Django

Perhaps the most famous Spaghetti Western that was not directed by Sergio Leone is Django, directed by Sergio Corbucci and released in 1966. It gave Quentin Tarantino his character's name (which was taken from jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt) and inspired dozens of sequels, although only one was official.

Franco Nero stars as the title character, a typical one--a drifter and loner. He is intriguingly dragging a coffin behind him (and is walking--there were a shortage of horses for filming). He comes upon some Mexican bandits horsewhipping a prostitute. They are killed by red-robed wearing Americans, whom Django kills. Turns out these are racists led by a former confederate soldier. They killed Django's wife, and he wants revenge.

This film may have the highest body count I've ever seen. It was banned in Britain for many years for its violence. It's not particularly gory, except for one scene when a man's ear is sliced off and then stuck in his mouth, but there may be more dead bodies than there are minutes in the film (91).

The film was shot in Italy but set in Tombstone, and it has lots of mud, which was accurate for the plains but I'm not sure how much mud Tombstone gets. Nero, who has incredible baby blue eyes, was only 23 when he shot this film, and doesn't do much emoting. There is some stereotyping with the Mexicans--they are crude, dirty, and lecherous.

Still, the film has great style. The music for this film was done by Luis Bacalav, wro co-wrote the delightful theme song, which was also used by Tarantino in Django Unchained.