Western Retrospective: Django

This is static when gear and I aren't fighting

bang babies. We like to listen to the geek cast

radio network Hello and welcome to episode 240

of the cinema geeks I'm one of your cinema geeks

optimist solo and joining me as usual is the

comic concierge. Hello, Dan Hey, how's it going?

is going well we are back at it we uh covered

the uh the man with no name trilogy i always

struggle with what i want to call it the fistful

of dollars trilogy the whatever trilogy you want

to call it the man with no name the man with

no dollars yes the man with no dollars yeah and

different names each time um so yeah we just

got done talking about that we have a few more

of the quote -unquote spaghetti westerns to go

through so we are going to cover one of those

today in 1966's Django and then we have one more

going back to Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time

in the West and then we'll move into a new section

of our western retrospective which we can get

to at the end of maybe next episode so just wanted

to kind of set that stage and We're going to

let Dan kind of lay the groundwork for the facts

on Django, and then we'll come back and give

you guys our thoughts. So Dan, take away. The

D is silent, but deadly, as this week we're covering

Django, directed by Sergio Carbucci. In the film,

a mysterious mud -covered drifter named Django,

played by Franco Nero, arrives in a desolated

border town, dragging a coffin behind him. The

town is caught in a brutal struggle between a

gang of racist ex -Confederates, led by Major

Jackson, and a group of Mexican revolutionaries.

under General Hugo Rodriguez. Django quickly

proves himself deadly with a gun, rescuing a

woman named Maria from Jackson's men and taking

refuge in a saloon. run by a neutral barkeep.

Playing both sides against each other, Django

hatches a risky plan. He gains the trust of Hugo's

gang as they make an assault on Jackson's base.

Under the disguise of bringing prostitutes for

the soldiers, they drive a horse cart containing

Django, Hugo, and four revolutionaries attacking

the base and stealing a cache of gold. Back at

Rodriguez's hideout, Django has a prostitute

distract the men guarding the safe house containing

the gold. He enters the house via the chimney.

stealing the gold in his coffin, and activating

his machine gun as a diversion. Jango loads the

coffin onto the dragon, but doing so, he sees

Maria. The next morning, Django and Maria arrive

at the bridge where they first met. Django tells

Maria that they should part ways, but Maria begs

him to abandon the gold so they can start a new

life together. When Maria's rifle misfires, the

coffin falls into the quicksand below. Django

nearly drowns when he tries to recover the gold,

and Maria is wounded by Hugo's men while trying

to save him. Miguel crushes Django's hands as

punishment for being a thief, and Hugo's gang

leave for Mexico. Upon their arrival, the revolutionaries

are massacred by Jackson and the Mexican army.

Django and Maria return to the neutral saloon,

finding only the barkeep there. Django tells

them that, despite his crushed hands, he must

kill Jackson to prevent further bloodshed. Jackson

learns that Jango is waiting for him at the Tombstone

Cemetery. While there, Jango is resting himself

on the back of Mercedes Arrow's cross. He pulls

the trigger guard of his revolver off with his

teeth and rests it against the cross just as

Jackson gangs arrives. Believing that Jango cannot

make the sign of the cross with his mutilated

hands, Jackson shoots the corner of the cross.

But then suddenly, Jango is able to kill Jackson

and his men by pushing the trigger against the

cross and repeatedly pulling back the hammer,

leaving his pistol on Zorro's cross, Django staggers

out of the cemetery, ready to start a new life

with Maria. Django pushed the genre into a darker,

more violent tone than even Sergio Leone's films.

The film's violence, especially the ear -cutting

scene and hand -crushing torture, were considered

extreme for its time, and it was banned and heavily

cut in several countries, including the UK, for

years. At the time, many critics thought it was

too violent and cynical, but despite that criticism,

it was a huge commercial success, especially

in Italy and other European markets. Its popularity

helped cement the rise of the spaghetti Western

boom. And over time, Django has been repraised

very positively and is considered one of the

most impactful of the genre, and its impact was

immediate. Because Django wasn't strictly trademarked

internationally, dozens of unrelated westerns

were retitled to include his name. There are

over 30 Django films with his name alone, though

most have nothing to do with the original. There's

only one official sequel, Django Strikes Again,

which came out 21 years later. Quentin Tarantino

has cited Django as a major influence on his

film Django Unchained. Franco Nero even makes

a cameo in Tarantino's film and shares a brief

scene with the newer Django, played by Jamie

Foxx. He, of course, is also a huge fan of the

opening song Django and includes it in his film

as well, and it's also been used in other films

and referenced a great deal of times. But where

do Kevin and I stand? Are we with the original

critics, or do we feel like it has aged well?

