Viva! Django (1971) (aka: A Man Called Django!) Anthony Steffen, Stelio Candelli, Glauco Onorato, Chris Avram, Esmeralda Barros, Donato Castellaneta Movie Review

Viva! Django (1971)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Anthony Steffen in Viva! Django (1971) (aka: A Man Called Django!)

Django is Coming Again

Carrying a saddle on his back, Django (Anthony Steffen) arrives in town to come across Carranza (Stelio Candelli), a horse thief, about to be hung which he decides to save him from. It turns out that Carranza knows some thing important, he knows who killed Django's wife and teams up with him in order to help Django get revenge.

A simple synopsis for what is a simple spaghetti western and in fact "Viva! Django", which also goes by the name of "A Man Called Django!", almost has a classic feel about it. That comes from the opening half an hour as we have the mysterious Django arriving in town and saving a horse thief from being hung, but rather than it feeling like just a copy of better spaghetti westerns it manages to stay entertaining. Much of that comes down to the resourceful nature of Django and the humour as those he deals with suffer, especially when they fall for a dynamite candle trick or an exploding barrel rolled down the street.

But what that means is that rather than being a storyline which drives things forwards "Viva! Django" is all about the basics. That starts with Anthony Steffen doing a solid job of playing Django as being fearless whilst Stelio Candelli brings some humour to proceedings in that shifty side kick role as Carranza. Then we have some nice action with a trick element to things so it is never Django just pulling his gun on someone but out smarting them in the process of killing them. And of course there is the classic soundtrack which accompanies the movie. Every thing about "Viva! Django" works yet at the same time none of it is out of the ordinary or overly memorable.

What this all boils down to is that "Viva! Django" is a routine spaghetti western with plenty about it which will feels familiar to the point that some parts feel like they have copied better known westerns. But despite that familiarity it works and is certainly entertaining.


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