A legend is reborn with a fresh take on a cult classic in ‘Django’

After countless film iterations, an icon has been reinvented for the small screen in a thrilling new Western.

‘Django’. Source: Sky / Canal+

A lone drifter dressed all in black, face obscured, strolls into a small town. We don’t yet know his name or his true purpose, yet we immediately recognise him as the hero of our story.

If this description sounds like a familiar opening to any number of Westerns you may have encountered over the years, then chances are you can attribute it back to the fictional character known simply as Django. 

Along with 'The Man with No Name', immortalised by Clint Eastwood in director Sergio Leone’s classic spaghetti Westerns, Django has been a mainstay of the Western genre for over 50 years and across more than 30 films. He now finds himself getting the prestige TV treatment in a gritty new ten-part series.

Matthias Schoenaerts as Django. Source: SBS

Set in the American West of the 1860s and 1870s and starring Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone, A Bigger Splash), this version of Django tells the story of a grieving father’s quest to reconcile with his long-lost daughter Sarah (Lisa Vicari), eight years after their family are massacred.

Played with a potent mix of rugged vulnerability, Schoenaerts brings interesting new shades to this long-enduring character, who was first conceived as Italy’s answer to Clint Eastwood back in 1966. Italian filmmaker Sergio Corbucci was the first director to bring the legend to life on screen, in his attempt to capitalise on the popularity of the spaghetti Western genre, while paying homage to the Japanese classic Yojimbo. The result was 1966’s Django, in which the granite-faced actor Franco Nero played the titular role.

Set in a post-Civil War America, the film opens with Django trudging into town with a coffin at his side and revenge on his mind, as he takes aim at the mayor who murdered his wife. With the help of a local prostitute, Django doles out his own brand of justice in a brutally violent film that garnered enough success both in Italy and abroad to warrant a string of official and unofficial sequels and spinoffs.

For decades a rotating roster of actors would portray Django in everything from musical parodies to a Japanese reimagining from legendary director Takashi Miike. And although the hero’s backstory would often change throughout these various iterations, a thirst for vengeance was usually at the top of his agenda. It was perhaps this aspect of the character which attracted Quentin Tarantino to reboot the story for his 2012 revisionist Western, Django Unchained.

Widely known for his deep love of genre and exploitation cinema, Tarantino would channel the spirit of Corbucci’s original film, while putting his own unique spin on the character. A former slave turned bounty hunter, Django as played by Jamie Foxx had the same cool swagger as Nero, but with the added dramatic weight that comes with being a black man desperately fighting to liberate his wife from slave owners in a pre-Civil War deep south.

The new series sets the action in the township of New Babylon. Source: SBS

It’s this theme of race which provides an extra layer of relevance for the new Django series, with the story mostly being set within a frontier settlement known as New Babylon, where outcasts of all colours and creeds are promised a life free of prejudice.

New Babylon’s founder John Ellis (Nicholas Pinnock). Source: SBS

Django’s arrival in New Babylon is the event that sets the plot in motion, after he attracts unwanted attention from the town’s founder John Ellis (Nicholas Pinnock), a man whom we later discover is to be married to Django’s estranged daughter Sarah. But whereas older films in the series may have focussed solely on the conflict between these two men, one of the key strengths of this series is that it’s a true ensemble.

In Sarah we have a compelling character not only dealing with the everyday realities of being a woman in the spotlight, but also being torn between the man she loves and the father she left behind.

Django’s estranged daughter Sarah (Lisa Vicari). Source: SBS

More intriguing still is the masked clan of God-fearing vigilantes led by the mysterious Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace). She too has a history with John Ellis, and the true nature of their relationship casts a long shadow over events as the story slowly unfolds.

Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) in ‘Django’. Source: SBS

It all adds up to a more nuanced take on a genre and a character who in the past has been largely defined by his masculinity.

This new series looks past those dated archetypes and paints our protagonist in a completely new light: a Django desperately trying to heal wounds from his past and regain some semblance of hope in a morally grey world.

Ten-part series Django is now streaming at SBS On Demand.