Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Django, Prepare a Coffin Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 20, 2017

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.

It’s kind of fun to watch Django, Prepare a Coffin and see how some of its characters informed later Django inspired offerings. The main villain in Django, Prepare a Coffin is a natty blonde aspiring politician named David Barry (Horst Frank), who (to my eyes at least) clearly served as a model for the Christoph Waltz character in Tarantino’s Django Unchained, at least in terms of appearance. The film itself plies pretty standard Spaghetti Western territory, depicting an early tragedy which morphs Django from what appears to be a sort of bodyguard role for Barry into his arch nemesis. Django’s “career change” includes him taking work as a hangman, although in a somewhat unusual way that involves him actually freeing people unjustly sentenced to death for having crossed Barry at one point, and gathering them together in order to fight Barry’s villainy. In some ways this particular plot point plays a little like a Spaghetti Western variation on certain elements of The Dirty Dozen, with a gaggle of supposedly condemned people united as a posse of sorts to bring a bad man to justice.

Some unexpected treachery not involving Barry informs the middle part of the film, but things move toward the predictable showdown in a more or less straightforward manner. Django emerges as a somewhat morose character in this film, one as laconic as Eastwood’s nameless man in the Leone films, but one with perhaps a more morbid sensibility (graveyards and coffins are regular images, as may be gleaned from the film’s very title). The film never quite attains the peculiar majesty of the Leone offerings, but it’s fun on its own smaller scale merits and should be enjoyed by anyone with a fondness for typical Spaghetti Western hyperbolism.

Django, Prepare a Coffin Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Django, Prepare a Coffin Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Django Explained (1080p; 8:33) is a fun overview of the character in general and this film in particular by Spaghetti Western expert Kevin Grant.


• Trailer (1080p; 3:05)

As it almost always tends to do, Arrow has also provided an informative insert booklet, this one with an essay by Howard Hughes (no, not that one, or at least I don't think so).

Django, Prepare a Coffin Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.