DJANGO, PREPARE A COFFIN

DJANGO, PREPARE A COFFIN

(A.k.a. VIVA DJANGO; PREPARATI LA BARA!; GET THE COFFIN READY)

When corrupt politician David Barry (Horst Frank) is elected in a small town, some of the locals don't take kindly to the news: one in particular accuses him of being in a position of authority strictly for his own financial gains.

When this accusation is challenged by way of a duel, onlooker Django (Terence Hill) steps in to protect Barry. He's a decent chap who just wants to do the right thing, after all. Afterwards, he informs Barry that he'll busy over the next couple of days transporting a consignment of gold coins to a neighbouring town's bank. Barry's eyes light up.

Sure enough, Django's horse-drawn convoy is hijacked en route and the gold is stolen by Barry's henchmen, led by oversized bastard Lucas (George Eastman). Alas, the robbers are gun-happy and kill a few people during the heist: Django's wife is among the fatalities.

Fast-forward a couple of years and Lucas is the sheriff in a new town. Django is also in town and has found work as the official hangman there. There are no shortage of people to hang either, as Lucas has made it his business to arrest farmers and other industrious types on bogus charges in order to take possession of their land.

However, Django has a plan. He's furnishing each condemned man with a safety harness (where he obtains an endless supply of these from is not explained - just go with it) and cutting them down hours after their public 'hanging', under cover of the night. He's then taking them to a sleepy village fifteen minutes away, where they're left under the charge of his assistant Garcia (Jose Torres).

It's only when the newly freed land-owners get restless that Django allows them to revisit the village, advising them to return as "phantoms" to those who were paid by Lucas to make false testimonies against them. This they do, gleefully whipping their accusers and burning their homes down. But, under Django's strict instructions, no-one is killed. These men, after all, were wrongfully accused of crimes in the first place: they are not murderers.

Happy with their antics, they return to their hideout. Meanwhile, a bemused Lucas is left to contend with a number of worried villagers on his doorstep complaining about having had their homes burned down by ghosts of the recently hanged.

Django then gathers his reprieved men together and tells them of a shipment of gold due to cross through their village on the next day. He knows that Lucas' gang will attempt to ambush it, and so wants his men to stop them without actually killing them. On the contrary, he wants them to face justice for their crimes.

However, in Django's absence, Garcia starts thinking it would be a better plan if they all just hijacked the gold for themselves. And that's when things really start going tits up...

Long before Quentin Tarantino disfigured the Spaghetti Western with his excessive use of the "n" bomb, predictable cameos from cult has-beens and hackneyed crude humour, the genre was so cool it didn't need some middle-aged movie nerd desperately trying to make it so. It just was.

Sergio Leone's 'Man With No Name' trilogy will of course always be the most famous example of the Italian's unique spin on this very American genre, although the same director's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST is arguably the greatest film of its kind.

But Sergio Corbucci's 1966 film DJANGO kick-started the cinematic legacy of one of the Spaghetti Western genre's most enduring and popular figures. That film stood apart in terms of nihilistic violence and the iconic demeanour of its unflappable, black-clad and coffin-laden anti-hero (Franco Nero).

Many pseudo-sequels followed, most of which were tied to Django in name only. One film, however, owed much more to Corbucci's initial International hit. From its stylish animated opening titles sequence (kind of how a James Bond film would start if 007 was ever in a Western) to the theme tune that plays over it - sampled years later by Gnarls Barkley for their Grammy-winning hit single "Crazy" - director Ferdinando Baldi's DJANGO, PREPARE A COFFIN has "cool" written all over it.

Hill (real name Mario Girotti), while no match for Nero, does have a physical look of his predecessor and tries his best to fill his boots, acting and moving in the same manner. His stoic presence and steely blue eyes make him an obvious Django from the moment he graces the screen. Do yourself a favour and watch him speaking in his original Italian language though: the English dubbing gives him a terribly exaggerated Southern accent.

It's fun seeing Eastman (a.k.a. Luigi Montefiore) in such an early role. Horror fans will of course best remember him as the brutish villain in the likes of ABSURD and ANTHROPOPHAGUS THE BEAST. Here he's younger, cleaner shaven and - dare I say it - quite dashing. He's also a cad of icily dark persuasion, a bad guy with an even badder swagger.

Frank is an excellent adversary too though, a really slimy creep that you can't wait for Django to get his grubby mitts on.

Baldi keeps the pace brisk, while cinematographer Enzo Barboni finds opportunity to squeeze in some sound landscape prettiness in-between the fast dialogue and frequent fist-fights. It's thanks to Barboni's efforts that the film rises above its low budget feel and occasional moments of silly comic relief (a hard-drinking parrot; the bungling elderly post office clerk Horace) to often look and feel truly cinematic.

Violent, forthright in its straightforward revenge plot mechanics, and totally devoid of pretension, COFFIN is simple but deceptively well-made entertainment which holds up well for anyone willing to take in a no-frills Western drama filmed on a relatively small scale.

Arrow Films released DJANGO, PREPARE A COFFIN onto DVD back in January 2013. Now, no doubt to coincide with a certain Oscar-winning film that boasts the same character name in its title, they've given this little treat an upgrade to blu-ray.

The film is presented uncut in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio, benefiting from 16x9 enhancement and full 1080p resolution. Restoration has taken place judging by the general lack of pops and specks, but thankfully this has not involved the undertaking of heavy DNR or image enhancement. Instead what we get is a nicely film-like presentation with natural flesh-tones, pleasingly strong colour schemes and great clarity of detail. Occasionally blacks do exhibit a faded look, but it's not a major gripe - and some ageing is surely to be expected.

Audio is presented in 2.0 PCM mixes, in both original Italian and English dubbed variants. Each track provides a satisfyingly clean and even listen. Optional English subtitles are on hand for both versions of the soundtrack.

An animated main menu page contains pop-up menus, among which is a scene-selection option providing access to COFFIN via 12 chapters.

Extras are perhaps understandably scant. Still, what we do get here are enjoyable nevertheless.

"Django Explained" is an 8-minute featurette from Nucleus Films, in which Kevin Grant - the author of the excellent "Any Gun Can Play: The Essential Guide to Euro-Westerns" - offers a quick background of the Django phenomena (60 films relating to the character, as well as reggae song tributes etc) and focuses more on COFFIN as he progresses. Interestingly, he notes how Nero and Hill's careers often echoed each other - especially here, with Hill only getting the lead role when Nero turned it down to feature in Hollywood production CAMELOT.

The film's original trailer is a rough-looking but hugely enjoyable 3-minute slice of earnest hokum. It's VHS quality and severely blown up but provides great fun regardless. The mono audio here is English dubbed, with the onscreen title being VIVA DJANGO.

The packaging for this release was not made available for review purposes. However, the press release states that it also contains reversible cover artwork and a collectors' booklet with liner notes by Howard Hughes.

While it may be true that this film would not be receiving the blu-ray treatment right now were it not for its extremely tenuous link to Tarantino's DJANGO UNCHAINED, fans will no doubt simply rejoice in the fact that it's now available in HD. Whether it smacks of opportunism to everyone else, who cares: Arrow delivers the goods again, and the film holds up well as solid entertainment.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Arrow Video
Region B
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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