Django and Sartana Are Coming... It's the End

Django and Sartana Are Coming... It's the End

Moviecut—Django and Sartana Are Coming... It's the End

If you don't like Spaghetti's, don't watch EM'. Man I tell ya... He made 12 or so. Directed also. You either like em; or you don't. Clowns come in here with their Ed Wood garbage. I have watched this Italian Western countless times because I am a FAN of Spaghetti Western FLICKS. If you will...People who do not prefer this GENRE or just don't really have any business to be in here to do a critique on the subject, constantly put down these movies. This is one of the better ones. If you don't like it, move on. It's got 5 or so cool actors in it, not just KLAUS KINSKI for 2 seconds, Excellent MIDDLE tier SPAGHETTI. So tired of the under 30's in here who don't know if their ass is punched or bored....

DJANGO AND SARTANA'S SHOWDOWN IN THE WEST is unquestionably one of the worst spaghetti westerns ever made. Directed by the infamous Demofilo Fidani on a non-existing budget, with long intervals of absolutely nothing happening and what little does happen isn't anything to write home about either. If you must, watch it for Gordon Mitchell who is genuinly funny as the crazy gang leader who is engaged in a poker play with his mirror image for the most of the film. By the way Django and Sartana doesn't even have a showdown!

A band of vicious outlaws lead by the crazed Black Burt Keller (an amusingly nutty and robust portrayal by Gordon Mitchell) abduct the feisty Jennifer Colby (lovely blonde Simonetta Vitelli) and decide to flee to Mexico. Shrewd bounty hunter Django (a sound and engaging performance by Jack Betts) and saintly roving gunslinger Sartana (a solid turn by Franco Borelli) join forces to rescue the poor lass from the gang's vile clutches. Directors Demofilo Fidani and Diego Spataro offer a nifty and enjoyable pairing of two iconic spaghetti Western characters: the simple, but effective story unfolds at a constant snappy pace, the stirring outbursts of raw violence include the expected thrilling shoot-outs and a handy helping of rough'n'ready fisticuffs, and Borelli and Betts make for charming and likable protagonists. Moreover, Mitchell has a ball as the gloriously unhinged Keller; he's very funny as he talks to his own reflection in a mirror while playing cards. Coriolano Gori's twangy and lively score hits the harmonic spot. Ditto Joe D'Amato's polished cinematography. The climactic confrontation between our heroes and the bad guys makes inspired use of stylized slow motion. A fun flick.

In "Quel maledetto giorno d'inverno... Django e Sartana all'ultimo sangue", Hunt Powers (Jack Betts) plays Django. Now, oddly, in this followup film, Powers plays Sartana!! This is really odd, as both films were from Demofilo Fidani (often nicknamed 'The Ed Wood of Spaghetti Westerns')!! You'd think he'd remember or care about who played who! Confusing, huh?! In Italian westerns, the producers played very fast and loose with the name 'Django' (in Fidani's, VERY loose). Following the success of the original "Django" (with handsome Franco Nero), other Italian filmmakers realized they could name ANYONE Django and the public might be fooled into thinking these other films here sequels--which they weren't! Now, to further confuse things, Tarantino has come out with a new film--"Django Unchained"--yet another film that has nothing to do with Django! Confused? I would certainly assume so! Black Burt Keller and his gang abduct Jessica Colby after wiping out everyone else at her ranch. Django and Sartana follow these thugs into Mexico to rescue the lady and punish these baddies. Unfortunately, most of this film isn't very interesting. The plot described above isn't enough for the entire film and as a result, the film seems to meander a lot. On top of that, the just just isn't interesting at all and is full of poorly constructed scenes. My favorite bad scene is near the beginning. After the shooting begins on the ranch, ranch hands CONTINUE their work hauling things---just waiting to be shot!! A few do ride away, but one guy is hauling a basket and another a barrel---long after the baddies start shooting everyone. You'd THINK they'd hide or fight back but these knuckleheads keep working until (surprise) they are shot also. Duh. By the way, on the DVD that contained this and "Django Meets Sartana", there is a '7 Gold' symbol in the bottom corner throughout the film and it's annoying. Also, an occasional yellow dot appears in the left corner--presumably to hide some other DVD producer's copyright symbol. This, combined with a faded print is one more reason to pass on this sub-par film.

