Non-Horror Exploitation: Preparati la Bara! (A.K.A. Viva Django) (1968)

I've been a fan of Spaghetti Westerns for quite some years now. After I saw pretty much all mainstream spaghetti westerns the genre cooled down for me a bit. But now i'm getting back into the genre and I thought it was about time for me to check some of the more ''unknown'' spaghetti westerns out. Viva Django might not be to obscure but many Django spin-offs are and I'm planning to watch a lot of them. So, starting with Viva Django: It was awesome.! I thought it was even better than the original Django. 

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.

Terence Hill proves he's a versatile western actor. Next to the humoristic western roles like he had in for example They Call Me Trinity and My Name is Nobody he's also able to play the cool western hero including 5 o'clock shadow and squeezy eyes. I thought he looked a bit stiff in the beginning of the film but that goes away pretty quickly (especially when the action scenes start happening). Actually I couldn't have thought of a better replacement for Franco Nero. Italian cult-actor George Eastman is always a cool presence but unfortunately his character, although being one of the villains, is a bit to ''clean'' including nice combed hair and a fancy suit. I like him more in his rough, sinister roles.

I was enjoying the full 88 minutes of this movie. The soundtrack is incredible and the setting and costumes are great as well. The plot is pretty standard (including the regular scene where the gun hero gets captured and beaten the shit out of him by the bad guys) but is well developed and told. I also must add that the ''machine gun'' scene in this one is way more effective than in the original Django. 

 I can safely say that Viva Django is a great ''Django'' western. If the dozens of other Django spin-offs are as good as this one then i'm in for quite a ride!

Fun Facts (Source: IMDB)

  Following the success of the Bud Spencer/Terence Hill Italo western comedies in Germany this film was re-released as a re-dubbed comedy version in the late 1970s. Therefore it was heavily cut to 82 minutes and changed in plot. Django (now renamed to Joe) even mentions "the big" a few times referring to several characters of Bud Spencer in other movies.