A stranger, filmed at odd angles, walks purposefully into town, stands outside of bar, and plants a cross in the ground, bearing the name of a man inside. The man and his cohorts confront the weirdo outside only to find the date of death on the cross is this very day, and that date of death is going to very shortly be accurate...Folks criticise Antony Steffan for being a wooden actor, but he suits this roll to a tee! Steffan plays Django, a man who may or may not be the vengeful ghost of a confederate soldier out to kill his back- stabbing commanding officers who sold out his troops to the Yankees. There's two other officers on his list, but these guys have money at their disposal - money than can buy a lot of hired guns. Murdok is main guy Django has his sights on, and he's the one hiring the guns. He's also got some domestic issues as he basically pays Rada Rassimov to be married to his psychotic brother (Luciano Rossi, playing a nutter as usual), and she's not happy with this set up. Rossi's also out of control too, dragging a man to his death and killing the local sheriff for objecting to this. He's also the only person who remotely comes close to finding out if Django is a ghost or just some human skin wearing dude guy. That's the main question of the film - Is Django a ghost? He seems to appear just about anywhere he wants (including round a campfire where the bad guys are discussing him, in the background as the bad guys walk out of shot, and even seems to dodge a bullet at one point), and also appears to flat out murder a huge amount of hired guns. Some are even sent into town dead, crucified, on the backs of horses. He really is a bastard!The plot is simple here which seems to help things. Django knows who he's out to kill and sets out to do it and that is that. It's interesting that although Luciano Rossi's character seems to draw blood from Django, no one seems to believe his claims that Django is a ghost! The ending further blurs the lines here too.Followed by Django The A***hole, Django the W*nker and early seventies slapstick western Django the Daft C*nt.

I'm always interested in seeing a horror/western and this unofficial sequel to "Django" directed by Sergio Garrone and starring Anthony Steffen promised to offer just that. But evidently my impression wasn't positive. It's promise of combining the two genres, was overblown. "Django The Bastard" tried to create a seemingly supernatural atmosphere while at the same time keeping as close to reality as possible. And it failed.Anthony Steffen stars as Django a loyal, honest soldier who is betrayed by his officers in the Confederate army and seemingly killed along with his whole detachment. Now he apparently has risen from the grave to exact his revenge. In the opening scene we see Django carrying a cross through town. He stops in front of a building, and pins it in the ground. The men inside suspiciously examine Django, while finally discovering that the cross bears the name of them. Further more, on it is written the day of his death, today. What follows is a traditional shootout that leads to the obvious conclusion, Django now triumphant proceeds to punish all those responsible for the death of his comrades and his in a similar fashion.This movie has often been compared to Clint Eastwood's "High Plains Drifter", claiming that it's more or less been the inspiration. Honestly the only similarity found in both these movies is that they are presented as quasi-supernatural westerns. On the threshold between supernatural and natural, both posses characters that could or could not be spirits of vengeance. Such story is not anything new though and tales of such content have long existed in the western mythology. But "Django The Bastard" suffers from the inability to exploit it's features. The plot is shaky at best, often contradicting itself. At one point we have the titular character displaying unexplainable supernatural abilities, such as appearing from nowhere, disappearing, and even becoming transparent. While at another sequence Django gets, beaten, practically tortured, forced to run and hide from bad guy's henchmen. These plot elements did a great job at leaving me confused, but did little in creating that mystical atmosphere which was the supposed goal of the entire film. Django didn't feel supernatural because he was being beaten and didn't feel real because at one moment he became transparent. On other points of interest, namely the acting. Anthony Steffen does have the intimidating look, but his performance was lackluster and quite frankly it was flat. Nothing different can be said about the supporting cast. There was not a single character that made an impression, in fact to be honest I forgot most of them shortly after I saw the movie.Cinematography was a mixed bag. There were some really nicely directed tracking shots and overall stable, camera work. But the shootouts were unimpressive. Gorrene could have at least tried to put some more work in creating memorable action scenes to compensate for the second-hand plot. Ultimately what we get is a series of boring, uncreative, unsynchronized shootouts. What's even worse is that the gunned-down people tend fall in a slow irritating manner, it's as if they are being careful not to get hurt. Hello ? They are a supposed to be dead. Finally, the last thing worth commenting, namely the score. It is as forgettable as everything else in "Django The Bastard" I was neither able to remember who composed or any specific tune."Django The Bastard" might have a cool sounding name, but it doesn't have much else to offer. It's a forgettable experience failing to tap on it's quasi-supernatural plot, with just a few minor sequences sticking out from the otherwise bellow-average presentation.

This is a cheap, lackluster Spaghetti western that never manages to develop any suspense. The director has no style, the acting is stiff, and the action scenes are poorly shot. In fact, the photography is bad overall. Some say this is an influence on "High Plains Drifter", but in fact it is yet another rip off of Leone's films and "Django".I say skip this film and go rent "The Great Silence". That's a much more interesting Spaghetti Western from about the same time. Better yet, rent "Keoma". "Django the Bastard" has some of the right elements, but it is just too derivative.

"Wait a minute stranger, please...tell me who you are anyway"... a baddie asks Django, who replies, "A devil from hell"!! So yes...this movie certainly plays like a typical Italian horrorfilm.You know, one that takes place in an old remote castle where various people are destined to die horroble deaths. Technically this Sergio Garrone film is a much more skillful production than some of his "women in kz-lager" efforts of which he is so "famous"!!! The first 30-45 mins are visually very stimulating and this bears the film through. But after an hour or so, with lots'a style, thrills, atmosphere,moods etc, it just becomes too much(for me at least!!). Django appears everywhere never showing any facial expressions shooting down tons of baddies.Quite frankly, it borders on the tediously boring!!The ghostly happenings does set the film apart from most other entries in this fine genre and for this I praise and recommend it.