Back to us to discuss. Thank you very much, Dan.

So going into this, I refresh my memory. Was

this a first -time watch for you, Dan, or is

this a re -watch? This was a first -time watch

for me. I was aware of, obviously, the Django

films and everything because of Django Unchained,

a movie that we reviewed when we did our Quentin

Tarantino retrospective years ago, but I never

went back and watched this or any of the other

Django films. This was a first time watch for

me. How about yourself? It was definitely a first

time watch for me as well. I knew that like Django,

I knew this film existed and I knew there was

like a, what felt like a hundred other films

that had Django in there somewhere. I didn't

know what the connections were or if there was,

or if it was like one of those things where it's

just sequel upon, like it's land before time

at this point. Like it's just become like, there's

like 31 of them, but I wasn't interested to find

out that there's actually only one sequel out

of the 30 other films that have the name Django

in it. None of them are. official sequels except

for one yeah so and that and that didn't come

out until like the 80s so so that's very interesting

and obviously we have a character from this film

that does make a cameo in tarantino's django

unchained so there are some connections and influences

and different things like we've talked about

with some of the other spaghetti westerns i'm

intrigued on this one Dan I don't know if we're

going to line up on this one or not but I'm super

intrigued on what your take especially coming

off the heels of watching the whatever we're

going to call that trilogy the man with no name

trilogy I'm interested in just having watched

those three and then watching this one like what

your take on it because like we talked about

a little bit during that episode was that Sergio

Leone's fistful of dollars trilogy or man with

no name trilogy was loosely based off of loosely

or maybe not so loosely based off of kurosawa's

yojimbo to the point where there was like lawsuits

or whatever happened where he was like you just

made my film like give me money which i think

which i think they had to do and now this one

is also not only also loosely based off of yojimbo

but then also trying to capitalize on the success

of a fistful of dollars so we're definitely riding

in a a parallel lane to what we've just been

talking about so dan what was your reaction to

your first time watch of django here yeah it's

kind of like the team you team you copy i'm so

glad you said that of the of the item you bought

from wish it's like that seems like we're in

many degrees away for away aware from away from

the original uh you know what when we talked

about the Man with No Dollars trilogy, which

I think I'll call it now, just to bring it all

together. I brought up professional wrestling,

and I promise I'm not going to bring up professional

wrestling every time we talk about these movies,

but it feels fitting here again. Because when

you think about professional wrestling, what

is something that is really key at helping getting

a character over? And it's a great theme song.

That goes a long way. Think about the greats.

They tend to have a really good theme song from

someone called Steve Austin to Hulk Hogan. People

listen to their theme songs even outside of wrestling.

One thing you have to say about Django, he certainly

has a great theme song. I didn't know until watching

this movie that the theme that we hear in Django

Unchained originated here. I think as a kid saying...

today a banger. I definitely think so. It starts

off strong. Like you get invested. Like I have

this Django seems like someone I want to root

for. And then of course with great professional

wrestling, you want a great gimmick and being

a guy dressed in black, walking in the desert,

like dragging a coffin, you know, like that's.

That's a great gimmick. I don't know if this

is where the Undertaker originated from or where

they got some of their ideas or not, but certainly

talking about lawsuits, maybe they might have

thought of some back then. So starting off, you

have a lot of... That certainly caught my interest.

There's a lot here to like, okay, well, we got

a great theme song, got a great gimmick. Clearly,

as you mentioned, the links here to what... they're

doing here when it comes to borrowing from the

Man With No Name trilogy, it's clear. Franco

Nero definitely is clearly inspired by what Clint

Eastwood did. Crazy that he was only 25 doing

this. I guess they used old age makeup to make

him older. That makeup, I gotta say, worked because

I legitimately thought he was older. So those

elements I thought definitely worked for me.

