Django (1966)

That opening shot. A man dragging a coffin through the mud, the mist hanging low, a lone voice on the soundtrack cutting through the silence. Within about ninety seconds, Django has already told you exactly what kind of film it is and exactly how seriously it takes itself. The answer to the second part is: very, while also being completely aware of how gloriously mad it all is. That combination is a rare thing, and it's a big part of why this film sits so comfortably among the greatest westerns ever made.

Franco Nero is an absolute revelation in the lead role. There's a stillness to him that does more work than most actors manage with a full monologue. He doesn't perform toughness, he just has it, and yet there's something weary and wounded underneath that keeps you watching every single scene he's in. It's the kind of performance that makes a franchise feel inevitable, and sure enough, the name Django went on to inspire dozens of imitations and sequels. That's the power of getting both the character and the casting exactly right from the off.

But let's talk about that coffin. Django dragging it behind him on a rope through the dirt is one of the great images in western cinema, and when you find out what's inside it, the film delivers on the promise completely. I am utterly convinced that image was lodged somewhere in Robert Rodriguez's head when he put a guitar case full of weaponry into Desperado decades later. The lineage feels too obvious to be coincidence. It's that kind of idea, the sort that burrows in and resurfaces in other people's work years down the line because nobody has quite managed to top it.

Then there's the soundtrack. I was humming it on the walk home and again in the shower the next morning. It's one of those scores that feels inseparable from the film itself, building the mood before a single piece of action kicks off. Spaghetti westerns were always good at this, using music almost as a weapon, and this one is among the very best examples of the form.

It's also worth noting that the film is genuinely violent for its era. Gore that would have raised eyebrows in 1966 turns up here with a matter-of-fact confidence, and the film doesn't flinch. What's impressive, though, is that it never tips into the gratuitous. Every bit of nastiness feels like it belongs to the world the film has built. It earns its brutality, which is harder to pull off than it sounds, and it's the difference between a film that uses violence to say something and one that just wallows in it for effect.

If you've been working your way through Italian genre cinema from the sixties, this belongs right alongside something like Viy (1967), another film from that same era that showed European genre filmmaking at its most inventive and atmospheric. Different genres entirely, same sense that there were filmmakers elsewhere doing genuinely daring, singular work while Hollywood was playing it safe.

Four and a half stars. One of the finest westerns you'll ever sit down with, built around a lead performance and a central image so good they echoed through decades of cinema that followed. Don't put it off any longer.

Rating: ★★★★½  | Year: 1966  | Watched: 2025-04-13

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Related on Movies With Macca

More with Franco Nero: The Last Alchemist (2012)
More from Italy: Nightmare City (1980) · Cemetery Man (1994) · One Way or Another (1975) · Chicken for Linda! (2023)
More from the 1960s: Viy (1967) · Persona (1966) · Carnival of Souls (1962) · Daisies (1966)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More western: The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) · Rio Bravo (1959) · Ride Lonesome (1959) · The Great Train Robbery (1903)