Django

DJANGO DIRECTED BY SERGIO CORBUCCI BLUE UNDERGROUND

SERGIO CORBUCCI ISN'T as widely recognized today as Sergio Leone, but he's the man who invented the Spaghetti western, and in later years repeatedly pushed the boundaries of onscreen brutality. Django, a bleak, surreal, bloody western starring Franco Nero, was his masterpiece. The film made Nero a superstar in Europe and spawned dozens of fake sequels.

The almost mystical Django, like Eastwood in those Leone films, wanders the country alone. Unlike Eastwood, however, Django drags a coffin behind him everywhere he goes. As with most coffins, this one conceals a machine gun, which Django finds use for again and again.

I was never big on westerns, but the first time I saw Django I was blown away. So was Tarantino—this is where he lifted the famous ear-cutting scene.

The plot doesn't matter much; there's some red-hooded bandits, a gold heist, ladies in distress, lots of killing. It's loud, nasty and stylish, and turns several western cliches upside-down.

The new transfer is beautiful, and you can choose between the dubbed version or the subtitled Italian original. The package also includes (on a separate three-inch disc) 2002's The Last Pistolero, an odd eight-minute film starring Nero.