But like with professional wrestling, sometimes

you can have all those gimmicks, have all those

elements, but when the in -wing work just isn't

there, it can be a bit clunky, and maybe it becomes

very obvious that you're trying to maybe put

all that out there because perhaps you're trying

to distract for what doesn't work. Ultimately,

I had a good time here. I think this is certainly

exploitative. I could see why Quentin Tarantino

would love this type of thing. You certainly

see so many elements, not just from Django, but

like, oh, okay. I'm like, that's where he completely

got that scene. That's where that scene from.

I'm forgetting the name of the movie, his second

film. A few dollars more. No, no. Oh, Django?

Oh, are you talking about Tarantino? Tarantino,

his second film. Not Pulp Fiction. Reservoir

Dogs. Where the scene from Reservoir Dogs came

from. Like, oh, with the ear. I'm like, oh, okay.

That's where he got that from. You're seeing

kind of his influence. You're seeing a lot of

his... A lot of the influence is right from this.

So I'm like, I get why he really loves this.

And those elements, I think, certainly are...

There are entertaining elements within this.

I do think, though, it is a bit like... It is

ultimately a copy of a copy of a copy. It's a

bit clunky, and it's just, I think, a bit of

a mess. It's, I think, how it ends up by the

end. It's, I'm not, like, I think it's, of all

the films we've done thus far, when it comes

to craftsmanship, when it comes to how well it

was made, it is a major step down. And, you know,

it's a good time, but I don't think it's necessarily...

a well -made movie beyond that but what did you

think i'm so relieved um i thought for sure that

you were going to be like it was going to be

like a time where you're just very different

like we separated a little bit and you were going

to sing the praises of why you know this has

like a 95 on rotten tomatoes and like all the

influences and i was going to be just like the

uncultured swine here that was like i like i

i love your professional wrestling analogy and

i would take it this step further like when we

talked about before with the the man with no

dollars trilogy which i'm just going to keep

with that as well we talked about you know how

kurosawa's ujimbo was like the original like

nwo in japan idea And then the fistful of dollars

trilogy was kind of like the NWO and WCW. And

it just worked. And like, it took off because

certain audiences hadn't seen Yojimbo or didn't

make the connection or whatever the case may

be. And it just like worked. And like, to me,

this is then you take the NWO after it's run

its course and been beaten into the ground. And

then you try to revive it on later on in WWE

or TNA or something like that. And it's like,

no, not only have we already seen this, but now

like the. it's like national hall and Hogan are

all like 10, 15 years older now. And it's like,

uh, this isn't working y 'all like, yeah. Or,

or something like that. It's, it's like the,

the WCW or WWE, then it turns into NW, uh, NWA

or TNA or like one of those. And it's just like,

I don't know, guys, this is like, uh, I, I, I

get the wrestling rings in the high school gym

now, but, uh, it just doesn't have the same effect.

Um, I agree though. Like it does have some elements,

like, especially at the beginning, like, like

obviously this has a crazy score like soundtrack

or whatever like there's a there's a lot to it

like it's pretty uh complex like i know that

there was like a soundtrack that was dozens of

tracks right like so you have the music part

of it at first i was like okay like i'm gonna

give frank onero like the shot here he at the

beginning like It seems like he's going for a

little bit of the same that we got with Clint

Eastwood, but I'm like, it's a different person.

Let's see how this works. You're right, he's

carrying this coffin, dragging it through, which

seems really weird when it comes to all of that.

I was intrigued at the beginning, but man, does

he come across in the end as the Kmart version

of Clint Eastwood? Or the Shopko version of Clint

Eastwood, or the Timu, like you said. It's just

like, no offense to Frank O 'Neill, but like...

He didn't hold a candle to what we got with Clint

Eastwood. Like there's just the, it factor for

me was missing. So that was for the first part.

And then like the second part, like I get, like

we had a similar situation in the fistful of

dollars trilogy where Clint Eastwood is wearing

like a metal plate. And then we compared it to

like the Bret Hart and Bill Goldberg situation.

