Django Shoots First

This film begins with a bounty hunter by the name of "Ringo" (Jose Manuel Martin) riding along in a deserted part of the country with the body of a dead man strapped to another horse trailing behind. He then comes across another man who has settled down to lunch over a camp fire eating a plate of beans. Being quite hungry he eagerly accepts the stranger's hospitality and helps himself to some food while his host takes a look at the dead body on the other horse. As the two men are talking it is soon revealed that the stranger is a man named "Glenn 'Django' Garvin" (Glenn Saxson) and he just happens to be the son of the dead man on the horse. Naturally, a gun fight ensues with Django easily killing the bounty hunter and-rather than burying his father right there-he decides to take the body to the nearest town and claim the $5000 reward for himself at the local sheriff's office. However, once he and the sheriff go to the bank for the money he is met with a hostile reaction from the bank owner "Ken Kustler" (Nando Gazzolo) and a rather icy reception from his attractive wife "Jessica Kustler" (Evelyn Stewart). Although he is puzzled by this he is soon informed by a well-meaning stranger the exact reason why and from that point on Django rejects everyone's advice to leave town in order to resolve issues he wasn't aware of before. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a pretty good Spaghetti western which had plenty of action and a little bit of intrigue to keep things interesting. Along with that it also had two rather attractive actresses in Erika Blanc (as "Lucy") and the afore-mentioned Evelyn Stewart to brighten the scenery as well-with the latter being especially treacherous. In any case, while this was clearly not a great western by any means, it was certainly good enough for the time spent and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

I don't know why this well-made film is underestimated by the viewers? The rating is 6.1 and I think it had to be higher.

Director Alberto De Martino and his collaborators made a good film that can be watched several times.

Lead actors: Glenn Saxson (as Glenn Garvin / Django), Evelyn Stewart (Jessica Kluster), the legendary Fernando Sancho (Gordon) and Alberto Lupo (Doc), Nando Gazzolo (Ken Kluster) are especially credited for providing above-average acting to the audience presented a complex plot.

By the way, in this film, there is an action almost from the beginning to the end, which requires constant attention from the viewer. There are also quite a number of witty, funny scenes that seem relaxing.

6 screenwriters deserve great credit, including the director Alberto De Martino.

Visually, the film is above average why they are deserving: Art Direction by Pier Vittorio Marchi, Set Decoration by Franco D'Andria, Costume Design by Gaia Romanini, Cinematography by Riccardo Pallottini.

Acceptable music was composed by the esteemed Bruno Nicolai.

My recommendation is that this good, long-made ago film, must be watched carefully by spaghetti western fans. I don't think they'll complain that they spent about 95 minutes watching him. Spectator Coventry rated it even with a high rating of 8! The ratings here are whole numbers, so I couldn't rate the movie with a rating of 7.5.

As most genre fans expect, there's no overlap between this incarnation of a Django and Franco Nero's original. Glenn Saxon straddles the fence between laconic and dull in the wronged hero role. The plot begins with a clever twist on his revenge motive, but meanders for most of its duration. After the natural point for a rousing and satisfying ending, the film drags on for about 15 minutes to accomplish what should have taken 3-5, at most. That drops this below the average for these generally enjoyable, even when not memorable, imported oaters.

This spaghetti western has a great story-line that grabs you from the get-go, and keeps you interested til the end.

The performances from the actors are about average for the genre. The most recognizable euro-western actor in the film, Fernando Sancho, is OK in this movie, but not as good as he usually is. Of course, one always has to keep in mind that the portrayal is not his alone, since the voice in English is done by someone else.

The movie has a very good spaghetti-style music score, nice camera work, some riveting scenes, and a great revenge plot with some unique elements and a couple of twists. The end was a real kick. I was going to give it a 7 out of 10, but then the ending made me want to push it up a notch.

If you are a fan of spaghetti westerns, and not just the well-known ones, you will most likely really enjoy this one.

After the Franco Nero film "Django" appeared, a lot of unscrupulous movie folks began releasing movie after movie with the name Django in the title--but they had little to do with this original film. "He Who Shoots First" (also known as "Django Shoots First") is one of these faux Django films. Now I am not sure if the film was meant to be a knockoff or if, perhaps, the folks doing the dubbing just decided on their own to make it a Django film. But, at least the leading man, Dutchman Glenn Saxson looks a bit like Nero.

The film starts with Django going to see his father and finding him dead--having just been shot down by a bounty hunter. Not wanting to pass up a good opportunity, Django shoots the bounty hunter and brings his dad's corpse to town to claim the reward!! Only later does he learn that perhaps his father was NOT a criminal but was up on trumped up charges by folks intend on stealing his half interest in a local gambling hall. So, for most of the rest of the film, Django needs to fight the local scum who are trying to kill him and then claim what is rightfully his.

Aside from the film having the audacity of having Django claim the bounty on his own dad(!!), I also really liked the ending as well as the music. The soundtrack was a good bit better than the average Italian western. But, apart from these things, the film had little to offer other than folks getting punched and shot. Not especially remarkable but a decent time-passer.

FYI--At one point, one of the folks says "A man can't testify against his wife" but in American law this isn't exactly true. A man cannot be FORCED to testify against his wife. But, if he wants to help the prosecution by testifying against her he is surely welcome to do so.