Sick Product of a Sick System

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This spaghetti western is yet another in the seemingly endless cycle of 'Django' movies. Like the vast majority, it only has a passing relevance to the original Sergio Corbucci classic and really the lead character is no more than a standard spaghetti western anti-hero who could essentially go under any moniker. But, I have seen quite a few of the Django movies now and I have also seen quite a lot of the more run-of-the-mill Italian westerns too and this effort is quite clearly better than most. In this one we have the title character hunting down a group of bandits who raped and killed his wife. He takes them out one by one with the help of one of their ex-gang members, whom he saves from execution in order to gain his trust and assistance.This one has Anthony Steffen as Django and I reckon he is one of the better actors at playing this kind of role. He does elicit a certain hard-nosed cool throughout and its easy getting behind him on his bloody revenge mission. Steffen also has good chemistry with Stelio Candelli who plays the Mexican bandit who partners him. The nature of the plot with its emphasis on a series of villains taken down one at a time, means that the story is made up of individual segments and I think this helps pace the film quite well, which is a good thing given that many spaghetti westerns can get a bit tedious as they go on. The ending also was good here too, although I saw the twist ending coming a mile off I have to say – the clues are there and you have just got to spot them. All-in-all though, I was pleasantly surprised with this one and certainly found it to be one of the better movies from this sub-genre.

One of a number of cheaply made Italian Westerns designed to cash in on the Django brand name, "W Django!" a.k.a. "A Man Called Django", doesn't compare of course to the original Franco Nero film but is still very acceptable non-think entertainment that keeps you watching for an hour and a half. In this story the cunning bounty hunter is actually married, but the poor woman lasts barely a minute and a half; she's assaulted and gunned down by bandits. A year later Django (Anthony Steffen) comes to a small town and learns that a thief about to be hanged, Carranza (Stelio Candelli) can identify the members of that gang, so he saves his life. The two men are then united as Carranza points out one lowlife at a time while bodies regularly get pumped full of bullets and a shipment of guns plays into the plot. Don't look for too much story here, but you can expect a fair amount of style, courtesy of director Edoardo Mulargia, and the violence is pretty constant; the body count in this thing is impressive. You can also expect a LOT of comedy in this thing, thanks to writer Nino Stresa. Candelli in particular is an absolute hoot. The acting is competent all the way down the line; horror fans may recognize Chris Avram from Mario Bavas' "A Bay of Blood", cast here as the outlaw Jeff. Esmeralda Barros adds appreciable eye candy as Lola, and Donato Castellaneta is quite appealing as saloon owner Paco. Some fans of Italian Westerns may find that ultimately it gets too silly, but it's undeniably very lively from start to finish and hard not to like. Steffen may not be Franco Nero, but he's pretty cool in his own right and the viewer simply has to love how ingenious he is. He establishes himself as a cool customer soon after his entrance, and he comes up with nifty ways to trick various bad guys. (The bit with the fake arm is a show-stopper.) All in all, this is quite agreeable and well worth a viewing. Seven out of 10.

This movie, like most of the lower-tier spaghetti westerns, is pretty low on thrills and frills. What you do get is competent acting, surprisingly crisp gun battles, and a very nice zinger ending. While it doesn't have the novelty of Sabata or Keoma, it stands on it's own pretty well. I'm hesitant to evaluate the original based on this terrible DVD because it looks like about 20 minutes is just completely missing. If you're watching this, you go in knowing that most spaghetti westerns are crap-awful, so when you find one like this that's actually capable of entertaining you, it's a welcome event. This certainly isn't one for fans of the genre to pass up.

This spaghetti western has a typical but well executed storyline. The relationship between the two main characters is reminiscent of Blondie and Tuco from "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly." It also has pretty decent acting, an awesome music score from Piero Umiliani, and one of the coolest endings I have ever seen.I probably would have rated it even higher if it was dubbed in English. I don't mind subtitles in other kinds of movies, but for some reason I prefer to watch westerns in English, even if the dubbing is bad.Still, it's a really enjoyable flick, and I recommend it to all die-hard spaghetti western fans.