Yeah. then in this one they're like screw that

we don't just want a metal plate we're gonna

open up a coffin and have like a a machine gun

like a stationary machine gun that we're just

gonna use to blow everybody to like smithereens

i was just like i didn't i wasn't expecting those

types of gimmicks here when i when we went back

to like these quote unquote classic like westerns

maybe i was just being like ignorant but i was

like i didn't know that's where we went with

some of these like the the steel plate shirt

and the the machine gun that we're pulling out

of coffins like i didn't realize that i thought

it was mostly just like gunfights at the okay

corral and and like duels and and things of that

nature like take your 10 paces and see who's

the fastest draw and stuff like that i didn't

know they were like nope like you you brought

a knife to a gunfight type stuff uh all over

the place but it it it did make sense because

he was definitely like in some situations where

i'm like well There's physically no way you win

this fight. I don't know. We continue to back

ourselves in the corners that then you're trying

to figure out how they're going to get out of

it. Well, he's got a machine gun in the coffin.

That's how he's getting out of it. This did not

really work for me. Hardly at all. I feel what

you said when you were like, this is a huge step

down from what we're talking about. We were already

overcoming some of the other things. You have

to deal with the bad. dubbing and you have to

deal with some of the other stuff like just in

general like in some of these spaghetti westerns

but like this one takes it to like a new level

and i just feel like there's parts of the film

like you said like it's not just that it's just

not super well either constructed or executed

like when we get to the final sequence when he's

trying i spoil the alert for for django from

1966 um when we get to the final scene when he's

in the graveyard trying to steady his gun on

hands that have been like i don't even know how

they're connected anymore like with his fingers

and stuff and they're they spent so much time

showing how much he's struggling to like steady

it even for a little bit and then it like comes

to that moment and it's just like no problem

and it was just clunky like it the whole thing

i felt like was clunky um i'm not saying that

the actors did like a bad job necessarily i don't

know if they have the like i don't know if he

had the charisma of like a clint eastwood or

or some of that but i don't know if it's necessarily

like on the actors i just think like there's

part of the writing or screenplay or or like

direction that's just like they're missing things

like it just doesn't come for me and i don't

know like i by the end of it i was ready for

it to be over well i think i think i definitely

enjoyed it more than you Like, I did have a good

time with it. Like, him pulling out the machine

gun. It's interesting, like, because, like, that

I knew about because when I watched it, it was

on the poster. So, like, I, like, it kind of,

that was ruined for me because of the poster.

But did any part of you think, wait, is this

a time travel movie? Like, any part of you was

like, because just for a second, I'm like, wait.

Because I know, like, machine guns existed at

that time, but. like to like that extent i was

like that's seems a little far advanced but i

guess it does like line up time time wise but

any little part of you think are they gonna go

with time travel because like it does seem like

maybe that's how they're gonna try i didn't that's

a good thought that's a good thought like i didn't

think that at first the the thing that i kept

coming back to and i'm not saying i didn't have

fun with it like it's one of those that you have

to just like allow yourself to like not take

serious but at the same time i kept waiting for

what's those guys's names like servo and like

the mystery science theater like 3 000 or 2 000

guys oh yeah i was i was wanting them to be on

the screen giving me commentary as this nonsense

continued like it was kind of on that level like

this is like a dollar western movie that you

pick up in the bin at walmart or kmart and like

you just throw on for for crappy movie night

like i you can have fun with it but i feel like

it's it's more fun to like not I felt like it

would have almost been better if they knew that

they were... Just be a spoof. Just be a spoof

off of the other one. But they're clearly not

doing that. They are taking themselves seriously.

