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

I agree this is Anthony Steffens Best Western!!! together with Dead Men Don´t Count - Garringo - W Django.

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I confess to being a Steffen fan, so it is hard for me to pick a single favorite. However, DJANGO IL BASTARDO is definitely high on my list!

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I find the movie extremely boring.
I have seen it now three times but each time I found it boring.

Steffen supplies here from a very wooden performance.
The movie is missing a dark atmosphere. But everything looks totally ridiculous and cheap.

The story certainly has much potential, but Garrone it does not create the potential to use.

Absolute average.

[quote=“The Stranger, post:123, topic:560”]I find the movie extremely boring.
I have seen it now three times but each time I found it boring.

Steffen supplies here from a very wooden performance.
The movie is missing a dark atmosphere. But everything looks totally ridiculous and cheap.

The story certainly has much potential, but Garrone it does not create the potential to use.

Absolute average.[/quote]

Wow I admire your patience! If I find a movie boring I don’t watch it again.

The hope dies last. :wink:
The film has a good reputation.
And I had always hoped it would be better, the more I see it.
Unfortunately, it is not so.

[quote=“The Stranger, post:125, topic:560”]The hope dies last. :wink:
The film has a good reputation.
And I had always hoped it would be better, the more I see it.
Unfortunately, it is not so.[/quote]

I sort of feel the same, i’ve seen it 3 times… I just don’t get it at all, why its so loved.

I admire your hope :smiley: .

I have made a screenshot comparison between the German DVD (MCP) and the current best release in the world, the digitally remastered DVD of Seven7 (France).

Format MCP: 1.85:1
Format Seven7: 2.35:1

First Screens are from the MCP, the second from the Seven7:






the movie has moment’s that looks more like a horror movie

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Mistranslation: in the original Italian version the years are 16!

In my opinion this is an important and worth seeing SW, full of interesting sequences and even more enjoyable the second time.
Naturally this Confederate Django isn’t the same character of Corbucci’s film, where Django was on the Union army side.

I liked the credits sequence too, very unusual
I liked three scenes in this - his first kill, the flashback and the dynamite throwing scene

My favourite scenes are

  1. the beginning, with the stylish appearance (apparition?) of the main character
  2. the sequence with Steffen and Luciano Rossi at the inside of the church
  3. the final gunfight (including the duel with Paolo Gozlino ).

The movie should be included in Remo Capitani’s SW filmography (bearded man in the dynamite throwing sequence).

Django the Bastard (Garrone/69)

Django the Bastard (1969), which also sometimes goes under the name of “The Stranger’s Gundown”, is a Spaghetti Western, directed by Sergio Garrone, that tries to combine the Horror genre with the Western, with a somewhat mixed, if interesting, result.

The script is by its star Anthony Steffen along with the director, and tells a tale that at first seems derivative, but then intriguing: Django (Steffen) brings his deadly vengeance against rancher Rod Murdoch (Paulo Gozlino) for betraying him 13 years previously in the American Civil War.

When Django’s motivation is revealed, the only explanation left is that he is in fact a ghost. There are hints throughout and up to that point when all is revealed that he may not be one of “us”, sliding into the frame and appearing in places where it would have been impossible for him to go without Murdoch’s henchmen seeing him. Yet this is a ghost, that when shot, bleeds. However, his is shot by the madman Luke (Lu Kamante), son of Murdoch, and the only person, alongside the money crazed Alida (Rada Rassimov), who doesn’t believe that his is a spook. This raises the interesting question as to whether Django is only a ghost to those who believe he is one. Perhaps though, I’m over thinking this. Garrone wasn’t the most accomplished director and a number of scenes, like the wretched dynamite throwing scene at Murdoch’s ranch, are simply badly made. However, the good does outweigh the bad: most of the gunfights are excellently staged, and when Luke tries to hang Django in a church, one of the most memorable scenes in Spaghetti Westerns take place. There is some very good photography from Gino Santini and while Steffen is his usual impassive self, which actually works quite well here, both Lu Kamante and Rada Rassimov are first-class. The music score, on the other hand, by Vasco Mancuso is pretty poor.

Finally, there are too many directorial inadequacies and missed chances here to make this a great film. The same year’s And God Said to Cain… with Klaus Kinski shares many of its same features, but manages to surpass Django the Bastard with ease. Still, there a number of things here make it a must-see for genre aficionados, and if I ever see a decent print of the film, I might like it a lot more.

Steffen seems super thin in this. He sort of reminds me of a bit of a scarecrow the way he lingers around with his shabby poncho.

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My favorite Steffen. I don’t like Steffen, but he’s perfect in this one.

@ John : Note what Jonathan said about the 13 years and original version. See also an earlier post by Jalousie.

Thanks for the head’s up sherpshtter; a bad piece of dubbing seems to have caused this “continuity” error.

very very strange, in good sense, spaghetti. they say this is one of the best “sequels” to django.

Interesting idea. I haven’t been struggling with his identity too (in the essay Ghosts and Avengers). Maybe we should see him as a sort of vampire: he can only be threatened and killed by certain people (Von Helsing), using certain weapons (crucifixes, stabbing him through the heart etc.). Horror movies (in this is one) have their own inner logic.

Perhaps though, I’m over thinking this. - I think you should elaborate this thought a little (it’s obviously a review, not a simple post)

What I meant was that I thought that perhaps I was reading too much into the film and looking for something that doesn’t necessarily have an explanation: in other words, the scriptwriter might just have put this in to generate tension (it would be a boring film if there’s no chance of any harm coming to the hero).

And thank you for the compliment.

I think this is right.

I still don’t see much reason to consider Steffen as a ghost.
Sure the film plays with his ghostly appearance, and there is more reason in Django il bastardo to see him as a ghost then in OuTW, and especially the last shot is again a strong indication, but in the end he got shot and he bleeds, and ghosts don’t bleed, and if a director wants his protagonist to be surely a ghost he should have skipped the wounding part.
But even without the wounding the film is made in a way that you might interpret him as a ghost, but it is not a necessity. Unlike Pirates of the caribbean it is only an option to view him as a ghost, but with the wounding the option is already very vague. And very constructed.

Not very constructed to my way of thinking.

It’s clear the ghost has a physical consistency, since he kills his enemies… shooting.

But Django IS a ghost: among other things in the original version his last words - when Rada Rassimov tells him “what a lot of dollars, they 'll be enough for a life” - are “I already had a life”. Then he vanishes into thin air.