Viva Django (1968)

Director: Ferdinando Baldi

Starring: Terence Hill, Horst Frank & George Eastman

More Info: IMDB

Plot: A mysterious gunfighter named Django is employed by a local crooked political boss as a hangman to execute innocent locals framed by the boss, who wants their land. What the boss doesn't know is that Django isn't hanging the men at all, just making it look like he is, and using the men he saves from the gallows to build up his own "gang" in order to take revenge on the boss, who, with Django's former best friend, caused the death of his wife years before.

My Rating: 7/10

Would I watch it again? Sure

In 1966 Italian actor, Franco Nero, shot to international stardom in the now classic spaghetti western, DJANGO. The SW genre had also found it's next anti hero in the titular character. Although it took Nero another 20 years to actually do a true sequel to DJANGO, the character became so popular (much like Clint Eastwood's 'man with no name' who, well, had no name to steal) that many films named their lead characters Django for no other reason than to capitalize on the newly famous moniker.


Of the literally dozens and dozens of SWs with a Django in the title or film (some went so far to have the name in the title with no such character in the picture!), VIVA DJANGO may be one of the few that actually could qualify as a sequel in so much as the Django in the film shares the same character traits as the 1966 original. It's been said that Nero turned down this film and Hill was hired because of his resemblance. True or not, there's no denying the striking similarity.

Here's Nero...



and Hill...


It would be another another two years before Hill would hit the big time in the HUGELY successful SW comedy, THEY CALL ME TRINITY. From that point on, he largely made slapstick family films. It's kind of neat seeing him in a serious action role.

Anyway, VIVA DJANGO has a lot going for it beside the charismatic Hill in the lead. Horst Frank does well as the greedy, corrupt scumbag politician, David Barry (some things never change, do they?).


6'9" giant George Eastman is great as Barry's gang leader, Lucas.


There's some great stunt work that shows off Hill & Eastman's athletic abilities. I found myself amazed at the number of guys that fall off horses in the coach robbery near the beginning. It's remarkable at how these people do this shit for a living. Seriously, these people are falling off moving horses for fuck's sake. It's dangerous enough as it is with the horse standing still let alone one that's running at a good clip. It doesn't take much sometimes to impress me.

Then there's a scene where Lucas meets his end in a fire. Look at how much fire there is around them and how close they are to it. Nice. Just look at the guy that's on fire. His hair is dry. It doesn't look like there's much precaution. Sure there's probably a team of people with fire extinguishers behind the scenes but it's nothing like how they prepare a stuntman today. I'm impressed.


Gianfranco Reverberi's score, while a good addition to the genre canon, feels forced. At the very least it's poory edited. There are a handful of scenes where the main tune is going all gangbusters and then it's suddenly brought down to hear the actors, all the while still going nuts in the background. It's as if Reverberi just wrote four different themes and a couple of variations and moved on without really scoring "for" the film. It's definitely a minus and it does hurt the film a little. At least the themes are good.


Like many films in this lovely genre, there's the double cross followed by lots of killing. The story doesn't bore you and it stays entertaining all the way through. There some nods to the original DJANGO film like the fucking up O' the hands...


and the explosive finale which is one of those, "OH FUCK YEAH" kind of moments that makes you feel like you got your money's worth as you leave the theater. It's tough to top the badassicity of the original DJANGO's ending but this one comes awfully damn close. If you want to see the badass ending, watch the video below. Naturally, it's huge fucking spoilers but who cares. It's a fun flick if you can find it and it's definitely a worthy "sequel" to Nero's iconic turn in the original DJANGO, the film that launched a zillion other Django films that had nothing to do with anything...but this one did and that's all any DJANGO fan needs to know to want to see it.