They are trying to execute something that is

on par with the Dollars Trilogy and all these

other things. But at the same time, I was like,

this is one that... I'm not much of a drinker,

but this is one where in college you get a bunch

of your friends together and you have some drinks

and you just make... make fun of it while you

watch it that's kind of like where i was at with

it makes sense there were things i did appreciate

like i did think some of those action sequences

were like well put together like and some of

the sets of sign even like the um it utilizing

like using that stark red they obviously you

see like the the seems like pretty much like

the kkk comparison but instead of white using

red i thought like that imagery was you know

was like did stand out And then, you know, when

he does actually bring out the crazy machine

gun and how that worked, I thought that that

scene itself was impactful for me. I did, like,

it was, like I said, exploitive. And I certainly,

like I mentioned, I thought, like, I see why,

like, this was Tarantino watching this and, like,

thinking, okay, well, I'm making this movie later

in my life for sure. Honestly, where it started

losing me was actually after that. and like kind

of in the second half in the final third where

we you know he they go in they like they they

kind of do the trojan horse with the ladies and

they invade the base and you're like waiting

for him to like you know obviously he's going

to double cross them and we get the scene where

you know he uh he brings up and we haven't really

got much into the plot but like he brings up

there he has this kind of weird relationship

with um it's one woman who we meet in the beginning

who is kind of caught between the worlds like

he is and you think maybe like they're gonna

have this relationship but he brings up someone

up upstairs that he uses as a distraction and

this we have the scene that like plays out for

such a long almost like they like needed a certain

runtime and we watch every bit of it as he like

slowly meticulously does bring the coffin down

from the upstairs like to the bottom and like

i i guess i some way some ways appreciate just

like the fact that they're like we're going to

show you that he did do this like in every little

bit of it but i'm like i'm like could we just

you know maybe just do one or two cuts here like

it's like every look i don't nope we're gonna

we're sticking with this from the beginning to

end you know and and i get it if it was like

that scene had any sort of tension or humor but

it didn't at all for me so it just that's where

it started to lose me a bit then we go through

all that and you know we're going through all

this and we we get through we they get free and

you know and then they are you think they're

finally like gonna like you know win the day

or whatever and then they put all the gold in

the coffin, and they're going off on their journey,

and then the coffin just falls into the quicksand.

And I'm like, it's such the most clumsy way to,

you said clumsy, and I think that's actually

kind of, the way that kind of unfolds, it's not

very satisfying. It did make me think, though,

like, Quicksand. I have not seen Quicksand in

a movie in such a long time. You know, when I

was a kid, like, Quicksand, that was such a huge

thing. But it was in spoofs that you saw that,

right? Yeah. I mean, besides The Princess Bride,

I felt like that's, like, not Spongebob, but

those types of films are where you found the

Quicksand. Well, that's where it started. Like,

that's where I felt it kind of fell apart a bit,

like that second half. And just generally, too,

I just feel like... Django, Frank O 'Neill, him

as a character, if you were to compare him to,

which is hard not to, the man with no name, I

struggle to understand where he sits more. What

is driving him? What is his morals? What is generally

his code, per se? Why am I investing in him?

So much time is spent with him and this kind

of relationship with Maria. And that's such a

huge central part of the film. I don't feel like,

like, I don't know. The way it's such, I feel

like it doesn't know how to handle that per se.

And I almost, at one point, I legitimately did

think they killed her. I'm like, oh, they're

just, they're just killing her? But she somehow

ends up surviving. But I just thought, yeah,

like I thought, I think you mentioned clumsy.

And clumsy is a good word for me, a good word

for it. Because I just think when it came to

that, when it comes to the characters. none of

them are nearly as strong. Like if, and it's

hard not to like, and I think perhaps watching

it right after, you know, the, you know, what

it's clearly inspired by. It's hard not to just

like think it's less by comparison because I

think ultimately is, but I think there are elements

beyond that. Like I can watch away. Like I'm

generally glad I watched it, but I do think it

suffers from just a narrative that, is lacking

when it comes to precision with its character

development and motivations. And then, like,

it struggles from getting through point A to

point B to point C in its, like, final third.

Just, like, it wants to get to that final shootout,

and it doesn't necessarily know how to get there,

so it's like, I don't know, he just loses the

coffin in the quicksand. And we just, it's like,

so, yeah. And it's like I said, some of the editing

could have been better in a few scenes, like,

to speed things up a bit. Um, what did you think

of, uh, I also, I was hugely distracted by what,

what has to be a descendant of Abraham Lincoln.

Cause that guy looked like, I'm like, that has

to be like the one guy that gets his ear cut

off. I'm like that guy. I'm like fed to him.

Yeah. Like that's, is he meant to look like that

has to be Abraham Lincoln's descendant. Right.

Cause like he, he looks like him, you know, he's

like, yeah. A lot of stuff was distracting. I

think the thing that I come across most with

this is like, I would never suggest someone to

watch this after A Fistful of Dollars. Yeah.

I feel like you need to be removed from that.

If anything beforehand, I think. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Because otherwise it's hard not to watch this

film and be like, okay, this is the sequence

from A Fistful of Dollars. Like, it's not that

it's like shot for shot, like the same movie.

I get that it's influenced by it. And I get that

they're both being influenced by another, you

know, Yojimbo or whatever, which I have not seen.

