Django & Django: Tarantino praises ‘second best’ Spaghetti Western author

By Gonzalo Sánchez

Venice, Italy, Sep 8 (EFE).- Back when Italy ruled the Western genre, a film director joked that he killed more people in his movies than the Roman emperor Nero.

Sergio Corbucci’s violent filmography, including Django (1966), would become a heavy influence for Quentin Tarantino, who praises the “second best” Spaghetti Western author in a documentary screened Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival.

Many Italian directors of the 70s took on the Western formula, emulating popular movies from the United States and giving birth to what came to be known as the Spaghetti Western.

Two Roman cinematographers took the largest share of the pie: Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci.

While the former focused on lore and world-building, the latter gave audiences what they really wanted to see: blood, fire, and riff raff.

Luca Rea is presenting an in-depth analysis of Corbucci in his Django & Django documentary film, with the help of Quentin Tarantino, a connoisseur of the often overlooked genre.

The documentary, as its name suggests, pits two iconic movies face to face: the gory spectacle Django, produced at the height of Corbucci’s career, and a homage to the Italian classic by Tarantino himself: Django Unchained (2012).

But this is not Tarantino’s only show of respect to the Italian author, with a reference in his latest feature film Once upon a time… in Hollywood, where he is represented as the “second best” Spaghetti Western director, only second to Leone.

For years, Tarantino considered writing a book about Corbucci, to be titled The other Sergio, for publication after the premiere of Inglourious Basterds in 2009, but he never did.