVD - some different bonus features but no Italian audio. Some European discs, no additional English friendly special features
Cuts?	The film is believed to be fully uncut and includes two scenes cut from the film for US distribution. The film is from the English language print, so titles and credits are in English.

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