[quote=“Lode, post:20, topic:299”]The only thing I didn’t like were the subtitles of the Blue Underground DVD. They were always too early and sometimes (really often) were subs when nobody was talking…!!![/quote]If I remember correctly the subs are translated from the italian audio which has more dialogue.
Ok, this would explain the subs. I was thinking this. Sometimes I could listen to some very silent dialogues in the backround by some non-important characters…
Yes, I felt Milian’s character a little like Sanjuro. But it’s so strange, the hero does nothing, but he’s haunted by something (hang washing all the time like Lady Macbeth). The hero is only watching, villains kill each other. ;D
Well… It’s more a horror than a western. I felt it good, but too violent and gory. Not to mention the fake blood’s color is totally unreal.
Milian is great, but he’s so lost.
Is this a parable about Greed? I think Stroheim did it better.
Good film, but very strange.
I agree with you, Jill (could it be otherwise?). The hero, Milian in this case, is a passive one: the trick is that he watches doomsday. He is already dead: in one of the first scenes we see him roll over the sky, and fall … no, not down, but up! The Indians who pick him up, are interested in him because he might have some information about the after life … It is a surreal movie with religious overtones, and yes, it’s a parable about greed, about life and death, about homosexualaity, about a white hero called Zorro, about a talking parrot, and about an exploding donkey and a lot of disfigured other animals …
Watch the scene in which Milian is crucified, and watch the disfigured animal …
Milians frequent hand washing might be a reference to Pontius Pilate? Washing his hands of all the evil going on around him. In mainly Catholic Italy of the 60’s, even the homosexuality would have been seen as evil made more so by the implied rape of the young man.The religious overtones are many and remind me of the otherwise very different Keoma.
I didn’t think about it, but I suppose you’re right, Cian. Like I said, it is a parable referring to Doomsday; in Catholic Italy, a reference to Pontius Pilate seems rather logical. The spaghettiwestern is a catholic genre, with its baroque splendour and imagery. Leone is as catholic as Peckinpah is calvinistic. And probably both were non-believers.
The Parrot is the best! ;D He should have been mentioned in the credits:
And also starring:
The Parrot as himself ;D Why had that bad old SOB shooted it? :’(
I think the fat man’s name is Sorrow (subtitles say it).
[quote=“Jill, post:27, topic:299”]I think the fat man’s name is Sorrow (subtitles say it).[/quote]I believe it was originally Zorro in Italian but someone has misheard it as Sorrow when making subtitles.
But actually I like Sorrow better, cool name for villain.
Yea, imagine his postal address" Mr.Sorrow, The Unhappy Place! Cool.
;D ;D ;D
I like Milian’s face. He’s standing or sitting there, watching what the other characters do, and thinking something like this: “Are these normal?!” or “Where the hell am I, is this a western or Poe’s nightmare?”
Sorrow’s first name should be perhaps Sadness.
[quote=“Jill, post:30, topic:299”];D ;D ;D
I like Milian’s face. He’s standing or sitting there, watching what the other characters do, and thinking something like this: “Are these normal?!” or “Where the hell am I, is this a western or Poe’s nightmare?”
Sorrow’s first name should be perhaps Sadness. :P[/quote]
Hahaha yeah, it really looks like that! Milian is completely contemplative in this movie, and I didn’t get what he meant by “it’s time to do what i came here to do”… he was there for an unexplained reason! Was he there just to make sure the powerful ones of the town would kill each other and no one would get the gold? Perhaps…
Anyway, 6.5/10
I liked the bizarre, the gore, but not the plot very much.
I’ve loved this film since I first saw it, in a 95 minute version that maybe worked better than the director’s cut. Regardless, Blue Underground deserves kudos for finally putting it out uncut (maybe some other companies have followed afterwards). What I find interesting is that DJANGO KILL is in some ways surprisingly close to being a standard Italian western (or just a “proper movie”), with generic plot that’s easy to follow and characters with mostly very clear motivations, some of these folks are actually quite likeable. It does not seem that director Giulio Questi is pushing the “weird button” too hard and Tomas Milian is much more subdued and controlled than usually. When shocking and lunatic behavior occurs it seems somehow right (as in a dream) and this is what makes the movie creepy and subversive, not the perverse situations and details in themselves. Life appears almost normal and yet is totally not, in a way that reminds me of the David Cronenberg movies. I also like the bright and clear cinematography that would be fit for almost any SW (just like Ivan Vandor’s catchy music). So many “beautiful ugly” close-ups, love those faces! This is not a film I’d recommend for shock value addicts but there’s a certain strangeness value I find appealing…
Welcome to the forum Hud
Btw, where are you from Hud?
There aren’t really “uncut” versions left, Hud. Originally the violence was of a much more savage kind : bandits roasted over fires, women and children shot, animal disembowelled etc. (see: Frayling, SWs, Cowboys and Europeans etc. p. 82); according to British film maker/critic Alex Cox an Italian Judge confiscated and subsequently destroyed this controversial material.
But even in the actual so-called uncut version it must have looked quite shocking in the sixties. Today the violence of SWs is no longer a serious issue, but in those days it surely was, especially in Northern Europe; in Italy apparently only two films, this one and Django got the rating ‘vietato ai minori’ (minors not allowed), in Holland and Belgium, where I grew up, most received an ‘18’ rating. Let’s not forget that people had not yet seen films like The Wild Bunch, Saving Private Ryan or Taxi Driver, nor horror sickies or Kung Fu movies.
I saw SE SEI VIVO … SPARA/DJANGO KILL for the first time on the BBC some eight or ten (?) years ago, introduced by Alex Cox, and was a bit disappointed by it. Probably my expectations were too high. I bought the French DVD (with french/italian audio) last year and watched it again. I liked it a lot more, especially on an allegorical level (I wrote two post on the matter on this thread, september 26, they’re on page 2), but it’s still not one of my favourite spaghs. It’s a bit over-hyped and as far as allegorical readings are concerned: if you don’t get this allegory, the film seems a little hollow and unfocussed (I remember somebody said here on the forum that the script didn’t know were to go).
so the BU disc isn’t uncut, either?
When I got it right, this is the version full of the available material.
“…according to British film maker/critic Alex Cox an Italian Judge confiscated and subsequently destroyed this controversial material.”
So there won’t be any uncut release.
Damned interfering judiciary!
Or maybe this could be just a rumour?
As far as I know the scalping-scene and the operating-scene were never included in any previous theatrical- or video-release in any country.
So in that case why were not these scenes also destroyed?
[quote=“Silvanito, post:39, topic:299”]Or maybe this could be just a rumour?
As far as I know the scalping-scene and the operating-scene were never included in any previous theatrical- or video-release in any country.
So in that case why were not these scenes also destroyed?[/quote]
I don’t know, Silvanito, but I’m going to search for more conclusive evidence in the next few days.
See you.
(
Hope your lovely one-eyed daughter isn’t aiming at me!)