But maybe I don't need to because I feel like

I get the gist of it. But it's probably better

in Yojimbo. But it's hard not to see that and

be like, well, that's where we were at in that

other film. But in Fistful of Dollars, it was

done better. Or it was executed a little bit

more smooth. Or there was more charisma or tension

built up in the moment. So it's like every single

thing. Yeah. when it comes to getting the money

and when it comes to like the, you know, the

double cross. And when it comes to just like

coming into the city and, and being in the middle

of two different feuds, like, I guess in this

one, we're going to ratchet it up a little bit

and make one half of them clan members. Like

it's bizarre. And then like, I feel like it's

like, let's do a lot of the stuff that happened

in that other film, but then let's ratchet the

violence up to like 11. Not that I'm anti -violence

in movies or whatever. It doesn't affect me unless

it's extreme and very graphic, but it definitely

ratchets it up here. I know I read something

that it was banned in some places because it

was too violent or had trouble with what rating

it was going to get, but you do have a lot of

violence, right? Not that you don't get some

violence in the Fistful of Dollars trilogy where

Clint Eastwood's getting beat up and different

things of that nature. You do have that, but

there's something different about how it's executed

here. Whether it be when his hands get, you know,

beat to smithereens. Or, you know, we have some,

like, rapey scenes. And we have, like, horses

going, like, down. And we have a dude's ear getting

ripped off and fed to him before he's getting

killed. Like, it was just, like, there was a

lot. And that's not even, like, touching the

fact that, you know, this machine gun is mowing

down, like, dozens of people. That's, like...

that's yeah not very affecting from an emotional

standpoint because it comes across as like red

laser blue laser like something you would see

in like star wars or gi joe at that point like

you can't take it serious because it's just a

bunch of people falling down and whatnot so to

me i've never affected by that type of violence

but some of the other violences like they definitely

ratcheted or you know leveled up the violence

and i don't know if i always understood the reason

for all of it besides i'm not saying they were

doing it for shock value but like i don't know

like i guess maybe i wasn't following 100 with

like what that added to the the story overall

yeah they certainly wanted you to show like how

evil these people were to like make you want

to see them get their comeuppance but like it

did feel like we got that very like and it just

kept going further like we had those sequences

where they were you know i don't even know game

they were playing basically the people would

run away and then they would you know they would

shoot them you know they were like the the the

clan you know i don't want to i forget what the

name of the actual game was um and they and they

did it and they kept doing it and they just kept

going back to that like i feel like we got it

and then they just kept pushing that scene further

and further and i i felt like you didn't need

like once you establish what they were doing

at some point you're just reveling in that, in

that violence. You're not like you're, you're

not judging those characters. You're trying to

exploit that violence for your own gain. And

so like, that's, that's kind of, again, like

that's where it gets a little icky. Like, again,

I don't, again, we're both Tarantino fans of

his, you know, and I feel like he, in the sense

of like, I do think he treats violence and like

people complain about the way he does violence

sometimes. And I think there's, there's reasons

for it, but I do think typically he knows like

when to cut the line or. At least I can point

to, I feel like there's a purpose there. At times

here, I struggled to find it, especially with

some of those scenes that just kept going and

going and going. And the fact that they kept

going and just also weren't very entertaining

on top of that. So it was a combination of the

two. There were scenes that did work for me that

I think that were able to accomplish both. I

generally think that the ear -cutting scene,

even though it was gruesome, I think that scene

actually did work. it did maybe go on a little

bit. Once you put it in the guy's ear, I'm like,

okay, maybe we were a little, maybe like, maybe

that was just the actor in the moment. You know,

that could have been something, you know, just

like ad -libbing and they just went with it perhaps.

But yeah, but yeah, I can, I could understand.

