Django at the Brooks

I've seen films at the Brooks Museum's movie theater before. They have a very nice facility and show some interesting films. Most recently I saw Django, a 1966 Spaghetti Western starring Franco Nero (Keoma, Massacre Time) and directed by Sergio Corbucci. There was one official sequel with the same star. Nero has a cameo in the recently released movie Django Unchained.

I thought I had already seen this movie, but somehow I'd managed to miss it. I'm not sure how... probably because I thought I'd already seen it. I'm predisposed to like this since it's a spaghetti western; but I think I'd have enjoyed it anyway, because it is a fun film and good at what it does. It's quite violent, though, and the death toll is high.

The music is by Luis Bacalov, who did Il Postino, Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 2 of the songs in Kill Bill , A Bullet for the General and others. He's still alive and writing. I found some of the music in Django to be reminiscent of West Side Story's America.

trailer:



Slant Magazine gives it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars and closes with this: "Corbucci's film is notable not only for the artistry of its construction, but also for the underlying anger that fuels its political agenda." Spaghetti-Western.net says, "Sergio Corbucci crafted one of the most popular and widely imitated of the Italian "spaghetti westerns" of the 1960s with this violent but stylish action saga." The Examiner calls it "a helluva of a spectacle". Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 92%.