Review of Nude Django

Nude Django (1968)
A one-scene movie, at best.
28 February 1999
This is one of those movies where you're not sure if it's supposed to be a drama, or if it is supposed to be a satire on Westerns. Either way, it stinks. The best reason to see this movie is the whipping scene (if you're into that sort of thing), which unfortunately suffers from a poor job of editing. A scene that could've had some real drama to it is ruined as the story flips between the female school teacher strung from a tree and the hero back in town swapping dialogue with another female character.

The evil cowboys have kidnapped an innocent schoolteacher who comes into town on a stagecoach because they think she can lead them to gold, money, whatever. They grab her and take her out onto the prairie, where they throw a rope over a tree limb and tie her hands over her head. They rip open her blouse and ... the scene cuts over to the hero reciting lines back in town... then the schoolteacher is squirming under the tree as one of the evil cowboys takes a bullwhip and swings it towards the schoolteacher. We see the tail of whip cross her bare chest and...the hero recites some more dialogue back in town. This goes on for a while. Eventually the schoolteacher gets completely topless, but that's the end of the scene and the evil cowboys ride off. Too bad.

If I had made this film, I would've had a longer prelude to the blouse-ripping and whip-swinging, to build up more drama for the scene. A little titillation goes a long way in this film. It sure doesn't have much else going for it. And I sure wouldn't have interrupted the climax of the plot with boring dialogue from a boring hero. I guess that's why the producer never really made it big in any film, he just made a lot of them (quantity over quality, I suppose).

If you can get it cheap, the film would make interesting late-night viewing where you don't have to think too hard. Other than that, it has no socially redeeming value.
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