It is a good point to bring up because, because

we did not see that with like the, all the films

we've seen thus far because, you know, Westerns

have violence, but. Usually it doesn't get to

this level. Although there are some that we'll

get to later in our retrospective that are known

to be perhaps even more violent. So we'll see

what happens with those. Yeah, and I do think

there's a couple times where they come up with

some clever ways for the machine guns placement

or how they get from here to there. some surprise

things and stuff like that but then at the also

the same time you're like how easy is this machine

gun to drag around in a coffin like i gotta have

to suspend some disbelief here on how how we're

getting all of this stuff from point a to point

b and it's just all working but there was like

i think there was a couple couple times where

it was okay that was kind of clever with what

you did there and then there was other parts

where you're just like this is somewhat laughable

or like or you know the the amount of bullets

it can have before yeah because like you're thinking

about like world war ii when they had those guns

like they they didn't have a a long um amount

of time that they could go without having to

reload so considering this was this era like

they certainly stretched that out especially

the time when he was trying to you know get away

from um you know the mexicans and like they he

let it fire. I'm like, there's no way it's lasting

that long. He's getting in there. He's in the

horses. This is like a good 10 minute sequence

at this point. But I mean, that's like, at one

point I thought this was going to be time travel

story. So I'm not, I'm not going to get all that

mad about realism, but it is certainly something

where it's like. This is stretching the elements

of reality, but at the same time, when you open

the scene with a dude in the desert walking with

a casket, you're not trying to pretend that this

is any type of real world, so I'm not going to

really complain about that too much. So I do

have a question for you. I know you sent me a

list that had, I think it was IMDB or whatever,

that had the 30 plus Django films that have come

out since then. number one will you be watching

any of the unofficial sequels or do you have

a desire to watch the 1987 film jango strikes

again i did try i did re -watch another jango

film uh it was uh let me see which one i watched

just because i was curious like what is you know

how do they what is it like compared to this

one and i will say uh let me what was it um Django

If You Live Shoot. Sorry, I watched Django Kill

If You Live Shoot, which came out in 1967, which

was like a year after the original Django came

out, which I think is kind of crazy because you

have the good, the bad, the ugly that comes out

in 1966. Django comes out in 1966 as well. And

then Django Kills comes out. A year after that.

So you can imagine how quickly they were trying

to put that together. And it makes Django look

like the good and the bad and the ugly. It's

not very good at all. It's pretty awful. I thought

it's, again, a similar thing. It's a copy of

a copy of a copy of a copy. And it deals with

a lot of similar ideas. town basically is like

trying to it's it does have an interesting concept

where it's like this town is trying to keep out

evil people it maybe goes too far with it but

it's just like the acting in it the characters

um just are like it made me appreciate um it

made me appreciate jango so much more because

like oh man this it could be so so so much worse

like it it made me realize like franco nero compared

to the actors and that was like you know he was

like top billing you know he was amazing so i

would and that was like because i researched

to see like what are some of the more well -regarded

django sequels and that was one that people mentioned

i'm like i didn't like that so i i'm curious

i'm curious about the 1987 one because the poster

makes it look like it's something from like mad

max but i It's 1987, and we know what that was

like. It's set 20 years... The character's 20

years older, and they actually are 20 years past.

67 to 87 is 20 years. The poster just looks fascinating

to me for Django Strikes Again. I don't know

if I'll ever watch it, but it definitely looks

like... I would probably give it a try. I held

off because I didn't want to... I don't think

I could ever confuse them, but I figured I'll

focus on this and maybe down the line. But no,

I have not seen that. But watching that other

Django film definitely made me appreciate this

Django film so much more. Oh, that's good. It

worked for something. So Dan, I mean, this one

obviously is very well received. It's got an

incredible score on Rotten Tomatoes. It's obviously

influenced Tarantino. It's, I think, like...

