Django Kills Softly (1967)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Good start, but then it gets ruined

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Sergio Corbucci's original classic spaghetti western Django (1966) sure has a lot to answer for. In fairness, it's hardly Corbucci's movie's fault that countless Italian westerns that followed in its wake decided to simply name the lead loner/drifter after the main man and pretend that it was somehow a sort of follow-up. I've seen a few of them now and the one thing I have noticed is that there is nothing that sets them apart from other spaghetti westerns whatsoever! For what it's worth, this one went out under the name Django Kills Softly, which aside from being a somewhat strange name, seems to have been an English language title – in the original the lead character seems to have been called Bill. So it appears that Italian producers must have quickly noticed that if they stuck 'Django' or 'Sartana' in their film's title then they would increase admissions by a few percentage points. Needless to say, this is another very pedestrian and not memorable at all Italian western. In it Django's seeks vengeance after his friend is murdered by a bandit leader who controls a town through violence. To be honest, with a lot of these ultra-generic spaghetti westerns, you almost feel the writers simply randomly selected staple elements from a special 'spaghetti-western-generator' (a cardboard box with a hole in the side full of bits of paper with Italian western clichés written on them) and wrote bits of exposition to join the pieces together. Even the titles sound like they have been randomly created by this high-tech machine! Whatever the case, this particular example of the genre is deeply unremarkable, yet professional enough to never fall below the level of mediocre. The one thing that does set it apart from others is in it having Django played by George Eastman (aka Luigi Montefiori), who is an actor who became known for playing very threatening villains in later 70's and 80's crime films, horrors and exploitation fare in general. He was quite well suited to these types of movie roles, so it was strange seeing him playing a western hero when he was a young guy. It's not really that much of a distinctive angle for this film to boast in fairness but it is at least something.

Ravioli¨ Western with ordinary ¨Macaroni¨ players as George Eastman , Luciano Rossi , Rick Boyd and Spartaco Conversi . Italian production full of action , exaggerated characters , shootouts and lots of violence . A good example of Latino western genre from Italy . For money , for pleasure , for revenge , he doesn't care why he kills or how . This moving Spaghetti contains noisy action , thrills , gun-play with exciting final . Django (George Eastman or Luigi Montefiori) is a stranger who arrives in a Mexican-border town of Santa Anna at the behest of a man named Sanders who'd been attempting to buy safe passage for his cargo from a Mexican bandit named El Santo . Django finds that Sanders has been murdered and that his nemesis is a gunfighter named Thompson (Luciano Rossi) , a powerful bandit who threatens and coerces townsfolk and is now attempting to deal with El Santo (Mimmo) about weapons smuggling . Django befriends a veteran cowboy named Miguel (Spartaco Conversi) and a young Mexican called Pedro . There Django settles a dispute between two bands of cutthroats . Django, after a brief involvement with a gorgeous young widow named Linda (Liana Orfei , sister of Moira Orfei , both of whom starred a lot of Peplum) who has information on a lost gold mine becomes entangled in this event by agreeing to escort a shipment through El Santo's territory . Django goes out to avenge Sanders and his new friend Miguel , embarking on a line of crime , battling murderous and executes a single-handedly revenge , as he shoots , ravages and kills each person involved in the killing . Then Django is imprisoned by Thompson but is freed by his friend the Mexican boy . Spaghetti Western with usual amount of frantic action , go riding , plot twists , shootouts and violence . This average Django Western contains a customary and well known script about vengeance , plenty of turns , intrigue , shoot'em up and results to be quite entertaining , though drags at times , balancing up and down . It packs a similar plot to original ¨Django¨ including two confronted bands though without machine gun . Ordinary Spaghetti Western follows the Sergio Leone wake and it is proceeded in violent style . It's a thrilling western with breathtaking confrontation between the protagonist George Eastman against the heartless Luciano Rossi and his hoodlum as Rick Boyd . Tall George Eastman as Django is passable , George or Luigi Montefiori starred several Spaghetti such as "Django the Last Killer" ¨Un poker di pistole¨, ¨The Belle Starr Story¨ , "Django, Prepare a Coffin" and even wrote several Western as "Chuck Moll" , "Amigo, Stay Away" and including the classic ¨Keoma¨ .This violent Spaghetti belongs to ¨Django¨series , after successful original ¨Django¨ by Sergio Corbucci with Franco Nero , it was followed by several imitations , rip offs and cheesy copies , such as : ¨Pochi dollar per Django¨ or ¨Alambradas De Violencia¨ (1966) by Leon Klimowsky starred by Anthony Steffen , Gloria Osuna , Frank Wolff ; ¨Django Shoots First" (1966) by Alberto Martino with Glenn Saxon , Fernando Sancho and Erika Blanc ; ¨El Mio Nome e Django¨ (1969) by Ferdinando Baldi with Terence Hill , Horst Frank , George Eastman ; ¨Django Le Bastard¨(1969) by Sergio Garrone with Anthony Steffen , Paolo Gozlino , Rada Rassimov ; ¨¨Django defies Sartana¨(1969) by Pasquale Squitieri with George Ardisson and Tony Kendall ; ¨Ein Pressen Fur Django¨ or ¨Barro en Ojos¨(1971) by Edoardo Mulargia with Anthony Steffen ; and the official sequel titled ¨Il Grande Ritorno¨(1987) by Nello Rossati or Ted Archer with Franco Nero , Christopher Connolly and Donald Pleasence .

