DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN was originally released in 1987 as DJANGO 2 IL GRANDE RITORNO. Back in the sixties, in the wake of the classic Sergio Leone’s Man-With-No-Name trilogy, came an inspired spaghetti western featuring a very different, yet just as deadly hero named Django. Since the original DJANGO that came out in 1966 was hailed as a masterpiece at the European box office, it opened the floodgates for an avalanche of spaghetti westerns. Many of these films stole the Django name and attitude, but none of them could live up to that original film. But the official sequel did not materialize until 1987 when the producers convinced Franco Nero to reprise the role of the casket-carrying gunman. And while the film does not match the brilliance of the original, it still rises well above the wannabees. This release is a major coupe for Anchor Bay, as DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN has never been available in North America on VHS or Laserdisc, so this is a true DVD first.

Franco Nero again plays Django, only now he is much older and wiser and has atoned for his sins by joining a holy order. Chris Connelly is the evil Hungarian Orlowski, a megalomaniac entomologist who has amassed his own private army to give him the manpower to enslave natives to force them to dig in the silver mines. Django is joined in his crusade against the evil Orlowski by Donald Pleasance who is a slave from the mines. There is a rather large supporting cast of bizarre supporting characters, but none I recognize or can identify. The movie was filmed in Columbia, Brazil and recruits a lot of locals to act as slaves in the mine scenes. I recognize the mining areas and surrounding landscape from another movie that was filmed there, Charles Bronson’s THE EVIL THAT MEN DO.

Anchor Bay has restored a five minute prolog to the film from the Italian version and placed it before the US version starts. However, this footage is in Italian only (with English subs) and adds little to the film. Also the image quality for this prologue is quite poor and does not match the quality of the rest of the film.

The barge of death, commanded by Orlowski, (whom the natives have dubbed "The Devil") raid the villages of the local peasants to work as slaves in the silver mines. Those who refuse to bow to slavery are killed including women and children. Django’s daughter, Mariso (who he does not know exists) gets kidnapped as well. Her mother survives and travels to the monastery where Django serves. She informs him that he has a daughter by him and her life is in danger, and Django at first refuses to help, and she returns to the village only to get killed by Orlowski’s raiders.

Django travels to her village only to find it laid waste. Django, feeling he can use religion to talk sense to Orlowski, approaches the death barge. He sees a youth escape in the night but he himself is captured, tortured, then put to work in the silver mines. With the aid of Donald Pleasance’s character, Django escapes and promises he will return. He then goes to his own grave and digs up his trusty gatlin gun and uses it on a group of bandits who work for Orlowski.

Django meets up the adolescent boy who escaped from the death barge; the boy has a grudge against Orlowski since his men beheaded the boys father. Together they commandeer a funeral wagon, and turn it into a war machine, from which they launch a campaign of justice, killing Orlowki’s soldiers and bandits. The unlikely duo of Django and the boy prepare for an assault on the death barge, but they are ambushed by Orlowski’s private army. Now, Django must find a way to escape, rescue his daughter, and free the slaves.

There is a lot of cruelty, sexual situations, and violence in the film:

Django bombs a brothel and shoots some Johns who are using young girls for sex.

Django is tortured with burning cigar butt. Later Django returns the favor with a stick of dynamite.

Several peasants are strung up and hanged.

Bandits shoot a young undertaker and attempt to rape his wife.

Django uses a large scythe to behead three of Orlowski’s soldiers, and we see the heads fly up into the air!

One of Orlowski’s men sexually abuses a young girl inside a cathedral, and Django chokes him to death.

Orlowski’s love interest is killed and strung up before him.

A peasant slave is shot in the head.

Django hands a villain over to the angry slaves who mob him to death.

Orlowski and his men send slaves out on the river in a boat and use them for target practice.

Django takes a hatchet and buries it into the chest of one of Orlowski’s elder cohorts.

DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN is a low-budget film, but the filmmakers managed to squeeze the most of the budget and provide a small scale epic feel, with some effective camera setups and panning. The scenes with the slaves have a few hundred people in them, which gives the impression the film is higher budgeted than it actually is.

The film suffers from some plot and narrative problems and has some atrocious acting, mostly from Django’s daughter. There is also some unintentional humor such as when the boy tenderly retrieves the head of his father from the death barge, and takes it with him. But on the plus side, its got great stunts, good pyrotechnics, a decent cast of heroes and numerous villains, and a slam-bang climax, where Django makes for a pretty good Rambo.

SIGHT

Anchor Bay presents DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN in its original widescreen ratio of 1.66.1, and features enhancement for 16x9 TVs. The 16x9 enhancement causes the 1.66.1 image to appear full frame, and as you would guess, this means that the video quality is outstanding for a low budget film of this type. That’s not to say it’s perfect because it is not. The film does not have a crisp, glossy look of current films. The image is soft and unclear at times. The night shots are very dark and it is hard to see the action happening. The detail level is lacking somewhat. I’m being a bit picky here, as overall the transfer restores the epic scale that the filmmakers tried to create. The scenes in the silver mines, the jungles, and on the death barge, look great. The images are good with decent detail. Color reproduction  appears accurate, although some colors appear to be softly muted. Flesh tones looked natural in all lighting. The blacks level may be a little off which contributes to the muddled night scenes. There are a couple scratches visible in the transfer, but these are very slight and are obviously from the source element, not the fault of the DVD mastering. Film grain is apparent (as is it is with any film from the 80’s), but not distracting. The lush photography the Columbian countryside and architecture are a highlight of the transfer. The tacked on prologue to the film (which is 16x9 enhanced) looks really worn and does not match the luster of the rest of the film. The transfer does justice to the many action scenes. Though I pointed out the weaknesses, I’m really impressed with Anchor Bay’s work here.

SOUND

Anchor Bay delivers the sound elements into a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. There is not a lot of sound field activity in the rear soundstage, but the forward soundstage is solid. There is not an abundance of surround field activity, but the sounds are very clear and ambient . There is some bass present, but it is a little restrained. There are no hissing, dropouts, or distortions of any kind usually associated with a film of this period. The movie is dialog driven with the dubbed voices coming from the center speaker. One of the highlights of the soundtrack is Gianfranco Plenizio's synthesizer score which really complements the on screen action so naturally that you forget it is there. Plenzio pumps up the tempo when the action and suspense elements come into play. When the gatlins start firing, and the explosions start, the bass picks up, but it is never overpowering. The dub job is a little problematic, but it gets the job done. If you don’t like it, you can select the Italian language version (but there is no English subs).

FEATURES

The cool trailer is letterboxed at 1.66.1, is in stereo, and runs 2:02. In the The Interview with Franco Nero, Nero discusses the production of DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN. The full frame interview is rather short at 3:06. The talent bios are for Franco Nero and Donald Pleasance. In a box set with the original DJANGO.

CONCLUSION

Though DJANGO 2 does not quite fill the boots of its predecessor, it does rise above the copycat spaghetti westerns, and it’s great to see Franco Nero in action again. This DVD is part of Anchor Bay’s 2 disc box set that features the original DJANGO. Both these discs are masterfully presented and are uncut for the first time on US shores. These two underground films are treated with the respect they deserve, and are a worthy entry in the video library of any cult or western film fan. Highly recommended.

                                                 Rating (out of 5):