Django is a fictional character who appears in a number of
Spaghetti Western films.[1][2] Originally played by
Franco Nero in the 1966 Italian
film of the same name by
Sergio Corbucci, he has appeared in 31 films since then.[3] Especially outside of the genre's home country
Italy, mainly
Germany, countless releases have been retitled in the wake of the original film's enormous success.[4]
Character biography
Franco Nero films
Django
Django is a 1966 Spaghetti Western directed by
Sergio Corbucci starring
Franco Nero as Django; a dismissed
Union soldier who fought in the
American Civil War. The film is set in 1869, four years after the end of the Civil War. After arriving in a bleak, mud-drenched town in the
American Southwest and dragging a coffin behind him, Django gets caught up in a violent
race war between exiled Mexican revolutionaries, led by General Hugo, and a gang of militant
neo confederates led by Major Jackson. Armed with a deadly
Mitrailleuse volley gun, Django proceeds to play both sides against each other in the pursuit of money and, ultimately, revenge against Jackson; the Major having murdered his wife years before.
Django Strikes Again
Twenty years after the events in the first Django, the title character has left the violent life of a gunslinger to become a monk. Living in seclusion in a monastery, he wants no more of the violent actions he perpetrated. Suddenly, he learns from a dying former lover that some time ago he had a young daughter, who has been kidnapped along with other children who are now working for a ruthless Belgian criminal known as El Diablo (The Devil) Orlowsky, who is an arms dealer and slave trader. The children and other prisoners work in Orlowsky's mine, from which he hopes to get rich from the spoils. Determined to find his daughter and nail the bad guys, Django gets some arms and goes on the warpath against Orlowsky's private army.
The enormous success of the original Django movie in 1966 inspired unofficial sequels to be created by a multitude of studios, due to loose copyright laws in Italy at the time. Some actually feature the character of Django, and some titles just capitalize on the name, even though the character is not in the film.[6]
Django, Prepare a Coffin (1968) starring
Terence Hill - This movie is unique among the plethora of films which capitalized on Corbucci's in that it is not only a legitimate sequel, but was also originally intended to star Nero.[7]
Django Unchained (2012). A
Quentin Tarantino film starring
Jamie Foxx and featuring the original actor of Django,
Franco Nero, as a minor character. Tarantino's re-envisioned Django character is a former slave turned bounty hunter on a quest to liberate his wife.
Christopher Frayling "Spaghetti westerns: cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone". Published by: I.B. Tauris; 2006 – 304 p.
ISBN1-84511-207-5,
ISBN978-1-84511-207-3 (P.4,11,14,17,19,26,51,52,62,79–89,92,94,95,136,157,169,232,256,257,261,263,264,267,281,282,284,293,301,303,304)
Bert Fridlund "The spaghetti Western: a thematic analysis". Published by: McFarland & Co., 2006 – 296 p.
ISBN0-7864-2507-5,
ISBN978-0-7864-2507-5 (P.93,98)
Harris M. Lentz "Western and frontier film television credits: 1903–1995". Published by: McFarland, 1996 – 1517 p.
ISBN0-7864-0218-0,
ISBN978-0-7864-0218-2 (P.741)
(in German)Jasper P. Morgan "Spaghetti Heroes: Ringo, Django und Sartana. Die Helden Des Italo-Western/Heroes of The Spaghetti Western". Published by: Mpw Medien Publikations, 2008 – 256 p.
ISBN3-931608-86-7,
ISBN978-3-931608-86-6
Thomas Weisser "Spaghetti westerns: the good, the bad, and the violent : a comprehensive". Published by: McFarland, 1992 – 502 p.
ISBN0-89950-688-7,
ISBN978-0-89950-688-3 (P.10,91,129)
Various. The Spaghetti Western, An Introduction (article in many languages). The Spaghetti Western Database.
link