Django (character)

Django is a fictional character who appears in a number of Spaghetti Western films.[1][2] Originally played by Franco Nero in the 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]

This article is about the Westerns character. For other uses, see Django (disambiguation).

Django
Franco Nero as Django in
Django (1966)
First appearanceDjango (1966)
Created bySergio Corbucci
Portrayed by
Other:
In-universe information
OccupationDismissed Union Army soldier
SpouseMercedes Zaro

Character biography

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.

Appearances

Franco Nero films

Unofficial films

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]

TV series

Django is portrayed by Matthias Schoenaerts in the 2023 TV series of the same name.

See also

Further reading
  • Peter E. Bondanella Italian cinema: from neorealism to the present. Published by: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2001 – 546 p. ISBN 0-8264-1247-5, ISBN 978-0-8264-1247-8 (P.254,267)
  • David Carter "The Western". Published by: Kamera Books, 2008 – 192 p. ISBN 978-1-84243-217-4, ISBN 1-84243-217-6 (P.190)
  • Peter Cowie, Derek Elley "World Filmography: 1967". Published by: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1977 – 688 p. ISBN 0-498-01565-3, ISBN 978-0-498-01565-6 (P.303,306,310,331)
  • Christopher Frayling "Spaghetti westerns: cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone". Published by: I.B. Tauris; 2006 – 304 p. ISBN 1-84511-207-5, ISBN 978-1-84511-207-3 (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. ISBN 0-7864-2507-5, ISBN 978-0-7864-2507-5 (P.93,98)
  • Phil Hardy "The Western, vol.1". Published by: W. Morrow, 1983 – 395 p. ISBN 0-688-00946-8, ISBN 978-0-688-00946-5 (P.295,300,302)
  • Harris M. Lentz "Western and frontier film television credits: 1903–1995". Published by: McFarland, 1996 – 1517 p. ISBN 0-7864-0218-0, ISBN 978-0-7864-0218-2 (P.741)
  • David Lusted "The western". Published by: Pearson Education, 2003 – 324 p. ISBN 0-582-43736-9, ISBN 978-0-582-43736-4 (P.188,307)
  • (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. ISBN 3-931608-86-7, ISBN 978-3-931608-86-6
  • Jürgen Müller "Movies of the 60s". Published by: Taschen, 2004 – 640 p. ISBN 3-8228-2799-1, ISBN 978-3-8228-2799-4
  • (in Italian)Luca M. Palmerini, Gaetano Mistretta "Spaghetti nightmares: il cinema italiano della paura e del fantastico visto attraverso gli occhi dei suoi protagonisti". Roma: Palmerini & Mistretta, 1996 – 338 p. ISBN 88-86839-01-4, ISBN 978-88-86839-01-3 (P.108,113,140)
  • Stephen Prince "Sam Peckinpah's The wild bunch". Published by: Cambridge University Press, 1999 – 228 p. ISBN 0-521-58606-2, ISBN 978-0-521-58606-1 (P.137,152)
  • (in German)Georg Seesslen, Claudius Weil "Western-Kino: Geschichte und Mythologie des Western-Films". Reinbek bei Hamburg : Rowohlt, 1979 – 252 p. ISBN 3-499-17290-9, ISBN 978-3-499-17290-8 (166,184,189,219)
  • (in Russian)USSR Union of Writers Detskaya Literatura Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, 1989
  • Thomas Weisser "Spaghetti westerns: the good, the bad, and the violent : a comprehensive". Published by: McFarland, 1992 – 502 p. ISBN 0-89950-688-7, ISBN 978-0-89950-688-3 (P.10,91,129)
  • Various. The Spaghetti Western, An Introduction (article in many languages). The Spaghetti Western Database. link

References
  1. Rare Spaghetti Western movies on DVD-R and VHS
  2. Hughes, Howard (2006). Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers' Guide to Spaghetti Westerns (illustrated ed.). I.B. Tauris. pp. 57–69. ISBN 978-1-85043-896-0.
  3. Prince, Stephen (1999). Sam Peckinpah's: The Wild Bunch. Cambridge University Press. pp. 152, 228. ISBN 978-0-521-58606-1
  4. "Title Chaos" in: The Spaghetti Western Database http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Title_chaos
  5. Marco Giusti (2007). Dizionario del western all'italiana. Mondadori, 2007. ISBN 978-88-04-57277-0.
  6. "Film Review: Unofficial 'Django' Sequels, Part II (1966, 1969, 1971)". 7 August 2017. Archived from the original on 21 June 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  7. "Get a Coffin Ready ! / Viva Django! Review – The Spaghetti Western Database". www.spaghetti-western.net. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
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