Film

Viva! Django

Name: Viva! Django
Genre: Action, Western, Comedy
Released: 1971
Cast: Anthony Steffen, Stelio Candelli, Glauco Onorato, Donato Castellaneta, Esmeralda Barros

A 1971 Italian western where Django hunts his wife's killers across dusty landscapes, picking up an unlikely partner—a horse thief—along the way. It's energetic and unpretentious, mixing revenge drama with comedy and action. Made for people who love spaghetti westerns that don't take themselves too seriously, with real blood and real humour sharing the same frame.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy spaghetti westerns where brutal gunplay sits comfortably beside a loose, wisecracking partnership and a wink at the genre's own seriousness.

Skip it if you struggle to square a revenge story built on atrocity with the film's easy, cartoonish laughs, or find loose, meandering pacing a chore.

What it asks of you: Around ninety minutes, it moves briskly between shootouts and playful banter, so expect light, quick scenes rather than slow brooding.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

A Fistful of Dollars1964

Sergio Leone's masterpiece that redefined the western: stylish, violent, and hypnotic. Clint Eastwood became a star here, and you'll understand why the moment he appears.

But It moves slowly by modern standards, with long stretches of silence and landscape. The dubbed dialogue takes adjustment.

The Great Silence1968

A brutal, political spaghetti western where a deaf gunslinger fights corrupt fascists in the snow. Ennio Morricone's score is haunting. It's genuinely strange and genuinely great.

But It's bleak and uncompromising. There's no redemption arc or catharsis—just moral rot and consequences.

Johnny Guitar1954

Nicholas Ray's fever dream western where the hero is a woman with a gun and a saloon. It's visually stunning, psychologically weird, and nothing like other westerns of its era.

But The pacing is dreamlike and elliptical. Plot coherence takes a back seat to mood and symbolism.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Viva! Django

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Vixen!1968

Both are 1960s adventures that use exploitation and comedy to puncture the pomposity of other westerns. They share a boisterous, unserious energy and a refusal to respect their own genres.

A soft-core comedy western where a nymphomaniac pilots her own seaplane and outwits Nazi spies. Meyer's camera is obsessed, his editing is kinetic, and nothing you expect happens.

But It's extremely sexualized and objectifying. The sexual content overwhelms the plot, and it's cheerfully crude about it.

Django1966

The original Django—the film that spawned a hundred sequels and imitations. Sergio Corbucci's 1966 version has style, savagery, and an unforgettable protagonist dragging a coffin full of dynamite.

But It's grittier and stranger than you might expect. The racial politics of a 1966 Italian western are complicated and sometimes uncomfortable.

Rio Bravo1959

Howard Hawks' classic about a sheriff and a ragtag group holding a jail against impossible odds. It's methodical, funny, and built on the pleasure of watching smart people work together.

But It's a long film that prizes dialogue and character over action. If you want constant gunfire, this isn't it.

The Ballad of Little Jo1993

A revisionist western about a woman who passes as a man to survive the frontier. Maggie Greenwald's film is thoughtful, strange, and based on a true story that's even wilder.

But It's deliberately paced and quietly angry rather than thrilling. The tone is austere.

Red River1948

Hawks again—a towering film about a cattle drive and the clash between an autocratic father figure and his adopted son. Montgomery Clift is mesmerizing against John Wayne's granite authority.

But It's a character study disguised as an action film. The actual conflict takes time to build, and the ending is abrupt.

The Shootist1976

John Wayne's final film: a dying gunslinger in a changing West, confronting mortality and irrelevance. It's elegiac and surprisingly tender without abandoning the code of the gunslinger.

But It's meditative and sad. There's less action than you'd expect from a John Wayne picture, and it doesn't pretend otherwise.

Navajo Joe1966

Raquel Welch and Aldo Ray in a revenge western with real fury and style. It's trashy, kinetic, and deeply weird—a spaghetti western that doesn't pretend to be anything it's not.

But The gender politics are truly awful by any standard. It's crude, sometimes incoherent, and unapologetically low-rent.

Cemetery without Crosses1969

Both center on a protagonist consumed by vengeance for a murdered spouse. But where Django is energetic and odd, this one is silent and aesthetic—the same engine, completely different register.

A visually stunning western about a widow's revenge, shot in Spain with a score by Luis Enríquez Bacalov. It's painterly and operatic—pure style weaponized into a narrative about grief and fury.

But There's almost no dialogue. It's a visual and musical experience first, a story second. You have to surrender to mood over plot.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly1966

Both are Italian spaghetti westerns from the same era with Anthony Steffen in ensemble casts, but Leone's film is the summit of the form—this is what Django's world aspires toward and what elevated the entire genre into art.

The apex of the form. Sergio Leone's masterpiece has Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in a treasure hunt across the Civil War South. The score is immortal. Every frame is iconic.

But Everyone knows this one. Watching it feels inevitable rather than surprising. Its influence is so complete that it can read as familiar even on first viewing.