Sunday, January 9, 2011

"Viva Django" vs "Joe, der Galgenvogel"

I spent time writing this in a post on FB so I might as well re-post it here as well:


This is a trailer for Ferdinando Baldi's brutal spaghetti western PREPARATI LA BARA! from 1968, in English known as Viva Django and in German Joe, der Galgenvogel. It stars Terence Hill before he bacame a "funny" guy.

The weirdest example of German censorshit I've seen is their version of VIVA DJANGO. The film is very cynical and brutal. Django's wife is killed. He is also shot and the bad guys believe he is dead. He digs his own fake grave and puts his ...own name on the tombstone. He shoots people in the back. He shoots one guy in the face. He kills the main bad guy from the back while he's trying to escape. In other words, Django doesn't follow the normal "good guy" code.

The Germans didn't like this! Haha. So they cut out all the violence and changed the story in the German dub. Now the woman who dies isn't his wife but just some woman. His grave is some other guy's. Somebody else shoots the bad guys in the back (off screen). And the most ridiculous scene is where he shoots the guy in the face. They couldn't cut out the scene so in the German version Django narrates the scene and says "I pulled an old trick: I blew powder in his face" (the "powder" is the smoke from the gun, for fuck's sake, hahaha).

And the Germans loved the Trinity brothers and they actually made it into a Trinity bros film, the other "brother" is just on holiday somewhere. At the end of the film he narrates again: "I'm tired of being alone, I'm gonna find the fat guy now". Hahaha. It's the weirdes and most insane cut version I've ever seen. I taped it off TV.

PS: Hmm, it occurs to me that the German version must have left quite an impression on me: I reviewed the two versions in great detail in the first issue of my zine BANNED IN BRITAIN in 1994 and here I am STILL talking about the Germans' abuse!! Haha.

12 comments:

  1. Gennemså Terence Hill-Django for nogle uger siden, sammen med Texas, addio med Nero.

    Der er tale om en ret fremragende spaghetti-intruktør, synes jeg. To perler i genren.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Den første, du nævner, er det Viva Django, du mener?

    Ja, jeg synes bestemt også, TEXAS, ADDIO er god. Jeg har ikke specielt mange spaghettiwestersn, men de her er gode. Mine favoritter er DJANGO og THE BIG SILENCE (men det er vist ikke så obskurt et valg, LOL).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ja, det er den med den pudsige danske titel "Django sadler sin hest." Ferdinando Baldi.

    I øvrigt må jeg indrømme, Leone's For a Few Dollars More" er min favorit. Den er ligesom alle spaghetti-westerns lagt sammen i et meget stærkt koncentrat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Men jeg synes, de skulle have valgt det rigtige billede til deres forside:

    http://www.videonetto.dk/?52X31X3531X3239363935O603

    ReplyDelete
  5. Haha, ja jeg skrev allerede om det forkerte omslag i (så vidt jeg husker) det første nummer af Stay Sick!, da de havde udsendt videoen. Men om de havde tænkt sig at rette fejlen, da DVD'en kom? Næh, hvorfor dog det, haha. Topmålet af skødesløshed! Men printet er et glimrende letterboxprint.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Her er det som enkelt-udgivelse:

    http://www.spaghettiwesterndvds.com/covers/vivadjangodenmark.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ja, den er en nydelse at se på, men den originale danske titel lyder som en ridefilm, der kun kan interessere nogle teenagepiger, der er glade for heste.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Eller en artikel fra et gammelt Familie Journalen om Django (sangeren).

    Django sadler sin hest i pausen under indspilningen af det nye hit "Sig det er løgn, søster"

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jeg har godt nok ikke læst sådan et, siden jeg besøgte min gamle mormor, som desværre døde for 4 år siden.

    Synes ikke, der var så meget om spaghetti-westerns i de blade - selvom de jo var meget hyggelige.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Viva Django with Terence Hill is actually one of my favourite spaghetti westerns. I still find it pretty neat that Hill plays this role straight. It defines his acting ability & is up there with Nero's inceptive performance as Django. Great stuff. I do of course love the Trinity movies too & Hill's performance in the two Nobody movies is sublime. Alongside Henry Fonda in My Name Is Nobody he stars in one of the Greatest westerns ever. So many great moments & subtle background scenes such as when they are at the cemetery & one of the headstones reads something like here lies Sam Peckinpa.

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Henrik; Næh, men nu var det jo heller ikke Django fra spaghettiwesterns, jeg omtalte som feature i FJ, men derimod sangeren Django! :D

    Trist at høre om din mormor. :(


    @Paul; It's one of my favourites too and I really enjoyed Terence Hill in a serious role too. In contradiction to you (and Henrik) I've never been particularly fond of their funny films.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hun var godt nok 92 og træt af livet, men det er jo trist alligevel.

    Mht. min sære Spencer-Hill interesse, skal det siges til mit forsvar, at jeg rent faktisk synes bedst om Bud Spencer. Terence Hill var kun rigtigt cool i begyndelsen af deres samarbejde. Hen ad vejen blev han for klovneagtig, og de komedier, han medvirkede i uden Spencer samt de ting han selv instruerede, er ikke så vellykkede, bortset fra måske "Nobody" nr. 1.

    ReplyDelete