Sergio Corbucci's original classic spaghetti western Django (1966) sure has a lot to answer for. In fairness, it's hardly Corbucci's movie's fault that countless Italian westerns that followed in its wake decided to simply name the lead loner/drifter after the main man and pretend that it was somehow a sort of follow-up. I've seen a few of them now and the one thing I have noticed is that there is nothing that sets them apart from other spaghetti westerns whatsoever! For what it's worth, this one went out under the name Django Kills Softly, which aside from being a somewhat strange name, seems to have been an English language title – in the original the lead character seems to have been called Bill. So it appears that Italian producers must have quickly noticed that if they stuck 'Django' or 'Sartana' in their film's title then they would increase admissions by a few percentage points. Needless to say, this is another very pedestrian and not memorable at all Italian western. In it Django's seeks vengeance after his friend is murdered by a bandit leader who controls a town through violence. To be honest, with a lot of these ultra-generic spaghetti westerns, you almost feel the writers simply randomly selected staple elements from a special 'spaghetti-western-generator' (a cardboard box with a hole in the side full of bits of paper with Italian western clichés written on them) and wrote bits of exposition to join the pieces together. Even the titles sound like they have been randomly created by this high-tech machine! Whatever the case, this particular example of the genre is deeply unremarkable, yet professional enough to never fall below the level of mediocre. The one thing that does set it apart from others is in it having Django played by George Eastman (aka Luigi Montefiori), who is an actor who became known for playing very threatening villains in later 70's and 80's crime films, horrors and exploitation fare in general. He was quite well suited to these types of movie roles, so it was strange seeing him playing a western hero when he was a young guy. It's not really that much of a distinctive angle for this film to boast in fairness but it is at least something.

Clever and noble drifter gunslinger Django (a solid and engaging performance by George Eastman) arrives in a small town that's being terrorized by two hostile groups. Django decides to clean the place up by taking on both gangs. Director Massimo Pupillo, working from a compact script by Lina Caterina, Paul Farjon, and Masrcello Malvestito, relates the enjoyable story at a brisk pace, maintains a suitably gritty tone throughout (the antagonists are a pretty heinous bunch who go as far as to kill a mother and her son in the opening robbery set piece), makes excellent use of the rocky desert locations, and stages the plentiful thrilling shoot-outs with crackling verve (besides said shoot-outs, a lively barroom brawl provides another exciting highlight). It's nice to see Eastman, a hulking actor who's usually cast as scary psychos and leering heavies, play an appealing heroic lead for once. The colorful rogues' gallery of lethal bad guys adds considerably to the picture's entertainment value: Luciano Rossi as the shifty Dr. Thompson, Mimmo Maggio as ruthless Mexican bandito leader El Santo, and, most memorable of all, Frederico Boido as twitchy henchman The Nervous One. The fetching Liani Orfei fares well as sweet damsel in distress Linda, Spartaco likewise registers favorably as the helpful Miguel, and Antonio Toma contributes a sympathetic turn as browbeaten mute Pedro. Mario Parapetti's crisp cinematography boasts lots of cool shots of the sprawling landscape. Berto Pisano's robust'n'rousing score hits the stirring spirited spot. A fun flick.

"Bill Il Taciturno" aka. "Django Kills Softly" of 1967 is a cheap, extremely unoriginal and cheesy film, and yet there are some reasons for my fellow Spaghetti Western fans to watch it. This is one of many films that were given a "Django"-title in order to cash in on the success of Sergio Crobucci's 1966 masterpiece "Django" starring Franco Nero. What makes this one somewhat worthwhile for my fellow fans of Italian genre-cinema is the casting of George Eastman in the lead. Eastman, who started his career with roles in Westerns like "Viva Django" or this one, is mainly known for his later roles in mean-spirited and ultra-violent Exploitation highlights of the 70s and 80s, most memorably as a sadistic thug in Mario Bava's "Rabid Dogs" (1974) and as an ogreish flesh-hungry fiend in Joe D'Amato's "Antropophagus" (1980). It is fun to see a young Eastman in his 20s who had not yet specialized in playing the psychos and monsters we love to see him play.The storyline resembles that of the original "Django", only without the imagination and style, and with a lot less cynicism. A drifter (Eastman) comes to a small western town in an area which is controlled by two hostile gangs which are hostile towards each other. He decides to take both of them on... Apart from the typical 'clever drifter vs. two hostile gangs' story the film also includes a thin romantic subplot. Eastman is quite good in his role, even though Westerns are certainly not the genre that fits him best and I will always prefer him in Horror/Exploitation cinema. The supporting cast includes Spartaco Conversi, who is best known for his role in Corbucci's masterpiece "The Great Silence", the ugly Luciano Rossi, who often played ugly villains and thugs in Italian cinema, and Frederico Buido ("Faccia A Faccia"). Lina Orfei makes a nice female lead. Furthermore, there is one pretty hot Mexican woman in the film (I don't know which actress), but Django turns her down for no apparent reason. Overall, "Bill Il Taciturno" is a pretty boring, predictable and unoriginal film, but it is still an acceptable time-waster. My fellow Spaghetti Western buffs can give it a try.

Once again we have the taciturn stranger who comes into an isolated frontier town and quickly becomes involved in various feuds which, apparently, can only be resolved through violence. There's a villain, of course -- actually several villains -- and then there's a pretty girl with whom the stranger dallies. There's nothing wrong with these ingredients but this "Django" movie strings them together so routinely and with so little regard for logical plot progression that the result can best be summarized as "forgettable." George Eastman, one of the better "spaghetti western" stars, makes an adequate leading man and though, as you might expect, he has two scenes in which he's subjected to savage beatings, he has no scene in which he takes off his shirt. (Eastman's bare-chested torture scene in "Belle Starr" is a classic!) The English-dubbed tape which is the basis for this review ran about 94 minutes but some jerky editing and a few gaps in the plot indicate that the original work may have been longer.