With the exception of Sergio Leone’s films, spaghetti westerns have been severely underrepresented on Blu-ray. The tide is beginning to change with Blue Underground’s release of Sergio Corbucci’s spaghetti western classic Django. Django is probably Sergio Corbucci’s best known film, and is very likely his best.

Sergio Corbucci’s Django is one of the most grim and violent westerns of it’s time. The film sort of feels like the Ramones to Sergio Leone’s Led Zeppelin. It’s a short (91 minutes according to the packaging) fun ride, that packs a punch. That is not to say that the film has no depth to it, Corbucci has crafted a great entertaining film that ends up working on a multitude of levels. It is absolutely one of the finest of all Spaghetti westerns, and is grounded by an excellent performance by Franco Nero in the titular role.

Django tells the story of a former Union soldier named Django, who drags his coffin wherever he goes. When we meet him, he is observing the torture of a prostitute by a group of Mexicans. These Mexicans quickly are dispatched by a group of red hooded cronies who work under the local tyrant Major Jackson(Eduardo Fajardo). Unfortunately, for her, these red hoods only appear to have saved her, and instead continue on with the torture and execution of the prostitute. Django being the hero of the story, kills them, and takes the girl back to town.

It turns out that this town is caught in the middle of a feud between 2 rival factions. The red hooded gang presided over by Major Jackson, and a group of Mexican militants who are trying to gather the resources to invade Mexico and start their revolution. Django sides with the Mexicans, but only to pursue his own desire, gold. The Mexicans need it to buy gatling guns to start their revolution, and Django knows where to get it. The heist is successful, but Django ends up getting screwed over by the Mexicans which leads him down a path betrayal, revenge, and a series of double crossings culminating in one final shootout in a cemetery.

Djagno had a prior Blu-ray release around 2010 via Blue Underground that was decent for the time, but could be vastly improved upon by this point. Arrow has released this set in the UK, but Blue Underground keeps pushing back keeping at them with copyright claims, so while copies have come out, it might be a while before this release is deemed fully available. Still what we have here is a wonderful 1080p transfer that really brings out the natural film like tones of Corbucci’s classic. I did notice some minor noise in some spots, but overall the experience is much improved from the BU release. Film grain is natural, colors are natural and well rendered and detail is solid.

4K UPDATE – When I reviewed the Blu-ray last year, I thought I’d shut the door on Django on the film for a while. NOT SO. Arrow did a 4k Scan, and dammit, they were going to use it, by pressing it to a UHD disc, and doing an HDR pass on it. If I thought the last Blu-ray was fantastic looking and filmlike, this practically looks like a pristine Italian print from the 60’s. The noise issues still rear their head, but are less pronounced, granted I’m watching on a 100″ screen projected. The audio here is fantastic, and has much the same attributes everything just looks and sounds fantastic.

Audio is presented with Italian and English HD audio tracks which come through crisp and clear. Extras include commentary tracks, interviews both new and archival with the cast and crew, an appreciation by Austin Fisher, an introduction to the film by Alex Cox. We also get another film Texas Adios, and extras pertaining to that feature. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.