September: Django’s Bastards

In 1966, Sergio Corbucci pushed violence to its limit in Django, one of the jewels of the Italian Western. The film's immense success turned Franco Nero into a star and cemented Corbucci's place in the pantheon of great Spaghetti Western directors, the Holy Trinity of the three Sergios: Sergio Leone, Sergio Sollima, and Sergio Corbucci!

Following this success, a whole series of Italian productions capitalized on the Django phenomenon—a typical tradition in Italian B-cinema! Often, the similarities ended with the title, as in the case of Execution (released in Flanders as Django bereidt uw vonnis). This fake Django (the protagonist isn’t even named Django, but… Clint Clips) was released in 1968, a mythical year for the Italian Western and an absolute peak in the number of Westerns produced in Italy. The film was directed by Domenico Paolella, a veteran of the peplum genre (best known for his nun film The Nuns of the Holy Archangel, starring Ornella Muti). Paolella partially disregards the genre's rules, refusing excessive violence in favor of a dramatic story about friendship. Unlike his other Westerns, which were mainly shot in Spain, he filmed in the occupied Palestinian territories, using the barren natural environment to emphasize the tragic dimension of the story.

Django the Bastard is the best Western from Sergio Garrone, who is best known for his Nazisploitation films that were banned worldwide (SS Experiment Love Camp). The film is an atmospheric Western with a fantastical (even gruesome) twist, inspired by John Boorman’s Point Blank, which sets it apart from the classic Western.