THE STRANGER'S GUNDOWN aka DJANGO THE BASTARD (1969)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064240/

"With it's horror-movie styling and ultra-violent nature, this perfect example of an Euro gothic western garnered an 'X' rating on it's initial Italian release. During the Civil War, three Confederate officers, leaders of a Confederate regiment, sell out to the Yankees, kill the sentries and allow the enemy troops to slaughter their whole company. One of the men does not die...Left for dead, the Stranger (Anthony Steffen, Italy's answer to Clint Eastwood!) lies unconscious on the ground, severely wounded. Several years go by and, as though coming back from hell, the Stranger begins hunting down his enemies- the men who left him for dead. Is he a ghost, or just a man- hell bent on revenge!" (Quoted from the back of the VCI DVD case)



Anyone else seen this?

It's not great, but it's entertaining if you can put aside how incredibly fucking awesome this film might've been in the hands of another director who could've pulled off the questionable horror element (is he a ghost? Sometimes it seems so-sometimes not) and could've milked the atmosphere a little better.

Why, God, couldn't Bava have directed this?!?!?

Or even Giulio (DJANGO KILL...) Questi?

But, all 'woulda-coulda-shoulda's aside, it's still a good watch if one doesn't get too caught up in nit-pickery and it does have a few creepy scenes and some kick-ass moments.

Also, I'm not sure if my disc (the VCI's STRANGERS GUNDOWN release) is edited or not, as I don't see how this would've been considered more violent than any number of other spaghetti westerns of the time. And there's one scene in particular that seems to jump as if something might've been removed, but you can never tell in these things if it's been cut for content or just plain shoddy editing.

Unquestionably a precursor to HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER.

Just watched this again last night, and I gotta say it grows on me more every time.

Call me the Anti-Bonomo for rewatching & reappraising films and actually liking them more than on the previous viewings!

My main beef with the flick is the lame voice actors but the story & action are cool.

And the visuals and photography are much better than I remembered. Probably due to the picture quality being slightly less than stellar (but still miles better than most cheapo discs).

I really hope to find more 'weird' westerns like this and DJANGO KILL.