Django Unchained filmmaker Quentin Tarantino took part in a lengthy interview for the special “SiriusXM’s Town Hall with Quentin Tarantino” in New York City, talking about everything from the many Django stories to how Terry Gilliam has greatly influenced the course of his career. In discussing the history of Django, Tarantino said, “…In the case of Django, this movie became such a sensation; it took spaghetti westerns to a different place- a much more violent place, a much rougher, more brutal and even more surreal type of West.
And just as an example of how violent the movie was at the time, it was banned in England up until the ‘90s. You could not show Django in England up until the ‘90s. In fact, one of the only ways to ever see Django in England is in the [Jimmy Cliff] movie The Harder They Come. Jimmy Cliff goes to a theater and watches Django and you see him in the theater watching Django and you see the villain Django on the screen, and they play a whole mirror aspect of Jimmy Cliff as Django…he’s the outlaw on the run. And that was the only time you could ever see Django on the screens of England—[in] the little clip of it that was in The Harder They Come.”
Tarantino went on to explain more about the title character. “…[the character] Django was so popular that about 40 films exist that are basically non-related, rip-off sequels to [the original] Django. And rarely do they actually try to make it the same character. Only a couple of them have ever tried to do that. It’s just a character name Django. Sometimes the movies don’t even have a character named Django in it. They just put ‘Django’ in the title because they…[thought] that’s what spaghetti western people would want to see. Not to mention any time…[a]…Franco Nero movie—who was the star of [director Sergio Corbucci’s] Django—in particular played in Germany, it was always called Django something.
Didn’t matter what it was. If he’s doing a modern-day cop film in the ‘70s, it was Django the Cop. If he’s doing a movie where he plays a shark hunter [it would be called] Django and the Shark…Django in Vietnam. There were all these complete rip-offs, unrelated sequels to Django and I am proud to say, that my film, Django Unchained, can join the long line of unrelated Django rip-offs.”
On the history and influence of the Django character and films:
Tarantino on Terry Gilliam:
