the audience applauded

A Brilliant Conflict

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Antony Steffen plays yet another unofficial Django type character. A man in black; face hidden by wide brimmed hat; whom has the burden to place a cross bearing the name of the people that wrong him in the past into the ground. He haunts his victims like the Grim Reaper arrive to collect their soul. I like to think of it, as WWE Undertaker, the movie with his Gothic themes. Anthony Steffen might not have the same dark premise as Franco Nero, but I have to give mad props to the man for trying. As you see, at the time, a lot of Spaghetti Westerns try to hook audience in, by trying to connect their movies with other Spaghetti Westerns movie that has popular characters. You can see a lot of them, sporting that their character is the same as the Man with No Name, Sartana, and in this case, Django. According to the IMDb, there were well over fifty of these "Django" imitations made. Unlike other movies, that do this, and have no similar themes. The film tries hard on the concept, and really look like it could belong to a Django film. Still, in the long run, the film has really no connection to 1966's Sergio Corbucci's film, Django, but seem more influence by the Man of No Name character from the Sergio Leone 'Dollar' trilogy. Anthony Steffen is very stoic and subdued. People would say wooden, but he under acts appropriately and does what he has to do. He knows how to be cool. The only problem is Anthony Steffen isn't that menacing. The more, you got to see him, the less, he become cool as the movie went on. Honestly, they shouldn't reveal way too much of his personality in the flashbacks. That was the fault of 1966's Django: A Bullet for You. That character had nothing to do with Django. It made the cool ghost, into an average man by the end. Django the Bastard also known as The Stranger's Gundown is a very interesting Spaghetti Western movie directed by Sergio Garrone. This movie was a key inspiration behind Clint Eastwood's 1973's High Plains Drifter and deserves credit for that reason alone. The execution however doesn't match the idea nor does it mine its full potential. The movie concept was better used in 1968's 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. The plot is a traditional revenge film with a man who everybody think is dead seeking revenge on his killers. At less, the movie made it believe that he was a ghost and that only epileptics and gypsies could speak with him. Obtaining an "X" rating on its initial Italian release due to its violence. It's now look upon as silly one-shot kills. Still, it had a pretty memorable intense action like the two men playing hot potato with a live dynamite. I love how the whole town people were exile, just for the villains to find this mysterious man hiding among them with his many men. It gave a near impossible fighting against the odd feel to the hero. The acting is alright for the most part, but the actual villains, the Murdock Gang are not that memorable. If anything, they killed off, Luke Murdock (Luciano Rossi) way too earlier. He is totally over the top insane, and brutal. Rada Rassimov's character Alethea is a bit annoying with her money hungry greedy ego. Every scene with her and Django made me want to see her met her end. Sadly, it never came. The English dubbing is a bit off with the mouthing. I really can't say, that it's better with other languages. It was very flat dialogue. I did like the devil out of hell talk scene. The music score is very creepy and atmospheric. It set up the Gothic horror feel, but in a fast paced. The real pacing in the movie is pretty slow. It get really boring at times, at less, in the beginning. The original version of this film has a pre-credits explanatory scene. The version released in the UK & the US places this scene, the entire reasoning behind Django's motives in the film in a flashback later in the film, roughly half way through the film, rather than before the credits, which is how it is presented in the Italian version. It kinda work and kinda didn't. It made the movie, really confusing at first as he don't know if Django is supposed to be the villain or the hero. The camera work is great for the most part. Garrone uses innovative camera work to good effect. He cracked the camera glass when filming, so he can give the three villains together with distort images. He uses a kaleidoscope affect in one scene. Also, he filmed night scenes for almost half the movie. It was great, not seeing day for night, or the night scenes being way too dark. These are filmed in a skillful style that never obscures the view and keeps the film interesting. Very good direction for the most part. Some really awful shots, had to be, the odd church roping scene, a scene where somebody walking by, hit the camera on accident, and the awful Civil War flashbacks in slow motion. Much of the daylight cinematography is poorly lit. There's some bad editing that makes me think that the original Italian version may have been longer, but in my surprise, the film wasn't cut up much, as the normal running time is supposed to 107 minutes. Surprising for a Spaghetti Western. The picture quality is great. It kinda depends on where you get the DVD. There are some lines and scratches, and some color distortion in some DVDs. In my opinion, MCP & Studio Canal often get restored copies. Overall: to combine the Horror genre with the Western, with a somewhat mixed, if interesting, result. It's a unique and interesting film in spite of whatever minor flaws it may have.

A tall, gaunt figure...wearing black...face hidden by a wide brimmed hat..places a cross bearing a name & date of death in the ground.......a creepy opening that is almost completely silent except for the howling wind.......so begins director Sergio Garrone's "The Stranger's Gundown", better known in Europe as "Django The Bastard" (Django Il Bastardo). Obtaining an "X" rating on its initial Italian release....it was released in the U.S. in 1974 as "The Stranger's Gundown" ....& has no connection to Corbucci's original "Django"....none..zip...zilch..nada...bupkis.Here's a rather traditional revenge plot ....but.....revenge, whose origin lies in a dark secret............... & constructed w/ elements of a horror movie as well as a tale of vengeance.Steffen portrays the title character... a character popularly considered to have inspired the one Clint Eastwood played in High Plains Drifter...not so much a remake..but the latter film clearly derived inspiration from it.He is a man of few words - & when he does speak, manages to say very little. He walks slowly - . His expression doesn't change much, if at all. Steffen co-authored the screenplay with director Sergio Garrone....who directed 6 other Italian Westerns...then 'graduated' to a bunch of 'captive women in prison' movies. ....the visual style is unique & effective with its appearance and disappearing appearances of 'Django'..................in one very interesting scene 'Django' becomes a shadow, or melts into a shadow..becoming part of it.........it's quite well done. ......The innovative camera angles, which vary from overhead shots to close-ups to fade-in's to hand-held shots contribute to the creepy atmosphere.The original version of this film has a precredits explanatory scene. The version released in the UK & the US places this scene, the entire reasoning behind "Django"'s motives in the film in a flashback later in the film.........., roughly half way through the film, rather than before the credits, which is how it is presented in the Italian version. I prefer the US edit.... the prehistory of 'Djangos' revenge campaign, spells it all out for you..& .detracts from the air of mystery & "who is this guy?" that supports & sustains the movie's mood. In a rare case...a US/UK edit of an original Italian Western actually improves the film.I'm not suggesting that Strangers Gundown will find a place among the top non Leone SW...or jump to the top of anybody's list...but this little low budget affair is a pretty good one to take in...interesting, entertaining...& a little different.Recommended.

(aka: DJANGO THE BASTARD or THE STRANGER WORE A GUN)Presented by American schlockmeister Herman Cohen, this has an excellent opening title score by Vasco and Mancuso with a woman hissing "Django" and wailing vocals, similar to Edda d'Orso with great orchestration to boot !! I like it !!According to the press release from VCI, this originally had an X rating (for violence) which might explain why it has a 1974 date on it, even though the film was made in '69. Not sure why that took place since there's nothing in this film to warrant that. It certainly isn't any more violent than a lot of the other films of this genre.It has some decent gunplay as Django wreaks revenge on those three Confederate officers who betrayed them to the yankees, but there isn't a whole lot of blood compared to say Fulci's FOUR GUNMAN FOR THE APOCALYPSE (1975). Even the Eastwood trilogy has more blood in it than this one. The flashback to the Civil War scene also looked sloppy and stagy, so don't expect a repeat of the Civil War scenes from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. Throw up a few tents and have a few extras fall unconvincingly. It had to be filmed quickly, I guess.Also Anthony Steffan is kinda bland compared to say Franco Nero or John Phillip Law, which puts him in the REALLY bland category. He doesn't look particularly like an anti-hero, instead he looks like one of the bad guys. I guess that since he is a grim-reaper type of character in this film, you wouldn't want him to look the leading man.Thomas Weisser, author of "Spaghetti Westerns" rates this one pretty high although I'm not as enthused about it as he is. I'll still give it a 7 out of 10, more for what I consider the exceptional score than for the film itself.

A mysterious gunfighter dressed in black arrives at a western town and starts killing selected people who had betrayed him in the past.The question is if the mysterious gunfighter is alive or dead... But you have to watch the movie to find it out!!...Great performance of Anthony Steffen as the stranger who seeks revenge.This movie could be a hybrid of Clint Eastwood`s "High plains drifter" and "Pale rider".You won´t be disappointed.