Absolutely Fantastic

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

In 1967 Gioulio Questi directed one of the most violent "spaghetti" western. Like many other westerns there was title confusion the most famous was Django Kill but the movie is known as "If you live shoot" "Oro Hondo" and "Se Sei vivo spara". The movie contains scenes with extreme violence, bizarre characters and twisted sexuality. The plot is very similar to "Yojimbo" it is about a stranger who came in ghost town which is ruled by two gangs. But the action scenes go further than the classic formula of spaghetti western, "Django Kill" is a mixture of Hitchcock and Edgar Allan Poe horror. Gioulio Questi fantasy goes much further than any other spaghetti western filmmaker; these characters were very different and dark. The townsman was led by a religious zealot and the saloon owner. The Mexican gang was led by jolly guy caballero, surrounded by a bunch of young and handsome man. The exotic gang was dressed in identical black outfit. Tomas Milian was the protagonist of the movie and his role was a half-bread stranger who came in the city in order to find his stolen gold. The luck of humour combined with odd scenes makes this film far too seriously. One of the characteristics of the movie is the experimental editing (the Editor was Frango Arcalli) techniques. There is a scene when. Tomas Milian mind flits back to the circumstances of his attempted murder by his 'gringo' fellow outlaws. The scene contains rapidly fast montage of visual and soundtrack. Ivan Vandor was the composer of the movie and his score was not very different from Morricone style. The soundtrack contains serf rock style guitar riffs combining with orchestral classical string sections. Furthermore Ivan Vandor score contained themes for the leading characters: main theme for the stranger. Spanish folk melody for the Mexican gang and spooky theme for the religious zealot wife. In some scenes those themes are mixed together in order to highlight the entrance of two major characters in the same action scene. Ivan Vandor music in many causes is over the top, there are several tension themes which had been placed unnaturally. These compositions create mood of fear while the action is static and nothing is happening. Django kill came out when the genre started to change and new elements were contributing the spaghetti western. At the same period the popular music became more experimental and new elements were added. Psychedelic Rock and experimental music were booming and as a result it was influencing film composers. Ivan Vandor in some scenes modifies the major theme and adds out of tune percussive piano chords. The highlight of that technique was in the most violent scene of the movie, which was cut from all the releases. In that scene a Native American was scalped by the towns people while their children watching the scene. Ivan Vandor music highlight the scene with the use of the major theme combined with Philip Glass style piano sounds and castanets. The same technique was also applied when Tomas Milian killed the homosexual (muchachos) gang. In that scene the major theme was performed with a slower tempo and the leading surf style electric guitar was replaced by an angelic harp with the addition of a haunted church organ. It is observable that director, editor (Frango Arcalli) and composer work closely in that scene. The corpses of the black shirt gang and their horses were placed like roman sculptures in to the deadly actions scene. Gioulio Questi worked as a documentary filmmaker and he applied those techniques in order to produce a unique western movie. "The movie was described from many critics as wild, sick pop art fantasy western that existed only in Gioulio Questi's hallucinating mind. Even today the movie is very disturbing and unsettling but the fact is that Gioulio Questi created many unique based on his fantasy stories." However the "Django kill" was a myth based on his personal experience of the Second World War. Gioulio Questi joined the resistance and fights the Germans and the Italian fascist establishment. He knew all the horrors of a war and he was around armed rebels, village assaults, shootings he knew these things first hand, "Django Kill" brought back his memories of all this.

The Stranger (Tomas Milian) arrives in the town known by the local Indian tribes as "The Unhappy Place" to see the bodies of his recent partners in crime hanging in front of him. Flashbacks have already revealed that he had been betrayed and left for dead by the gang, led by Oats (Piero Lulli), following a theft of gold from the army.The two most prominent townsfolk, Tembler (Quesada) and Hagerman (Sanz) have split the stolen gold between them, and are keeping it hidden from Sorrow (Camardiel), a larger than life bandit whose "muchachos" dress all in black and, lets say, presumably enjoy the pleasures of men. Throw into the pot the mysterious figure of Hagerman's imprisoned wife, who beckons the Stranger from her cell window, and you have a very strange, yet apt, setting for this highly entertaining and frankly bizarre movie.In fact, this film is straight out of horror territory, from the Stranger's first screen appearance - clawing his way out of an open grave - until its bitter ending. The mood is ably assisted by Ivan Vandor's score, which adds suitable suspense and tension, particularly during the scenes portraying Hagerman, his wife and her relationship with the Stranger.The cast is quite superb, particularly Sanz in the part of the treacherous Hagerman. Milian meanwhile plays the Stranger role competently but fairly static without the mysterious charisma of a Nero or Eastwood. I am a huge fan of Milian, but much prefer to see his characters portray a little more humour (as he does so brilliantly in Face to Face and the Big Gundown, to name just two performances).At times graphic (like the notorious scalping scene, or the sight of Oaks' body being torn apart by the locals desperately clawing at the gold bullets within his barely alive body), at times obviously low budget (such as the scene in which the Stranger is tortured, by being subjected to blood sucking bats and other creatures), but captivating throughout. One of the "must view" euro-westerns, in my view.

This is really a cult within a cult. The first few scenes are the standard revenge and search for gold spaghetti fare. However, after the bandits entire the strange town, the movie really enters a surreal land. I was quite bemused watching the various sub-plots but it was extremely compelling. It gives the impression of two scriptwriters who love westerns just brainstorming the most outrageous script. Despite its confused feel I give it 10/10 as it has many startling, original and occasionally jaw dropping moments'. Highlights are , 'digging for gold in the bandit', Zorro the 'affable sadist', the black-shirted gay muchachos, the commentary by the parrot and the liquids gold 'House of Wax scene. What the 'traditionalist American Cowboy fans make of the gay muchachos, god only knows. Highly recommended.

A Mexican outlaw (Tomas Milian) steals gold from a stagecoach along with some other Mexicans and Americans. The Americans double-cross the Mexicans and leave them all for dead. The one outlaw survives and looks for revenge in this film that has jack-all to do with the original Django (the distributors only named it "Django Kill..." to squeeze a few more bucks out of more gullible people. What we have here is a slightly below standard western that's too surreal to be that enjoyable. and as such I can't really recommend it to all but the most hardcore Spahetti Western fan.My Grade: D+ Blue Underground DVD Extras: Part of BU's Spaghetti Western Collection. Uncut; "Django Tell" (20 minute documentary); Poster & Stills gallery; Talent Bios for Guilo Questi & Tomas Milian; Theatrical Trailer 3 Easter Eggs: Highlight the hidden gun on the extras page for Trailers for "Django", "Run, Man, Run", and "A Man Called Blade"; Highlight the hand on the main menu to get interviews on the formation of a rock group; and a hidden gun in the Language/Subtitles menu leads to the story of how Tomas Milian almost got killed for being anti-communist