Clint Eastwood is regarded by most to be the king of Spaghetti Westerns, but you’re about to have to forget everything you’ve ever known because Franco Nero is here to take the crown. Franco Nero’s two movie run as the deadly cowboy, Django, would cement the man as a Western icon, but the actor would also appear in a number of other films in this genre.
Where Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name carries the Dollars trilogy as a quiet, unsuspecting type, Django runs his movies out in the open. Nero’s portrayal of the character shows a headstrong, towering force to be reckoned with. He’s more of an anti-hero than a straight-up good guy, but that won’t stop him from being one of the greatest Western protagonists of all time. Franco Nero rocks in these movies, and while he might not be the “greatest” leading man we’ve had in a Spaghetti Western, he’s certainly the most badass.
Franco Nero Is the Spaghetti Western King
Django is a 1966 Spaghetti Western directed by legendary Italian filmmaker Sergio Corbucci. The movie was a huge success, spawning an additional 31 films in the series. Outside of the Dollars trilogy, this is probably the essential Spaghetti Western, making a huge splash in its own subgenre, Westerns in general, and action films at large.
Quentin Tarantino has expressed interest in making a Spaghetti Western of his own, and is such a big fan of the movie in particular that he went off and reimagined the character for his film, Django Unchained. The original Django might not be the most violent and bloodiest Western ever made, or the most original, but it’s one of the most entertaining.
Aside From Being a Tough Guy, Django Is a Genuinely Good Guy
Being that he’s the titular character, the whole movie hinges on Nero’s performance as Django, and he knows it. He’s quiet in a similar way to The Man with No Name, but only when he has to be. When duty calls for it, Django gets in his enemies’ faces and makes it known that he’s about to lay down the law. It helps that Nero is built like a mountain. He’s an enormous presence on screen. Django is made even more memorable by his signature firearm.
You typically see cowboys walking around and waving their little pistols around, but not Django. Inside his coffin that he drags around, Django keeps a massive volley gun (basically, a machine gun that is so big that it’s meant to be kept on wheels). He doesn’t use it every time enemies come his way, but whenever he does bust it out, both the movie and the character end up really setting themselves apart from other Westerns. Combining a huge guy with the biggest gun possible makes for a visually striking and memorable cowboy. You don’t wanna mess with Django!
Django is also a man of morals. In short, he’s a great guy!
‘Django’ Is Full of Great Action Sequences
Aside from Django himself, the actual movie is a lot of fun. There are a number of conversational scenes that take place in saloons and on the town’s main street, but even though it seems to want to be, Django isn’t a movie about the story: it’s a straight-up early exploitation film. Corbucci regularly introduces a new batch of villains for Django to have to deal with. Django will encounter a new group of baddies, their grimy character traits are made clear, and Django has to deal with them.