After Django Unchained: 10 Must-See Westerns

3. Django

The namesake of Tarantino's latest Django Unchained, Sergio Corbucci's original Django (a film which spawned purportedly around 30 unofficial sequels, Tarantino's latest offering amongst them) is a violent, excessive and superbly trashy movie. Opening with the enduringly surreal image of a man, Django, dragging a coffin through a desert, one instantly gets a sense not only of the carnal delights housed within the film but also of the seemingly tangible link that exists between Spaghetti Western heroes and death itself. Django arrives at a dead end town and frees its people from the callous reign of Major Jackson, who retreats from Django after most of his men have been slaughtered. He strikes a deal to rob Jackson with a local cohort of Mexican Bandits, a deal which naturally goes awry and sees Django pitted against both the bandits and Major Jackson in a tense narrative conclusion. While the plot is a hopeless replication of much that had come before it, Django's strengths lie in its exaggerative excesses. Characters are cartoonish in nature, the violence is visceral (it was actually refused release until 1993 as a result of it) and the dialogue borders on the farcical. Django views a bit like an Itchy & Scratchy homage to the Spaghetti Western, in other words it's absolutely fantastic. A safe bet for Django Unchained fans, Corbucci's original is a truly entertaining experience that's best viewed with a bucket of popcorn and a crate of beer.