The Stranger’s Gundown / Django il bastardo (Sergio Garrone, 1969)

[quote=“Lasky, post:19, topic:560”]I’ve been meaning to check out the version under the alternate DJANGO THE BASTARD title which i told maybe uncut,and this is being aired every now and again on the UK Movies4men channel.

It’s on in the afternoon next Friday so i’ll try to remember to record it.[/quote]

any news on this? I had never heard about the R1 being cut

All this talk of The Great Silence and Hang Em High had me reach for one of my favorite books - Once Upon A Time In the Italian West by Howard Hughes.

What I find most interesting in trying to link these two movies is that The Great Silence was never released in the US or UK for lack of a distributor. I am going by what Mr. Hughes wrote so if that’s the case Eastwood never saw this movie before or even after he made Hang Em High.

Also I really enjoyed The Stranger’s Gundown a lot. I like the gothic imagery and it was Steffen’s best role imo.

Has anyone noticed that the VCI DVD has gone out of print, and is now selling for $1,050 new/sealed on Amazon? If you can’t afford that they have a couple used copies for $99, down from $450. As of today VHS is sold out.

That’s insanity extreme. I can partly understand why a low-run release like the ones from Wild East would attract a hefty price once OOP but the VCI-titles must have had a printing run in the several thousands or am I completely wrong?

There are bound to be copies set to sale on ebay which will give a better indication of it’s worth. I would be very much surprised if any copies sell for more than $50.

Saw it for 10 pounds on ebay and no one bid on it http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=110373231168 .

I don’t really like this film, i’ve got the greek newpaper dvd of it.

Hi,

I have recorded this film from Movies4Men and it runs: 94 min 48 sek,
in Letterbox, nice picture.

Tom,

Anthony Steffen must have some sort of fascination with the name “Rod Murdock”. The main antagonist in this is given the name Rod Murdock, and one of the dastardly relatives from his Giallo, The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave, is billed as “Rod Murdock” rather than his actual name, Enzo Tarascio, and it was the only time he used that pseudonym. The name has a familiar ring to it too, I wonder …

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I like this one. Of course this Django had little resemblances with Corbucci’s, but despite that it is good entertainment stuff and one of my “lets earn some dollars using Django character” favourites.

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Based on reviews, screenshots, etc. I was pretty excited about this film. I just finally got a copy of it and boy, what a let down. To me, it almost seems more like a poor man’s “And God Said to Cain” (a far superior film by the way.) Lucianio Rossi definitely steals the show while Antonio Steffen definitely ruins it! The camera work is awesome, the music works well, but as a whole the film is boring! I can’t believe this is directed by the same man who directed “No Room To Die.” Also I feel compelled to say that I don’t see anything remotely horror about this… a shadow does not constitute horror nor does the fact most of the film takes place at night! In the end, I’ve seen far worse and this isn’t really a terrible film, just not as good as I thought it would be.

What about the fact that Steffen is a ghost?

But your obviously entitled to your opinion.

Is it a fact?

I thought it was done a way that also a natural explanation is possible. There are some hints in the ghost direction, but it isn’t made too obvious.

The first time I saw this, i too felt a bit let down about the supernatural angle - Viewings since have been enjoyed more. It wasn’t made obvious enough for me and I wanted him to be more explicitely ‘dead’. Now I’m ok about the ambiguity but I still prefer him to be…
… dead

And he got wounded, if I’m not remembering something wrong, and ghosts don’t get wounded. But he had a pretty ghostly way to disappear in the last scene.

Well, Garrone may like to think he was hinting at it but Steffen was a ghost. He got shot in slow motion. After that, he appears from no where, makes torn up oney reattach (if I remeber), makes camp fires expode, and frequently vanishes into thin air. IMO

[quote=“korano, post:50, topic:560”]What about the fact that Steffen is a ghost?

But your obviously entitled to your opinion.[/quote]

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

I didn’t get that Steffen was a ghost… not at all. What I got was that he was just wounded when everyone else was massacred at the camp. The people responsible for his “murder” thought he was a ghost because they thought he was dead (Same thing in God’s Gun… people thought Lee van Cleef was a ghost but it was just his twin brother. ) Being a spaghetti western, he just had the power to appear and reappear when it was needed just like a 6 shooter can fire 7 bullets. Nowhere does he just vanish into thin air before our eyes. We see another shot and then he’s gone… in theory, Steffen’s character could have just ducked off to the side, etc. Then, he was shot and bled… of course a ghost can bleed in a movie, it’s a movie they can do what they want… but I don’t believe that’s what the Garrone is implying. He made the campfire explode by throwing his cigarette into it (presumably some sort of dynamite or explosive… albeit a crazy non-realistic explosion.) All in all, I think Steffen’s character was a real man that certain people in the film thought was a ghost.

But what about the very last shot. He was walking in the middle of a street. no tables or walls in sight. He couldn’t have done it just to act cool. I say he was a ghost.

Also, in a lot of spaghettis where people are only wounded, they at least show them waking up or something. Like Django Kill.

In my review I have my own theory on the ghost question:

http://www.fistfulofpasta.com/index.php?go=reviews/django_bastardlen

This film is one of my favorites but I do agree with alot of your criticisms cm215. Its inferior to And God said to cain and at times it gets a bit boring. Also the horror element has been blown out of proportion. I do love the atmosphere, music, and thought that Steffen was perfect for the role.

Sometimes I think he is a ghost and other times not ??? .

Zombie?

Maybe he is depressed and thinks he is a Zombie…