Django, Prepare A Coffin Review

• 13th Jun 2013

It was always inevitable that after the release of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (although released quite some months ago now) that some of the original Italian Django films would be released; there were after all over 60 spaghetti westerns released that purported to be Django films or at least had Django in the title. The original film, Django (1966) which had been directed by Sergio Corbucci and starred Franco Nero (who also had a supporting role in Tarantino’s film) was a new breed of spaghetti western. Nero was invited back to play the character again for Django, Prepare a Coffin in 1968 but declined. Instead Terence Hill (real name Marco Durotti) was hired to play him who bares more than a passing resemblance to Nero with his chiseled features and striking blue eyes and would soon become a star in Europe; Hill would go on to star in another long running spaghetti franchise, the Trinity films.

Unlike the über-stylized original Django with its high body count and hard hitting action Django, Prepare a Coffin is dramatically flat. This films plot has Django avenging the murder of his wife which he does by working as a hangman employed by a local crooked boss who has men arrested and condemned on trumped up charges. Django feigns their hanging, thereby forming his own lethal gang. All the usual spaghetti western elements are in place: an ambiguous mysterious stranger, revenge, cigarillos, violence and a kitsch soundtrack.

This film, as with many a spaghetti western is little seen in the UK and for the first time is presented in Blu-ray (by cult specialists Arrow Films). In Germany, however, these films and especially this one are widely available and still hugely popular. This film is hardly a lost classic worthy of re-evaluation and is little different to any other of the myriad of other Italian westerns. But the real highlight is the final showdown, which is definitely something of a treat. Just before this scene, if you recognize the music by the Reverberi brothers, Gnarls Barclay sampled the music for his hit ‘Crazy’. The only extras are a trailer and a compact and interesting introduction by Kevin Grant, a film historian on the Italian western.

Chris Hick