TinsHeadline Touches You

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Bezenby A stranger, filmed at odd angles, walks purposefully into town, stands outside of bar, and plants a cross in the ground, bearing the name of a man inside. The man and his cohorts confront the weirdo outside only to find the date of death on the cross is this very day, and that date of death is going to very shortly be accurate...Folks criticise Antony Steffan for being a wooden actor, but he suits this roll to a tee! Steffan plays Django, a man who may or may not be the vengeful ghost of a confederate soldier out to kill his back- stabbing commanding officers who sold out his troops to the Yankees. There's two other officers on his list, but these guys have money at their disposal - money than can buy a lot of hired guns. Murdok is main guy Django has his sights on, and he's the one hiring the guns. He's also got some domestic issues as he basically pays Rada Rassimov to be married to his psychotic brother (Luciano Rossi, playing a nutter as usual), and she's not happy with this set up. Rossi's also out of control too, dragging a man to his death and killing the local sheriff for objecting to this. He's also the only person who remotely comes close to finding out if Django is a ghost or just some human skin wearing dude guy. That's the main question of the film - Is Django a ghost? He seems to appear just about anywhere he wants (including round a campfire where the bad guys are discussing him, in the background as the bad guys walk out of shot, and even seems to dodge a bullet at one point), and also appears to flat out murder a huge amount of hired guns. Some are even sent into town dead, crucified, on the backs of horses. He really is a bastard!The plot is simple here which seems to help things. Django knows who he's out to kill and sets out to do it and that is that. It's interesting that although Luciano Rossi's character seems to draw blood from Django, no one seems to believe his claims that Django is a ghost! The ending further blurs the lines here too.Followed by Django The A***hole, Django the W*nker and early seventies slapstick western Django the Daft C*nt.

ma-cortes This is an Anthony Steffen vehicle playing his usual character as revenger gunslinger as playing a phantom gone back from the grave to revenge his own death . An avenge-seeking soldier returns from the dead to take vendetta on three officers who betrayed his unit in battle during Civil War. The mysterious gunfighter without a name rides and arrives in the town to stay for execute his mission . After gunning down some desperado who tried to kill him, he set out to return to get their vengeance. Can the mysterious gunfighter without a name stop the outlaw brothers ? . This violent Western is set on eerie outdoors and dark interiors , the star is a mysterious revenger, ¨a man without name¨ , who comes to avenge against nasty villainous . It deals about a gunfighter (Anthony Steffen) arriving a little town that has the usual shops and buildings, as General merchandise, Livery stable, Hardware, Barber shop, Saloon , Hotel and of course the Church. The drifter will take on a couple of brothers called Murdock (Paolo Gozlino and Luciano Rossi) and their hoodlums (Carlo Gadi) , being only helped by the gorgeous Alida (Rada Rassimov) .Well crafted Western with interesting screenplay written by main actor Anthony Steffen and director Sergio Garrone . Although atmospheric , it's also downbeat and sometimes just downright nasty. The story is almost terrific and creepy as the drifter comes to strange frontier town just in time to reckoning villagers and bandits . The film is made in somewhat similar style to ¨High plains drifter(1973)¨ , it has been said that is the uncredited inspiration and also ¨Pale rider (1985)¨, both of them acted and directed by Clint Eastwood , only this time the drifter appears to have been sent from hell rather than heaven to right from past injustices and double-crosses .The picture is well starred by Anthony Steffen-Antonio De Teffe- , he began playing secondary roles into typical examples of popular Italian films of the late 50s as sword and sandal epics, comedies, adventures and was with spaghetti westerns that renamed achieved worldwide stardom. Anthony Steffen may be a name best remembered by Spaghetti Western aficionados, but in his day, from the mid-'60s to the early '70s, Steffen was one of the most popular actors of the genre — at the time cheap B movies, now revered cult classics . The handsome, Italian-born — actually at the Brazilian embassy in Rome — Antonio Luiz de Teffè von Hoonholtz began working in films as a studio messenger for Vittorio De Sica . From there, Steffen began acting in sword-and-sandal epics, later moving onto the Western genre, where he found his niche. Unlike fellow Spaghetti star Clint Eastwood, however, Steffen never became a top international box-office attraction. His acting is often accused of being wooden , but in many manners is ideally suited to playing the steely-faced gunslinger synonymous with the genre . His others successes include well liked features as Seven Dollars to Kill, The last Mohican¨, ¨Train for Durango¨, ¨Gentleman Jo¨ , ¨Four dollars for Django¨, ¨Shango¨, ¨Arizona colt¨, ¨Apocalypse Joe¨ and several others. He was still enjoyable in other genres, specially Giallos as the successful The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave¨, ¨Death in Haiti¨ or The ¨Crimes of the Black Cat¨, a good example of Giallo where he played a blind pianist - one of his roles he most liked- , and ¨Killer Fish¨ . The motion picture is interestingly directed by Sergio Garrone . Sergio started his movie career as a screenwriter and assistant director before making his solo directorial debut with the spaghetti Western ¨Se Vuoi Vivere... Spara (1968)¨. He continued to helm several other spaghetti Westerns that include ¨Three crosses of death (1968)¨, ¨Django Il Bastardo (1969)¨ his best film , ¨Quel Maledetto Giorno della resa Conti (1971)¨ and ¨Kill Django .. Kill first¨. He subsequently directed a wartime movie as ¨The dove must not fly¨ and Pornonazis and other exploitation films . Rating : Acceptable and passable.

