Let me correct myself, there are no machine gun coffins in āThe Mercenaryā or āCompanerosā but both films contain scenes where Nero is running around like a mad man with a machine gun. While there may not be a widespread use of coffins containing machine guns, it has happened enough for me think its pretty obvious as viewer as to what the coffin contains.
The use of machine guns, coffin or not, is certainly prevalent and I find it to be a little overdone. I donāt mind seeing Django or The Swede wasting hundreds of baddies with a machine gun but it seems like this happens in almost every film I watch. It could just be a Corbucci thing though, Iām not sure. I probably shouldnāt be making generalizations of the genre as Iāve only seen about 9 or 10 non-Leone spaghettis and the majority of them were done by the other Sergio.
The Zapata westerns do love their machine guns, but I donāt think the ordinary spaghetti have nearly as much statistically. Personally, either way it doesnāt bug me, the machine gun is just another weapon to me.
[quote=āDollarsDollarsBills, post:57, topic:162ā]Iām not sure how to put spoiler tags so Iāll just say this post contains some MAJOR SPOILERS. For those who havenāt seen it, SPOILER ALERT.
I gave it 2 stars. Itās a mediocre western, plain and simple. Entertaining enough, sure, but the character Garcia was ridiculous. Itās like they tried to make him this interesting, dynamic character but ended up just making him look bipolar.
And another thing, what is the deal with the whole āmachine-gun-in-a-coffinā plot twist? It was cool in āDjangoā but it seems like it happens in almost every non-Leone western. Corbucci uses it in pretty much every movie. Itās unbelievable. In the final scene when heās digging the grave and Davidās gang starts to surround hime I was just waiting for Terence Hill to open up the coffin and pull out a machine gun. And sure enough, he busts it out shoots everyone to shit. āDjangoā and āThe Mercenaryā were about the only ones where I actually enjoyed it, now Iām just watching every movie expecting someone to whip a machine gun out of nowhere.[/quote]
I think you got the films mixed up. You are referring to another film, Django Preparati La Bara (1968) aka Viva Django, aka Man called Django, aka Django prepare a coffin, starring Terrence Hill.
This thread is for the film W Django (1971) aka Viva Django aka Man called Django starring Anthony Steffen.
[quote=āCol. Douglas Mortimer, post:63, topic:162ā]I think you got the films mixed up. You are referring to another film, Django Preparati La Bara (1968) aka Viva Django, aka Man called Django, aka Django prepare a coffin, starring Terrence Hill.
This thread is for the film W Django (1971) aka Viva Django aka Man called Django starring Anthony Steffen.[/quote]
Upps, I didnāt realise either that we are in the wrong thread. Now I know why I couldnāt remember a MG scene in W Django.
But as Viva Django was supposed to be an official sequel (or prequel) of Django, and Nero was originally supposed to play the role, it is not a great surprise that this film also contains a MG out of a coffin scene.
I had no problem with this Spag, its at least filmed in good style, but the story is a bit boring and annoyingly predictable, well it at least could be predictable but not boring. In any case Steffen has this problem for me, with the exception of Django the Bastard (and maybe one or two others), he just aināt got the looks/grinta of the kind of guy who can wipe out an all Mexican Army detachment like he did in this film.
And by that Iām getting to one of the problems I had with this film, the body count was high, but in a stupid Rambo style way, also the actor who played Carranza (A true character during The Mexican Revolution) really tried to look like Wallach, (perhaps the English dub helped that), then we got the car and Mexican Revolution story setting, well to me it looked like a plain XIX cowboy story set after 1870, they should had effort a little bit more on creating a zapata feeling, if they wanted to do a Zapata SW.
Yeah all bad things till now, OK the action is well packed and like I said before its well filmed, the score was also very good, and also liked the introduction. In conclusion not great had the feeling they could have done better, but it was entertaining enough to watch, at least for the next 5 years or so.
P.S. The Django thing didnāt work out for me in this one, you must conquer the right to be called DJANGO
Donāt think so myself, the girl on the right has more pouty lips, the nose looks slightly different and itās hard to tell but I think her cheekbones are higher also.
The girl on the right is not Ida Galli, the shape of the face is different, Galli has a Greek face (form of a heart), the girl on the right has a ālongā face, more right angled.
The nose also seems different and the chin (of the girl on the right) is more protruding
Not a bad one, if you donāt expect much you might get surprised. Some one-liners are actually funny. Plot is there, if you donāt mind borrowing from many more famous sources.
And Piero Umilianiās score is first class.
W Django! is the epitome of b-spag that can give you an hour 1/2 of entertaining.Steffen is in his good standards as usual.Also Carranza and Jeff are very good in their roles as bandits.The movie has an element from āāFor a Few Dollars Moreāā I talk about the music box and its meaning at the end.Slimy characters in a dirty city and the main character kills with some inventive and funny ways.Also I like Piero Umilianiās music score is great.What else?
A very hesitant 3 stars, more like a 2.5. Some great music, a pretty cool flashback/revenge plot line and the film looks nice but most of the ācomedyā is just awful. The booby trap style shoot outs are seriously cringe-worthy. Steffen was alright though and the villains were pretty good. I was reasonably entertained, thats all I can ask for I guess.
[quote=āStanton, post:39, topic:162ā]The English version ends with a nice dialogue exchange between Django and his final victim: āAdios amigoā and the soon to be dead answers with a fatalistic and accepting āAdios gringoā. But in the German and Italian version he says before shooting: āSorry that you can only die onceā and the answer is a simple āmerdeā.[/quote]
In actual fact in the Italian version Django says āNow hope that at least God may forgive youā, so Carranzaās answer and the highly irreverent spit in the hanging scene are a fine pair.
[hr]
The DB page needs corrections, we have not present Custer Gail as Doug and - crazy but true - Ida Galli asā¦ Djangoās henchman! Candelliās right-hand man is played by an actor unidentified until now, that is fight arranger and stunt coordinator Sergio Sagnotti, nicknamed āpunch masterā.
Below we see him - clockwise - in W Django!, with Fernando Bilbao in Apocalypse Joe, in Brother Outlaw and finally in Cjamango together with Ivan Rassimov.
Heās also in Why Go on Killing? but I havenāt checked his role because my copy is significantly cut and with obscene image quality.
According to Italian page on Wikipedia he was also fight arranger on The Grand Duel and lesser actor in the āMan with No Nameā trilogy, Death Rides a Horse, Once Upon a Time in the West and A Fistful of Dynamite, but this must be verified.
