Django 4K UHD - Franco Nero

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Sergio Corbucci
Italy 1966

NOTE: The Arrow 4K UHD edition of Django with HDR is compared to Blu-rays and DVDs HERE

Sergio Corbucci’s ground-breaking Django is one of the greatest and most influential Westerns ever. Seminal, yet banned for decades, its aesthetics of visual cruelty transcended the genre and shaped today’s film-making language. Its major influence is declared by Quentin Tarantino - among many Hollywood directors - and seen in all his films.

The modern action hero also began here, with the legendary Franco Nero playing the eponymous Django, the mysterious gunslinger who arrives in a bleak, mud-drenched town - dragging a coffin behind him - to face a group of sadistic marauding bandits and an army of hooded Ku Klux Klan-like psychopaths.

Presented uncut, from new 4K-restored elements, this definitive version is pristinely faithful to the original filmmakers’ vision; as attested by Ruggero Deodato (of ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ fame) who shot several scenes of ‘DJANGO’ early in his career, as the then-Assistant to Sergio Corbucci.

***

Originally banned in Britain for its comic-strip iconoclasm and graphic violence, this rates alongside Leone's 'Dollars' trilogy as one of the daddies of the spaghetti/paella Western. It's a clean- up-and-paint-the-town-blood-red revenge drama with a difference. Nero's mud-spattered ex-Yankee soldier, first seen squelching towards a US-Mexican border ghost town, a coffin forever in tow, has every Western hero's quality in extremis. His speed-of-light gunslinger outlaw has a romantic heart - his wife was killed by one of Major Jackson's KKK-like henchmen - and an enigmatic morality. He solves the war between Jackson's men and General Rodríguez' bandidos by dispensing death to all, but his sympathies are shown when he later teams up with Rodríguez for a gold heist. Corbucci's style is a mix of social realism, highly decorative visuals, and finely mounted action sequences. For the rest, there are enough mud-wrestling prostitutes, whippings, ear-loppings, explosions and scenes of wholesale slaughter to keep any muchacho happy.

Excerpt from TimeOut located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: April 6th, 1966 - Italy

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Review: Cult Films - Region FREE - 4K UHD

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Cult Films - Region FREE - 4K UHD
Runtime	1:32:09.416
Video	1.66:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 94,384,333,071 bytes Feature: 69,676,053,312 bytes Video Bitrate: 91.78 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate 4K Ultra HD:
Audio	LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit LPCM Audio Italian 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles	English (translated), English (SDH), None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Cult Films 1.66:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD Disc Size: 94,384,333,071 bytes Feature: 69,676,053,312 bytes Video Bitrate: 91.78 Mbps Codec: HEVC Video Edition Details: 4K Ultra HD disc • BONUS FEATURE: 80 min with QUENTIN TARANTINO in DJANGO & DJANGO (1:20:35) • Franco Nero on being Django (12:38) • Ruggero Deodato (of ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ fame) on being Sergio Corbucci’s assistant (20:20) • Alex Cox (Creator of the BBC’s ‘Moviedrome’ & cult-Director of ‘Repo Man’) defines DJANGO (12:35) Perfect-Bound 64 page book with foreword by Franco Nero: “Django The Western Cranked-up!” by Kevin Grant. FAB Press + ArtCard with original posters • Limited Serial-Numbered Edition - With Slip Case & reversible inlays with 3 key artworks 4K Ultra HD Release Date: December 11th, 2023 Black 4K Ultra HD Case in custom box Chapters 6

Comments:

NOTE: The Arrow 4K UHD edition of Django with HDR is compared to Blu-rays and DVDs HERE

NOTE: The below Blu-ray and 4K UHD captures were taken directly from the respective discs.

ADDITION: Cult Films 4K UHD (January 2024): Cult Films have also released Sergio Corbucci's "Django" to 4K UHD. It was released on 4K UHD by Arrow in May 2021, with Dolby Vision and HDR10, and reviewed HERE.

Like Umbrella's 4K UHD transfer of Peter Weir's The Last Wave and Criterion's 4K UHD transfers of The Others, Rules of the Game, Branded to Kill, In the Mood For Love, Night of the Living Dead and, further examples, Masters of Cinema's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, ClassicFlix's I, the Jury, and Kino's 4K UHDs of The Apartment, For a Few Dollars More, A Fistful of Dollars, In the Heat of the Night, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as well as Koch Media's Neon Demon + one of the 4K UHD transfers of Dario Argento's Suspiria, the Cult Vision transfer of "Django" does not have HDR applied (no HDR10, HDR10+, nor Dolby Vision.) It is stated as "The restoration of Django was made by the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and by Surf Film, from a 4K scan of the original camera negative and from the Italian sound negative. The restoration was carried out in 2018 at L'Immagine Ritrovata."

It actually looks exceptional - even without the HDR pass. It is brighter than the Arrow 4K UHD, shows a shade more detail in the dark areas of the frame (Django's jacket) and the colors (flesh tones) appear more balanced. It has wonderful grain and an atmospheric bitrate - I wouldn't disagree with Cult Vision's statement that "this definitive version is pristinely faithful to the original filmmakers’ vision".

