6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
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.
Starring: Terence Hill, Horst Frank, George Eastman, Pinuccio Ardia, Guido LollobrigidaForeign | 100% |
Western | 40% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Italian: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Mention the name Django to most Americans and chances are they’ll think of either Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained or, perhaps if they’re music lovers, the celebrated guitarist
Django Reinhardt. But ask a European, especially an Italian or German, and chances are you’ll be regaled with tales of one of the most iconic
characters (or
at least names — but more about that in a moment) to grace film in the late sixties and early seventies (and, ultimately, beyond). When
Sergio Leone either invented or invigorated (depending on whom you cite) the kind of peculiar genre known as the Spaghetti Western with such films
as A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, it didn’t take long for the bean counters in the international
film industry to realize that there was a huge market for this kind of fare, and one of the most successful unabashed copycats was 1966’s Django, a film which (not to state the obvious) offered a man
with a name but who had certain undeniable similarities to the character played by Clint Eastwood in the Leone films. Even given how
successful the Leone films were on this side of the pond, in some ways Django ignited European sentiments perhaps even more strongly, to
the point that a whole slew of films suddenly appeared in Django’s wake that featured that memorable name in the title, this despite the
fact that none of them featured Django’s star Franco Nero playing the character and in fact many of them didn’t even feature a character
named Django. (In a way, this brings to mind the desperate attempts of Asian filmmakers attempts to keep the Bruce Lee name alive after
Lee’s untimely passing, offering films that had things like Dragon in the title or even offering “substitute” stars like Bruce Li.)
Literally scores
of supposed “Django” films appeared between 1966 and circa 1972, exactly zero of them starring Nero (after the first film, of course). (Nero
would finally return to the role in 1987 in Django Strikes Again.) While Django, Prepare a Coffin therefore doesn’t feature Nero, it is
in fact a more or less “official” sequel to the 1966 outing, and it was actually meant to star Nero, until the lure of Hollywood and Camelot came calling and Nero wasn’t available for the shoot. A
rather fitting substitute was found in the form of Terence Hill, a hulking presence who had more than a passing resemblance to Nero. Django,
Prepare a Coffin revisits some of the plot points of the first Django film, albeit from a slightly different perspective, as it attempts to
illuminate events in the character’s early life which turned him into the Old West’s versions of an avenging angel.
Django, Prepare a Coffin is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. Arrow's typically informative insert booklet contains the following information on the transfer:
Django, Prepare a Coffin was transferred at L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy. The film was transferred at 2K resolution with Arriscan from a 35mm interpositive. The film was digitally restored in high definition and then digitally color corrected with Film Master by Nucoda. The sound was digitalized using the Chase Optical Sound Processor (COSP-Xi2K) from the original soundtrack negative.This is a presentable but somewhat underwhelming video presentation, one that to my eyes looked a bit too yellow, but I have never seen Django, Prepare a Coffin theatrically, so this may well be the way it was intended to look. That said, the palette never really pops with incredible immediacy, and a lot of the film offers mostly beiges, browns and ochres, with only occasional bursts of what might be called traditionally vivid hues. There is some variability in density and saturation throughout the presentation, something that perhaps can most easily be seen in the many outdoor scenes, where elements like skies and foliage can look manifestly different from moment to moment, even within the same shot. Detail levels are rather good, especially in close-ups (as can be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review), but overall this is a somewhat soft looking presentation. While grain is prevalent, I personally wondered if some high frequency filtering had been applied, since some scenes looked a little smooth to my eyes.
Django, Prepare a Coffin features English and Italian dubs in LPCM Mono. Both tracks have a slightly artificial, boxy sound that makes it all too apparent that the film was post looped, as has been the tradition in Italian cinema. That boxiness may deprive a few effects, like the rapid fire machine gun bursts, of at least a little force, but the quite enjoyable score still resonates rather well (I have to say I'm kind of in love with the film's cool theme song, though some may be more familiar with another tune in the score that was sampled by Gnarls Barkley). Dialogue sounds fine, within the context outlined above.
Despite filling in some of the backstory on what supposedly made Django prone to carting around a coffin in the first film, Django, Prepare a Coffin doesn't quite attain the same emotional resonance that the first film does. While the basic outlines of the plot are handled well enough, performances are a bit stiff and the film rarely exploits the same gonzo mentality that informed the first film. Still, lovers of the character and Spaghetti Westerns in general should find more than enough entertainment value here. Technical merits are decent if occasionally problematic, and supplements are a bit on the spare side (an aberration for Arrow releases). With caveats noted, Django, Prepare a Coffin comes Recommended.
Special Edition
1966
Blood at Sundown / Il ritorno di Ringo
1965
1968
Goodbye Texas
1966
E Dio disse a Caino...
1970
Stranger's Gundown / Django the Avenger / Django il bastardo
1969
1976
C'è Sartana... vendi la pistola e comprati la bara! / A Fistful of Lead
1970
Una nuvola di polvere... un grido di morte... arriva Sartana / Gunman in Town
1970
I quattro dell'apocalisse
1975
Ballad of Death Valley / The Angry Gun / Ringo the Killer / Una Pistola per Ringo
1965
The Rope and the Colt / Une corde, un Colt...
1969
Se sei vivo spara
1967
Buon funerale amigos!... paga Sartana / Gunslinger
1970
La resa dei conti
1966
Se incontri Sartana prega per la tua morte / Gunfighters Die Harder
1968
1967
Da uomo a uomo | Special Edition
1967
La città sconvolta: caccia spietata ai rapitori
1975
Gatling Gun / Machine Gun Killers / Quel caldo maledetto giorno di fuoco
1968