generally seen as one of the better or more influential

of the spaghetti westerns like can you see where

some of that's coming from or do you feel like

there's a disconnect here or it's i mean it's

ranked very high on most spaghetti western film

lists well i think i guess it's hard because

this is obviously like the fourth or fifth spaghetti

western i've seen and i would say compared to

the other spaghetti westerns it's because it's

better than no so that certainly makes sense

um i like compared like the rotten tomato score

is pretty high but there's also only like 17

reviews so that like makes me think okay there's

probably the people that have rated it or like

fans of it so that's um you know that makes sense

so i i um like i said i probably if i graded

it i probably would give it a passing grade like

a you know like a whatever you would call that

but like i wouldn't necessarily It's hard for

me to rate it compared to other spaghetti westerns

outside of the ones we've seen thus far. I wouldn't

call it one of the best westerns I've seen. It's

clearly not in the area of what we've seen thus

far. I understand its influences. I certainly

could see why people would respect it the way

they do. If you were going to go into this, or

if you were going to go into the westerns like

we are, I definitely would say... watch this

before the man with no name trilogy first because

i do think it helps like level the expectations

a little bit because i don't think it's in the

same caliber i think it is a major step down

personally compared to the level of what we what

we got previously outside of having a you know

a killer theme song and things like that i think

it's a lot of great flash a lot of great you

know um exploitation here and there, but I think

the substance isn't quite as strong. Have you

seen the Django TV series from 2023? No, there

was a Django TV series. I don't think it's an

American -made TV series. It's 10 episodes in

2023. It's just called Django. I don't know any

of the people involved with it. yeah apparently

apparently it exists so if you're super intrigued

about getting as much jango in your life as possible

don't worry you have like 30 sequels a tv series

and other things that you can you can go explore

it so yeah there's an endless supply there's

even like you know um like foreign jango films

because there's like a i own a japanese like

a um there's like a japanese a django movie that

blu -ray that i've owned since like 20 i got

it like shortly after watching django and chain

i've yet to watch it though it's one of those

things i've owned forever um but yeah no i have

not seen that but maybe i'll give it give it

a shot apparently it's it's been like it's inspired

a lot of stuff like there's all kinds of anime

that seems like it's been inspired by it there's

some video games that seem like they yeah are

aware of it so like And I get that because, like

I said, the imagery is amazing. I just think

the story itself, when you get beyond that, it's

not... The story itself, the sense of the framework's

there because it's Yojimbo, but the connecting

tissue, the actual depth of it isn't as strong

because it's hard to be because you're trying

to take a story that was already done and then

done again and then trying to redo it a third

time. It's three -day -old leftovers that you

reheated last night. They're just not going to

be as good. Very fair. I am intrigued on where

we go from here with our next Spaghetti Western,

going back to Sergio Leone now to see Once Upon

a Time in the West, which was from 1968. Dan,

have you seen this one already? Yeah. So this

spoiler alert, because this is one I have seen.

And if you remember back when we did our top

100 lists of favorite films, this was on my top

100 list of all time. This is one of my personal

favorite Westerns. So when you talk about spaghetti

Westerns, this is one I consider one of the greatest

of all time. All right. Setting the bar high

now. My expectations have been raised. Yeah.

Not to create. raised super high expectations

but considering you did enjoy elements of the

the man with no name trilogy i do think it at

least leans in the right direction because i

do think what things that you liked before you

may see again and again i saw them um uh once

upon a time in the west before i ever saw the

man with no name trilogy so okay it definitely

has a star -studded cast with henry fonda jason

robards charles bronson lionel stander like there's

a lot of people i've recognized from here so

yeah i'm definitely intrigued and if you remember

with the man with no name trilogy like the only

one is all them for for those films right and

it eventually finally got them for this so and

i'm also intrigued because like i have seen i

don't know if i've seen it in its entirety or

if it's just been a long time but i did see once

upon a time in america which i feel like now

i'm gonna have to like re -watch after i watch

once upon a time in the west even though they're

not necessarily connected in any way shape or

form but yeah um that was my introduction to

sergio leone like back when i was a teenager

watching once upon a time in america because

i think it was just something i came across when

i was working at target after i was like after

i had discovered goodfellas and the godfather

and stuff like that and i was like well let's

let's check this one out too so uh and it's got

a cool had a cool dvd case back in the day so

that's my uh A very loose connection to Sergio

Leone, I guess, from early days. But I'm intrigued

to watch this one and see how it kind of stacks

up against everything else as we kind of round

out our Spaghetti Western coverage before we

move into what will be an intriguing look at

some originals and remakes, which we'll talk

more of on our next episode. Dan, any closing

thoughts on Django? No, I got nothing else, but

looking forward to next week. Hopefully I didn't

set the bar too high. I'll go in with an open

mind here. And I think it works, you know, in

the session or in the series of our order that

we've watched things that it'll be interesting

to watch after these other four. So, all right.

So that does it for this episode. If you want

to check out more things related to Dan or myself,

you can search out the comic concierge on most

social media or optimist solo. You can follow

us on letterbox. Maybe I'll eventually put the

links in the show notes or something that you

can check out. Or you can search out the Cinema

Geeks or Cinema Geek Cast or the Geek Cast Radio

Network. But other than that, that does it for

this episode. Tune in next time for another chance

to listen to more of the Cinema Geeks.