Django, Prepare a Coffin (1968)
A mysterious gunfighter named Django is employed by a local crooked political boss as a hangman to execute innocent locals framed by the boss, who wants their land. What the boss doesn't know is that Django isn't hanging the men at all, just making it look like he is, and using the men he saves from the gallows to build up his own "gang" in order to take revenge on the boss, who, with Django's former best friend, caused the death of his wife years before.
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The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Django, you are a gullible one. Haven't you seen all them Spaghetti Westerns starring Horst Frank? He's not a good employer! Django finds this out the hard way when, following a successful election for Frank, Django gets ambushed transporting gold, his wife gets killed, and he gets turned into a vigilante killer! Worse still, he ends up taking a job as the hangman, but with motives! His motives involve not actually hanging folks as they are being framed by Horst Frank and sidekick giant George Eastman. So Django is forming his own little army of not-dead guys to get revenge on Frank and Eastman. Can he trust them? There's a gigantic amount of double crossing in this film which almost threatens to derail the entire film. Some of Django's guy double cross him, and then each other, until you stop caring about what's happening on screen and hope that at some point people will stop double crossing each other and you can just get to the big fight at the end.George Eastman is good in this one and has a memorable death. Terence Hill in non-comedy mode is pretty good (He's basically Franco Nero with a pointier nose) and I'm watching too many of these films now as Horst Frank seems to be in most of them and it's hard to separate what he does in one film from the other.This one plays out like an average Spag Western but there are enough quirks in there to make worth watching once. I love the way Arrow DVD have very slyly packaged the film so that unsuspecting folks would be it thinking they've bought Django Unchained!
A gunfighter (Terence Hill) forms a gang of "deceased" execution victims to get revenge on the politician and outlaw who killed his wife.This film is unique among the plethora of films which capitalized on Corbucci's hit "Django" in that it is not only a semi-official, legitimate follow-up, but was also originally meant to star Franco Nero. Of course, it ultimately involved none of the same cast or crew from the original. But when it comes to spaghetti westerns, this is as close as you're going to get. Personally, my knowledge of spaghetti westerns is limited, so I would not be able to rightfully say whether this is among the best or the worst... but it is certainly an enjoyable film.What makes the film interesting today (2017) is its role in a relatively recent pop song from Gnarls Barkley. Though the score was probably not praised by many people over the last few decades, when someone hears it now, they are bound to recognize the sounds of "Crazy". It might be interesting to know where the musicians stumbled upon the film's score.The Blu-ray from Arrow Video is excellent, as always, though not their finest work. The picture is cleaned up very nicely (the 2k transfer was created from a 35mm interpositive), so this is easily the definitive version to own. But the special features are lacking. Other than a very brief (10 minute) run-down of the Django films from author Kevin Grant ("Any Gun Can Play"), there are really no bonus materials. No commentary, no interviews, nothing that really provides insight into this film. So a must for spaghetti western fans, but maybe not a must for the casual film buff.
This spaghetti western written by Franco Rosetti who worked on Sergio Corbucci's original Django, is what you can expect from one of the many Django movies from that era. This classic is a favorite of Tarrantino who contributed to The Django movies himself with Unchained. I found this film wildly entertaining, yet absurdly cheesy. The ending scene for example, the crowds of people ready to kill him and he just pulls the gun out of his coffin and shoots them all in the space of around 9 seconds. I think, personally, this is a film which reminds me why I love spaghetti westerns but also what most of the spaghetti westerns actually were, not all cinematic masterpieces like the works of Sergio Leone, but cheaply made, quite surreal and unrealistic, yet absolutely fantastic and entertaining to watch. Yet, this isn't a perfect movie, far from it.
Of all the unofficial "Django"-sequels(40+), this is the one that sticks closest to the original. This time around, Django is portrayed by a pre-Trinity Terrence Hill. Hill does his best to copy the original performance by Franco Nero, and succeeds. Director Ferdinando Baldi co-wrote this with Franco Rossetti (who also co-wrote the Corbucci film), and the result is an extremely entertaining film, with plenty of action, and enjoyable performances. This is nowhere the really great spaghetti westerns such as "Keoma", "Bullet For The General", and the works of Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci, but fans of the genre will be more than pleased. The ending is the best bit, and was actually copied in the only official "Django"-sequel, "Django Strikes Again". Extremely hard to find, but well worth the search.