JohnWelles "Django the Bastard" (1969), which also sometimes goes under the name of "The Stranger's Gundown", is a Spaghetti Western, directed by Sergio Garrone, that tries to combine the Horror genre with the Western, with a somewhat mixed, if interesting, result.The script is by its star Anthony Steffen along with the director, and tells a tale that at first seems derivative, but then intriguing: Django (Steffen) brings his deadly vengeance against rancher Rod Murdoch (Paulo Gozlino) for betraying him 13 years previously in the American Civil War.When Django's motivation is revealed, the only explanation left is that he is in fact a ghost. There are hints throughout and up to that point when all is revealed that he may not be one of "us", sliding into the frame and appearing in places where it would have been impossible for him to go without Murdoch's henchmen seeing him. Yet this is a ghost, that when shot, bleeds. However, his is shot by the madman Luke (Lu Kamante), son of Murdoch, and the only person, alongside the money crazed Alida (Rada Rassimov), who doesn't believe that his is a spook. This raises the interesting question as to whether Django is only a ghost to those who believe he is one. Perhaps though, I'm over thinking this. Garrone wasn't the most accomplished director and a number of scenes, like the wretched dynamite throwing scene at Murdoch's ranch, are simply badly made. However, the good does outweigh the bad: most of the gunfights are excellently staged, and when Luke tries to hang Django in a church, one of the most memorable scenes in Spaghetti Westerns take place. There is some very good photography from Gino Santini and while Steffen is his usual impassive self, which actually works quite well here, both Lu Kamante and Rada Rassimov are first-class. The music score, on the other hand, by Vasco Mancuso is pretty poor.Finally, there are too many directorial inadequacies and missed chances here to make this a great film. The same year's "And God Said to Cain…" with Klaus Kinski shares many of its same features, but manages to surpass "Django the Bastard" with ease. Still, there a number of things here make it a must-see for genre aficionados, and if I ever see a decent print of the film, I might like it a lot more.

K_Todorov I'm always interested in seeing a horror/western and this unofficial sequel to "Django" directed by Sergio Garrone and starring Anthony Steffen promised to offer just that. But evidently my impression wasn't positive. It's promise of combining the two genres, was overblown. "Django The Bastard" tried to create a seemingly supernatural atmosphere while at the same time keeping as close to reality as possible. And it failed.Anthony Steffen stars as Django a loyal, honest soldier who is betrayed by his officers in the Confederate army and seemingly killed along with his whole detachment. Now he apparently has risen from the grave to exact his revenge. In the opening scene we see Django carrying a cross through town. He stops in front of a building, and pins it in the ground. The men inside suspiciously examine Django, while finally discovering that the cross bears the name of them. Further more, on it is written the day of his death, today. What follows is a traditional shootout that leads to the obvious conclusion, Django now triumphant proceeds to punish all those responsible for the death of his comrades and his in a similar fashion.This movie has often been compared to Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter", claiming that it's more or less been the inspiration. Honestly the only similarity found in both these movies is that they are presented as quasi-supernatural westerns. On the threshold between supernatural and natural, both posses characters that could or could not be spirits of vengeance. Such story is not anything new though and tales of such content have long existed in the western mythology. But "Django The Bastard" suffers from the inability to exploit it's features. The plot is shaky at best, often contradicting itself. At one point we have the titular character displaying unexplainable supernatural abilities, such as appearing from nowhere, disappearing, and even becoming transparent. While at another sequence Django gets, beaten, practically tortured, forced to run and hide from bad guy's henchmen. These plot elements did a great job at leaving me confused, but did little in creating that mystical atmosphere which was the supposed goal of the entire film. Django didn't feel supernatural because he was being beaten and didn't feel real because at one moment he became transparent. On other points of interest, namely the acting. Anthony Steffen does have the intimidating look, but his performance was lackluster and quite frankly it was flat. Nothing different can be said about the supporting cast. There was not a single character that made an impression, in fact to be honest I forgot most of them shortly after I saw the movie.Cinematography was a mixed bag. There were some really nicely directed tracking shots and overall stable, camera work. But the shootouts were unimpressive. Gorrene could have at least tried to put some more work in creating memorable action scenes to compensate for the second-hand plot. Ultimately what we get is a series of boring, uncreative, unsynchronized shootouts. What's even worse is that the gunned-down people tend fall in a slow irritating manner, it's as if they are being careful not to get hurt. Hello ? They are a supposed to be dead. Finally, the last thing worth commenting, namely the score. It is as forgettable as everything else in "Django The Bastard" I was neither able to remember who composed or any specific tune."Django The Bastard" might have a cool sounding name, but it doesn't have much else to offer. It's a forgettable experience failing to tap on it's quasi-supernatural plot, with just a few minor sequences sticking out from the otherwise bellow-average presentation.