AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

chaos-rampant A black-clad stranger walks into a small town. It's your typical spaghetti western town that exists in the borders somewhere between the b-movie universe and myth. He walks through the empty streets and stops outside a saloon. He nails in the ground a cross bearing a name and that day's date. He's Django, "the devil from hell".Django the Bastard AKA The Stranger's Gundown is yet another in a long string of unofficial Django clone but sadly not among the top tier ones even by Django clone standards. Spaghettis were dime a dozen in the late 60's, most of them shot on shoe-string budgets over two weeks from identical scripts and sets with not much else going for them than a barebones script and the promise of European audiences flocking to the nearest cinema to sate their hunger of greasy Mexican villains and laconic nameless strangers.Antonio Steffen plays another unofficial Django. The novelty this time around is that his Django exists somewhere in the elusive field between lone ranger, angel of death and vengeful ghost. If that sounds all too familiar, yes this is the movie that was the key inspiration behind Clint Eastwood'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 opening shot is cool but can't mask the movie's low-budget. This is low-low-budget and everything reflects that. The story is fairly simple but the narrative stretched thin with the pace suffering as a result. Some set-pieces have a charm to them but can't take on their full impact due to a lack of budget. Steffen is very good on his role as the laconic Django that is influenced more by Eastwood's Man with no Name than Franco Nero's Django from Sergio Corbucci's original. He appears out of nowhere, shoots people then disappears into the dark again, making him an elusive force of revenge. There's a dark and brooding atmosphere running throughout the movie, although it's not as successful in that aspect as Frank Krammer's original Sartana from the same year.So, what we have here is a missed opportunity but not without its charm. As it is, Eastwood's High Plains Drifter is a superior interpretation of the same idea, but spaghetti western fans owe it to themselves to watch this forgotten little flick, even out of genre curiosity.

boardwalk_angel 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.

westerner357 (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.

von-13 "Wait a minute stranger, please...tell me who you are anyway"... a baddie asks Django, who replies, "A devil from hell"!! So yes...this movie certainly plays like a typical Italian horrorfilm.You know, one that takes place in an old remote castle where various people are destined to die horroble deaths. Technically this Sergio Garrone film is a much more skillful production than some of his "women in kz-lager" efforts of which he is so "famous"!!! The first 30-45 mins are visually very stimulating and this bears the film through. But after an hour or so, with lots'a style, thrills, atmosphere,moods etc, it just becomes too much(for me at least!!). Django appears everywhere never showing any facial expressions shooting down tons of baddies.Quite frankly, it borders on the tediously boring!!The ghostly happenings does set the film apart from most other entries in this fine genre and for this I praise and recommend it.