{2jtab: Movie Review}

Django Kill 1967 - Blu-ray Review

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4 stars

Spaghetti Westerns don’t tend to dip into the surreal.  Usually violent, the genre is soaked with cold-blooded killers, heathens, and thieves.  Django Kill (…If You Live, Shoot) adds a bit of psychedelic spice to its spaghetti sauce and, as a result, is a memorable feast for the senses.  It doesn’t feature Fanco Nero (star of the original Django) and is associated with the original series by title alone, but that doesn’t make this wild film any less of a classic serving of Western ala Spaghetti.

Gold bullets pulled from a living man’s chest by a greedy (and somewhat deranged) town, homosexual encounters by rhinestoned desperados dressed all in black, the living dead, a youth held for ransom, and a villain covered in hot (and flesh-searing) liquid gold.  Django Kill has it all.  Written by Franco Arcalli and Giulio Questi, the movie finds its footing with an introspective look at the soul-crushing consequence of revenge as an unnamed gunslinger (Tomas Milian), long thought dead by the posse who gunned his Mexican band of robbers down, searches for stolen gold among the citizens of an unnamed desert town.

Director Giulio Questi compounds the stranger’s situation with citizen freaks from the town as deplorable as the thieves who ride into it from time to time.  It turns out that this is the last stop for most criminals as the town prides themselves in their hangings.  The latest round of killings have the whole town talking about gold.  Power-hungry barkeep (Milo Quesada) and girlfriend (Marilù Tolo) plot their way toward the gold with the stranger’s presence in their hotel and, upon its discovery, a sick and twisted battle between a greedy preacher (Francisco Sanz), his maybe not-so crazy wife (Patrizia Valturri), and Mr. Sorrow (Roberto Camardiel), a wealthy landowner.

Django Kill keeps the spirit of the 30 other Django movies but ups the ante with its use of on-screen violence.  An audience-offending move that got it banned in Italy until 22 minutes of gratuitous violence were removed.  Other countries – including England – followed suit and removed thirty minutes of blood-soaked pulp.  The year was 1967 and the red paint used is almost laughable to us now, but the shock value is still there.  There’s an on-screen scalping and, as mentioned early, a fairly graphic scene – effects reminiscent of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Blood Feast – where greedy townsfolk, when they learn a man was shot with a gold bullet, actually dig into his stomach for more gold.

Throughout it, the weirdness of the script and its trippy-esque editing – composed by editor Tonino Delli Colli (Life is Beautiful) – push the momentum forward and, with few lagging moments that usually curse the genre, manages to keep its audience engaged through pure confusion.  Of course, everything – well, mostly everything – is explained or made clear by the gold-soaked finale.

Wait, you mean you have to actually watch the film in order to figure out what’s happening, Hays?  Yes.  You do.  You absolutely have to, people.

Django says so and we do not disappoint Django.

{2jtab: Film Details}

Django Kill 1967 - Blu-ray ReviewMPAA Rating: This title has not been rated by the MPAA.
Director
: Giulio Questi
Writer: Franco Arcalli
Cast: Tomas Milian, Ray Lovelock and Piero Lulli
Genre: Western | Horror
Tagline:
Terror from the depths of hell!
Memorable Movie Quote: "I'm sorry sir. But all my life, I've searched for gold. And this man is full of it."
Distributor:
Blue Underground
Official Site:
Release Date:
No U.S. theatrical release
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
July 3, 2012

Synopsis: Various factions including a Mexican Bandit, a gang of Homosexual Cowboys and a Priest feud over stolen gold in a surreal town.

{2jtab: Blu-ray Review}

Django Kill 1967 - Blu-ray Review

Component Grades
Movie

Blu-ray Disc
4 stars

4 stars



Blu-ray Experience
4 stars

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - July 3, 2012
Screen Formats: 2.35:1
Subtitles
: English SDH; English; French; Spanish
Audio: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0; English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD)

Blue Underground’s 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode is leaps and bounds ahead of what previously was released with the same title.  Django Kill deserves this HD treatment and, knowing this, Blue Underground’s handling does not disappoint.  With a contrast fine-tuned from the original Italian negative, the transfer is very nearly spot on with its upgrade.  Colors are fierce and bold and dance across the screen with new life.  Visibility – especially in wide and long shots of landscape – are clear and open and extend far beyond what was able to be seen before.  There is a thin layer of grain that adds to filmic quality of the feature.  Skin tones are ripe with dirt and tans and filth and stubble.  Buildings are detailed and textures are solid throughout.  For the audio, Blue Underground offers fans two DTS-HD Master Audio mono soundtracks from which to choose: Italian or English.  Unless you truly are fans of English dubbed recordings, I would stick with the Italian.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • None

Special Features:

With only one interview-based featurette, the supplemental material is a bit of a let-down.  The edited together interviews are with director Giulio Questi and actors Tomas Milian and Ray Lovelock.  They cover their experiences on the production and their thoughts on the film as it stands today.  From Questi, we get background info on his career as a documentary filmmaker and his inspiration for some of the images in his movie.  A glimpse at the original trailer, and a gallery of poster art and production stills rounds out the release.

  • Django Tell! (21 min)
  • Photo Gallery
  • Trailer

{2jtab: Trailer}

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