Psychotic bandit Gordon Mitchell and his gang kidnaps a girl and head for Mexico. Django and Sartana take their time, eventually getting around to confronting the kidnappers and attempting to rescue girl. Directed by Dick Spitfire (AKA Miles Deem AKA Demofilo Fidani), this is marginally better than his subsequent Django/Sartana match-up, One Damned Day At Dawn..., though that's not really saying much. The story is paper-thin, with lots of pointless scenes and elongated shots meant to bring the film to an acceptable length. However, it's visually pleasing, with decent production values and good photography by Aristide Massachessi (AKA Joe D'Amato). There is one goof though, about seventeen minutes into the movie, when Django walks up to a moist dirt patch covered in automobile tracks! Look fast for a couple of plastic cacti as well.

The Italians sure made a lot of westerns featuring the characters Django and Sartana. They didn't usually feature in the same film mind you, although I have seen at least one or two others where this pair do share screen-time. It was clearly a marketing ploy really, as the characterisations on offer are so vague that they could effectively go out under any names but I guess 'Buck and Hank Take the Town' was a title that just didn't cut the mustard. Needless to say in this reincarnation our there is no attempt whatsoever to have our friend Django drag a coffin around with him and both gun-men are no more than standard spaghetti loners with highly developed weapons skills. The story has bandits abduct a girl after massacring all others in a ranch. Django and Sartana are soon on the case and set out to rescue her and administer a bit of a pasting to the nefarious good-for-nothing bounders. The synopsis, and above paragraph in general, should hopefully make it clear that there is absolutely nothing in this movie that stands out from the crowd at all. Its highly generic fare which will offer no surprises to anyone who has seen a number of Italian westerns. Having said that, it's not precisely a bad example of the sub-genre either and I thought it did go about its business in an efficient and entertaining enough manner. But, at the same time, it was undeniably pretty forgettable stuff and one which was definitely no better than a time-filler.

After Sergio Corbucci's masterpiece "Django" from 1966, a whole series of so called "Django" films were released in Italy. Some of these (unofficial) sequels were quite good, some were worse, but none of them even near the original. The original "Sartana" films with Gianni Garko also spawned a bunch of rip-offs, some of them quite good, some worse. As a great fan of the Italian Western, I must say that, out of all films I've seen carrying either title "Django And Sartana...Showdown In The West" is the worst. The storyline is quite primitive, a gang of criminals take a girl hostage before they wanna flee to Mexico and then, for some reason, instead of going to Mexico they wait, and try to kill the area's two deadliest bounty hunters, Django and Sartana, before they can find them. The dialogue is pretty poor too, at least in the German dubbed version of the movie. The characters of Django and Sartana are not even near to those in the original movies, Django, originally a cynical avenger, is a bounty hunter in this, and Sartana, usually a typical antihero looking mainly for quick cash, is suddenly somewhat of a saint, helping the poor and trying to turn the west into a better place by fighting the bad guys. This movie is aguably only watchable to my fellow fans of the genre, and they're also quite likely to be disappointed. If for anything, watch the film for Spaghetti Western veteran Gordon Mitchell, who plays the villain in this, and who saves the movie from being total garbage. If you don't know any other "Django" or "Sartana" movies, please don't judge the whole series after this movie, don't even waste your time with this one, but watch Sergio Corbucci's original "Django" of 1966 with Franco Nero (it's a masterpiece!!) or any of the great Sartana movies with Gianni Garko instead. Only watchable for Spaghetti Western enthusiasts like myself, and even then it is anything but recommendable.