Django (character)  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Django is a fictional coffin-dragging stranger in a few dozen Spaghetti Western films, originally played by Franco Nero but eventually portrayed by many other actors.

Short description

Django is not that strong mentally, he talks rarely, but always ready to shot down a few bastards. In 1966' film he looks very tired, unshaved and covered in mud, dragging a coffin with a surprise inside - an unspecified pattern 22-barrels machine gun.

Character in popular culture

The coffin-dragging theme and other notable characteristics became an inspiration for various artists to portray it in different way. For example, like Django Chapel, by the San Francisco-based collaborative team of Jarrett Mitchell and Mary Elizabeth Yarbrough, and other works of modern artists [1]. In music it was expressed in the series of songs under the same theme A Gun, a Coffin, and a Guitar, with themes and songs by Ennio Morricone, Luis E. Bacalov, Stelvio Cipriani, Bruno Nicolai, André Hossein, Antón García Abril, Carlo Rustichelli, Nico Fidenco and other composers .

Other facts

• Django came back from Civil War four years after it was ended.
• In addition to his machine gun, Django uses a Colt Peacemaker.
• Unlike other western heroes, Django is never seen riding a horse.
• Django (1966) was banned in several countries

Complete list of appearances

The "Django" character lasted through thirty films, only the first of which was actually directed by Sergio Corbucci.

• Django (1966)
• Django, this bullet for You (1966)
• Django strikes first (1966)
• Django the last slaughter (1967)
• Django, shoot! If You alive, shoot! (1967)
• Don't wait, Django! Shoot! (1967)
• Son of Django (1967)
• Ten thousand dollars for a massacre (1967)
• Man, pride, revenge (1967)
• Django kills slowly (1968)
• Django get a coffin ready! (1968)
• Django does not forgive (1969)
• Gallows-rope for Django (1969)
• False Django (1969)
• Django the bastard (1969)
• One damned day at dawn… Django meets Sartana (1969)
• Django against Sartana (1970)
• Django and Sartana are comming… It's the end! (1970)
• Sartana’s here… trade your pistol for a coffin (1970)
• Django defies Sartana (1971)
• Django is allways No 2 (1971)
• Django's cut price corpses (1971)
• A ballad of Django (1971)
• A gun for Django (1971)
• A man called Django (1971)
• Shoot, Django! Shoot first! (1971)
• Django... Adios! (1972)
• Long live Django! (1972)
• Django strikes again (1987)
• Sukiyaki Western: Django (2007)

Along with these semi-official Django sequels, many Italian westerns took Django's outfit and name in vain. A plethora of black-garbed, black-hatted heroes (wearing grey scarves and fingerless gloves) appeared in films like Today it's me... Tomorrow You (1968) and The Unholy Four (1969). Django's prop machine-gun was reused in subsequent BRC Produzione releases Rita of the West and Long Ride from Hell, while in Enzo G. Castellari's Seven Winchesters for a Massacre (1967), the gold is hidden in an Indian cemetery in the grave of the Comanche hero Django.

See also