Leofwine_draca DEATH SENTENCE is a stylishly violent revenge western featuring a gunslinger who goes hunting for the men who bumped off his brother years before. The main character is called Django but this seems to be a tacked-on affectation. Robin Clarke's hero is rather bland, but the four actors who make up the bad guys are well cast in their roles: Tomas Milian, typically kooky as an eccentric Albino; Enrico Maria Salerno as a card player; Hollywood guest star Richard Conte as a tired rancher; and finally Adolfo Celi as a crooked priest. The film moves along at a fair old clip with one manhunt and showdown after another, and as such the running time feels like it flies past.

adrianswingler I can't see the current rating among users of the site giving it 6.3. It's a solid "8". You can tell Tomas Milian is a method actor. He's great acting a bit over the top, batsh*t crazy. I wasn't aware of this performance, but would now definitely include it with Almost Human and Four of the Apocalypse. Perhaps low ratings come from the fact this is hard to find and people may be getting crappy overdubs and translations. The English dubbed version mis-translates lots of the Italian. Good subtitles are hard to come by. Haven't seen the Koch Media version, only the original VHS. That's all relevant because the only real irritation about this one- the gratuitous use of Django when it isn't and has nothing to do with the plot- is totally absent in the Italian original. He's "Cash", not Django.A very solid pasta western, I wish the director had done more of them. But I think it's not only for genre fans but for fans of 20th century Italian cinema. It has elements of all their genres, most notably the giallos. There's even a whiff of pepla about it. For that reason, I can't imagine anyone that likes any type of movie not liking this one to some extent.

MARIO GAUCI Like THE PRICE OF POWER (1969), which I watched a couple of years back, I've found this to be a hidden Spaghetti Western gem of which I was completely unaware until just a few days prior to purchasing on R2 DVD! Though, ultimately, not quite as weird as DJANGO, KILL…IF YOU LIVE, SHOOT! (1967), as arty as MATALO! (1970), or as extreme as CUT-THROATS NINE (1972) – which seemed to be the case judging by the few online reviews that I came across in the interim – the film is certainly one of the most unusually-styled outings in this most prolific of "Euro-Cult" genres. With its frequent use of ellipses (notably a shock cut to the mangled body of a young woman) and even audaciously moving away from crucial moments (for instance, in the course of a duel), the choice I made to blind-buy DEATH SENTENCE proved to be entirely justified.The revenge plot is actually quite typical, being particularly reminiscent of DEATH RIDES A HORSE (1967): even the curiously milksop hero (played by the anonymous Robin Clarke and, thus, making for a good contrast with his famous adversaries) looks more than a bit like John Philip Law from that film! Given its episodic structure, the formidable quartet of villains are introduced one by one: Richard Conte (the most sympathetic of the lot as an aging farmer aspiring for stability – even if it's coming via the proceeds from a robbery which ends in cold-blooded murder!), Enrico Maria Salerno (as a compulsive gambler who likes to humiliate his opponents – but, obviously, finds his match in Clarke), Adolfo Celi (whose unscrupulous gang boss-cum-fanatical preacher may well have influenced Samuel L. Jackson's character in Quentin Tarantino's PULP FICTION (1994) – incidentally, he's ingeniously dispatched by way of an ostensibly empty gun which actually contains an extracted bullet that had previously been lodged in Clarke's own thigh!) and Tomas Milian (an especially memorable role for him as an epileptic albino with a taste for anything golden, be it money or women – his inherently campy qualities here anticipated some of the star's outlandish later roles in various poliziotteschi!). Though not figuring prominently in the narrative, the three attractive female presences of the film are nonetheless given reasonable characterizations – enough to provide the whole with some much-needed humanity, serving as respite from the general bleakness and dominant feeling of machismo. Characteristic of the Spaghetti Western genre, one of the undeniable assets of DEATH SENTENCE lies in the excellent score by "Euro-Cult" stalwart Gianni Ferrio (highlighted by an especially haunting theme tune).Mario Lanfranchi was a distinguished stage director who worked only fitfully for the cinema; an opera enthusiast, he brought a number of these to the screen – but, apart from the film under review, he also made such genre efforts as the erotic drama IL BACIO (1974) and the poliziottesco MERCILESS MAN (1977). In the amusingly theatrical interview included on the Koch Media DVD, he comes across as something of a self-promoter but remains nonetheless a most affable host throughout (and remarkably fluent in English). He mentions a number of interesting anecdotes pertaining to the shooting of the film: the fact that Milian bore him a grudge because he considered Lanfranchi too intellectual; Salerno would only work for a specified number of hours each day and often left the set in mid-sequence!; Lanfranchi felt that the presence on set of Clarke's current girlfriend (Ali MacGraw) was proving an intrusion, so he had her fly back home to New York unbeknownst to Clarke – the actor's subsequent fury at this affront came through in his performance, thus effectively achieving just what the director wanted for the character!; the writer/director also hilariously mentions a surreal incident involving a cow that took place at composer Ferrio's house, and which seems to come straight out of Luis Bunuel's L'AGE D'OR (1930)! After viewing this delightful and informative reminiscence (lasting nearly half-an-hour), I look forward now to listening to Lanfranchi's Audio Commentary.One final note: the DVD, unfortunately, was plagued with a couple of playback glitches – freezing at the disc's layer change and occasional audio dropouts during the interview; these were quite glaring on my Pioneer model but, thankfully, proved less conspicuous when I tried the DVD on my other (cheaper) brand of player!

unbrokenmetal This is not a spaghetti western like others. Instead, it is a fascinating study of the elements that make spaghetti westerns work. Director Lanfranchi comes from the theater stage which shows in the strictly separated scenes (4 acts, in which Django kills one of the four murderers each) and the long dialogs, quite unusual for the genre. Django (Robin Clarke) discusses the motivation that made them kill his brother which each of his victims. Diaz (Richard Conte) was greedy for land, to own a huge farm, so Django kills Diaz by chasing him through miles and miles of land. Montero (Enrico Maria Salerno) is a gambler, demoralized by Django who defeats him easily at cards - and then challenges him for the final match: life or death? Baldwin (former Bond villain Adolfo Celi) pretends to be a religious man and preaches justice - so Django kills him with a bullet he cut from his own leg, thus returning it to the man who shot first. O'Hara (Tomas Milian) loves gold and blonds which Django uses to prepare a trap. Apart from the last episode which has a shamelessly overacting Milian with a silly white wig (he was brilliant in "Se sei vivo, spara", "Corri uomo corri", "Vamos a matar, Companeros" and many other movies, but this is crazy), the episodes are almost perfect lessons in style. Secchi's photography and Ferrio's manic music score complete the artistic achievement. Highly recommended, but maybe a bit too much out of the ordinary for some viewers.