What the Hell's a "Django"?

Quentin Tarantino's got a movie coming out next year called "Django Unchained".  Like his previous movie "Inglorious Basterds", it will be a loose remake of a classic movie from the 60's-70's grindhouse era, in this case a movie called "Django"(1966).  Any Tarantino fan who watches the original "Django" will witness the origins of his filmmaking style, as this is one of his favorite movies and was clearly an enormous influence on him as an artist.  Everything from the tone of storytelling, to the over-the-top violence (there's a scene where the villain cuts off a guys's ear and makes him eat it - shades of "Reservoir Dogs"), to the period soundtrack, to the way the movie was shot (there are camera shots in the "Kill Bill" movies taken directly from this movie) screams Tarantino.

Yeah, but what the hell is "Django"?  Well, it's the name of the main character.  Alright, fine. . .


Django (1966)

Spaghetti Western (n):  A specific genre of film mostly exclusive to the 60's-70's.   They are American-set Westerns made by Italian filmmakers (and usually filmed in Spain).  An Italian director named Sergio Leone popularized the genre when he made a film called "A Fistful of Dollars" in 1964, starring some television actor named Clint Eastwood.  It was a huge worldwide hit, and after two successful sequels, "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966), the spaghetti western was cemented as one of the most profitable film genres on the planet.  Many, many imitators soon sprung out of the woodwork, and one of these imitators was "Django", directed by Sergio Carbucci and starring a relatively unknown Italian actor named Franco Nero.  It's worldwide box office success eclipsed that of Leone's "Dollars" trilogy and a new phenomenon was born.  Funnily enough, the movie got a bare-bones release in America and, to this day, "Django" remains only a cult film.

Allow me to illustrate exactly how popular the original "Django" was around the rest of the world.  From 1966 to 1974, there were over sixty movies released with the name Django in the title.  Keep in mind that only one of these movies was an actual sequel - film distributors, in order to cash in on the hype and raise box office numbers, would add the name Django to the titles of their movies.  None of these movies had characters named Django in them, originally.  Heck, a lot of these movies weren't even Westerns!  Imagine if, after the success of "Star Wars", every movie for the next few years had Star Wars in the title!  "The Star Wars Terminator".  " Raiders of the Lost Star Wars Ark".  "Terms of Star Wars Endearment".  Crazy.

Plot - When we first meet Django, he's marching across the muddy plains while dragging a coffin behind him.  He's on a mission - to find and kill the man responsible for murdering his wife.  The man in question, Jackson, is an ex-Confederate soldier who leads a gang of red-hooded hoodlums who operate near a town on the U.S.-Mexican border.  These guys like to burn crosses, and they really hate people who aren't white.  Hmmm, sounds familiar. . .

Along the way, he gets mixed up with a gang of Mexican banditos and must play each group off of one another.  Steely-eyed Franco Nero is Django, and he's the epitome of badass, even when he's getting his bad ass handed to him.  Nero became a huge international star after this movie came out, and still is today.  He was never very popular in America, yet he still appeared in the occasional stateside film (he was the main drug dealer villain in "Die Hard 2", and his voice can currently be heard in "Cars 2").

This is a great party movie.  It's campy, bloody, crowd-pleasing and has a great, catchy theme song which became an international phenomenon in its own right.  Lots of fun for appreciators of classic badass cinema.  A Tarantino-directed remake might possibly rule the Earth, but more on that later.

Cut to 2005.  Tarantino is the Executive Producer of a horror movie called "Hostel" (directed by Eli Roth).  The subject matter of "Hostel" is highly influenced by some of the horror movies of a Japanese director named Takashi Miike.  In honor of the filmmaker, Tarantino asks Miike to make a cameo appearance in the movie.  Miike says yes.  Look for a Japanese dude with sunglasses, right before the main characters enter the hostel.

In 2006, Miike decides to make a Western of his own.  He calls it -


Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)

As a way of saying thanks to Tarantino, Miike gives Quentin a role in his film.  The circle is now complete.

Let me clarify - "Django" was a huge hit in Japan, and a major influence on Miike as well.  Takashi Miike is one of my all-time favorite filmmakers - "The Happiness of the Katakuris", "Audition", "Gozu", the "Dead or Alive" trilogy, "The Bird People in China", "The Great Yokai War", "Zebraman", "Ichi the Killer", "Rainy Dog" and one of my favorite movies of 2011, "13 Assassins".  Watching a movie from "Madman Miike" is like opening a box of surprises - sometimes revolting, sometimes beautiful. But I like to say that his movies, as extreme as they can get, are chock full of heartfelt weirdness.

"Sukiyaki Western Django" is the story of a nameless gunslinger on a quest for vengeance who wanders into the middle of a gang war between the red-clad Heike and the white-clad Genji clans.  Caught in the middle are the hapless townsfolk, including the sheriff, my favorite character in the movie.  Years of being pushed around by the gangs has split his personality in two - he's constantly arguing with himself, Gollum in a cowboy hat.  Tarantino plays an ace gunslinger who has peripheral ties to the story, and he overacts as only Quentin Tarantino can.  Which means a lot.

Like the title dish, sukiyaki, the movie is a mix of ingredients.  From the weird, stylized opening scene, to the fact that all of the dialogue is in English (making for some, um, interesting line readings), to the cartoon violence, to the occasional strikingly beautiful image, to the antiquated sayings ("Keep it in your pants, lily-liver!"), to Miike's trademark food fetishes, to the deadly serious flashback scene, to some "Kill Bill"-like animated inserts, to the tonality shifts (uber-cool to stupid funny to brutally serious and back again), to the samurai versus cowboy motif, to the Japanese language rock-opera version of the "Django" theme song, this movie is insane - and the perfect second part in a "Django" double feature.

And in case you were wondering if this movie has a connection to the original "Django", well, yes.  Besides references to the original sprinkled throughout the film, the closing moments of the story reveal exactly how this movie ties in with the 1966 classic.  I won't spoil it for you.  It's kind of preposterous, and I wouldn't dare rob you of this revelation.

So.  2012.  Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained".  As of right now, Leonardo DiCaprio will be playing the main villain.  Jamie Foxx was just cast as Django (beating out Will Smith, who lobbied for the role).  Christophe Waltz (the Jew Hunter from "Inglorious Basterds") is Django's Obi-Wan Kenobi.  And Samuel L. Jackson will make an appearance, of course.  Rumor has it, Lady Gaga might be in the movie, too.  Or maybe she will be providing a modern update of the Django theme, who knows?

Point is, I'm there.  And hopefully you will be there, too.