"Django Kills Silently" (a.k.a. "Django Kills Softly") is overall a serviceable spaghetti western for people who have an interest in the genre. Some of its positive attributes include a good musical score, some good action sequences, and a pretty good performance by George Eastman, a hulking actor who you might think is better suited for bad guy roles. Also, the plot of the movie is not standard or predictable - it keeps jumping from place to place and to new characters on a regular schedule. Although one problem of this is you may be wondering just when the movie is going to settle on some key elements! Another problem is that the movie doesn't explore the lead character's motivations or character that deeply. If his name is indeed "Django", we learn this from the title, since his name is never mentioned once in the movie! Still, apart from a few quibbles like those, the movie passes the time adequately enough.

"Bill Il Taciturno" aka. "Django Kills Softly" of 1967 is a cheap, extremely unoriginal and cheesy film, and yet there are some reasons for my fellow Spaghetti Western fans to watch it. This is one of many films that were given a "Django"-title in order to cash in on the success of Sergio Crobucci's 1966 masterpiece "Django" starring Franco Nero. What makes this one somewhat worthwhile for my fellow fans of Italian genre-cinema is the casting of George Eastman in the lead. Eastman, who started his career with roles in Westerns like "Viva Django" or this one, is mainly known for his later roles in mean-spirited and ultra-violent Exploitation highlights of the 70s and 80s, most memorably as a sadistic thug in Mario Bava's "Rabid Dogs" (1974) and as an ogreish flesh-hungry fiend in Joe D'Amato's "Antropophagus" (1980). It is fun to see a young Eastman in his 20s who had not yet specialized in playing the psychos and monsters we love to see him play.The storyline resembles that of the original "Django", only without the imagination and style, and with a lot less cynicism. A drifter (Eastman) comes to a small western town in an area which is controlled by two hostile gangs which are hostile towards each other. He decides to take both of them on... Apart from the typical 'clever drifter vs. two hostile gangs' story the film also includes a thin romantic subplot. Eastman is quite good in his role, even though Westerns are certainly not the genre that fits him best and I will always prefer him in Horror/Exploitation cinema. The supporting cast includes Spartaco Conversi, who is best known for his role in Corbucci's masterpiece "The Great Silence", the ugly Luciano Rossi, who often played ugly villains and thugs in Italian cinema, and Frederico Buido ("Faccia A Faccia"). Lina Orfei makes a nice female lead. Furthermore, there is one pretty hot Mexican woman in the film (I don't know which actress), but Django turns her down for no apparent reason. Overall, "Bill Il Taciturno" is a pretty boring, predictable and unoriginal film, but it is still an acceptable time-waster. My fellow Spaghetti Western buffs can give it a try.