NOTE: 50 more more full resolution (3840 X 2160) 4K UHD captures, in lossless PNG format, for Patrons are available HERE

We have reviewed the following 4K UHD packages to date: Lone Star (software uniformly simulated HDR), Suspect Zero (software uniformly simulated HDR), Count Dracula (software uniformly simulated HDR), Full Circle - The Haunting of Julia (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Warriors (software uniformly simulated HDR), Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (software uniformly simulated HDR), Blackhat (software uniformly simulated HDR), Mark of the Devil (software uniformly simulated HDR), Barbarella (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Last Picture Show (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Man Who Knew Too Much (software uniformly simulated HDR), Rope (software uniformly simulated HDR), Frenzy (software uniformly simulated HDR), American Graffiti (software uniformly simulated HDR), East End Hustle (software uniformly simulated HDR), Three Days of the Condor (software uniformly simulated HDR), Witness (software uniformly simulated HDR), Fascination (software uniformly simulated HDR), Lips of Blood (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Others (no HDR), It Came From Outer Space (software uniformly simulated HDR), Don't Look Now (software uniformly simulated HDR), Rosemary's Baby (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Last Wave (no HDR), The Train (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Trial (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Walkabout (software uniformly simulated HDR), Black Magic Rites, The Night of the Hunted (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Rape of the Vampire (software uniformly simulated HDR), Gorgo (software uniformly simulated HDR), Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Man From Hong Kong (software uniformly simulated HDR), One False Move, The Tall T (software uniformly simulated HDR), Cold Eyes of Fear (software uniformly simulated HDR), Rules of the Game (no HDR), The Manchurian Candidate (software uniformly simulated HDR), After Hours, Rain Man (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Changeling (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Night of the Hunter (software uniformly simulated HDR), 12 Angry Men (software uniformly simulated HDR), Branded to Kill (no HDR), Picnic at Hanging Rock (software uniformly simulated HDR), Two Orphan Vampires (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Shiver of the Vampires, Drowning By Number (software uniformly simulated HDR), Serpico (software uniformly simulated HDR), Cool Hand Luke (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Seventh Seal (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Maltese Falcon (software uniformly simulated HDR).

The audio gives the option of liner PCM dual-mono (24-bit) tracks - in English (default) or Italian language options. The sound is flat and has production limitations (that we often note in Italian productions of this era,) The DUB is, as usual, a bit awkward but the dialogue is clear enough and there is a score by Luis Bacalov (The Seduction, Il Postino, A Bullet for the General, Shoot First, Die Later, Django Unchained, City of Women) including the funky Django (theme - conducted by Bruno Nicolai) performed by Rocky Roberts work wonders for the pasta-genre lounge-y atmosphere in the opening and ending. It's so cool. Several themes from the Django score were used in Damiano Damiani's A Bullet for the General. Cult Films offer optional English translated subtitles for the Italian soundtrack or English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing English soundtrack (samples of both below) on their Region FREE 4K UHD. There is no second disc in the package.

There are extras on the 4K UHD disc. A very cool addition is Luca Rea's 2021 documentary "Django & Django" described as "A riveting feature-length testimonial by Quentin Tarantino complements this edition: showing many clips, he explains how Sergio Corbucci’s ‘Django’ permeates his own films from ‘Reservoir Dogs’ to his resounding tribute ‘Django Unchained’, and whimsically Tarantino tells how, in his ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’, his fictional actor, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, ends up working for the real Sergio Corbucci." It is essentially an homage to Italian director Sergio Corbucci of the 1960s by contemporary director Quentin Tarantino, recounting a memorable period in Italian cinema with the sensibility of today with archival footage of Corbucci, plus Ruggero Deodato, Franco Nero and Tarantino himself. We also get a dozen minutes of Franco Nero on being Django extolling the director, the iconic character and fans plus 20-minutes of director Ruggero Deodato on being Sergio Corbucci’s assistant and, lastly, the great Alex Cox defining Django for less than 1/4 hour. The package has a whopping perfect-bound 64 page book with foreword by Franco Nero: “Django The Western Cranked-up!” by Kevin Grant. FAB Press + Art Card with original posters, a slip case & reversible inlays with 3 key artworks (see above) and these limited editions are serial-numbered.

The Cult Films 4K UHD of Sergio Corbucci's "Django" looking very 'real', unembellished and pristinely film-like with impressively consistent grain. Like Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, Django was gaining utility from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. Know for its playfully over-the-top, ultra-violent tendencies (ex. María's whipping by Mexican bandits, the ear-severing scene, perhaps inspiring Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs) and being Franco Nero's breakthrough role (although he wanted to perform roles in more "serious" films to initiate his career), Django is a huge fan-favorite - infinitely rewatchable. Pure joy for fans who love the machismo excesses of the pasta-western genre. Beauty contest winner ("Miss Trieste") Loredana Nusciak looks stunning in this 4K UHD transfer. Django, in a dubbed and subtitled form, was shown in selected theatres to coincide with the release of Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. Django has continued to be enjoyed worldwide, and the Cult Film's 4K UHD release is absolutely recommended! I can even suggest a double-dip for those who have the Arrow.