Newsgroup: it.fan.starwars
Titolo: George Lucas and Franco Nero

Now everybody here has probably seen Episode 2 by now, and probably 
quite a lot of you know where Jango Fett got his name - well if you 
don't, then I'll tell you:
There was an Italian/Spanish film made in 1966 by a director called 
Sergio Corbucci and producer Manolo Bolognini. It was co-written by 
Franco Rosetti and camera work by the splendid Enzo Barboni. 
The film is called Django and is a relatively early example of what is 
known as a Spaghetti Western (or Macaroni Western in Japan). The lead 
character, (the mysterious ex-soldier/gunslinger/coffin-dragging Django 
who's wife had been murdered) is played by an Italian actor called 
Franco Nero, who made many films in Europe and a few in the states 
(including the South American guy in the plane in Die Hard 2!). Django 
was loosly remade by Robert Rodriguez as El Mariachi, and again but more 
diluted as Desperado.
The name Django incidentally is actually a bit of a sick joke - taken 
from guitar player Django Reinhart who had a fucked-up hand which gave 
him his unique jazz style - and Nero's Django gets his hands smashed up 
really badly in the movie so he can't shoot his pistols, but with 
desperation and inginuity wins the final showdown. Incidentally, the 
hand thing is taken to the extreme in El Mariachi!
Anyway, to some of you I'm sure this is no big news...
But there's something I worked out a long time ago and put it to the 
Star Wars community but had absolutly no response.
We all know that George Lucas admits to swiping part of the storyline of 
the original Star Wars from the film Hidden Fortress made by Japanese 
director Akira Kurosawa - with two bumbling surfs (like R2 and C3P0) who 
embark on a journey to rescue a princess (like Leia). There are many 
other things from this and other Kurosawa films used in the Star Wars 
films too.
However, there is another film which I saw and immediatly recognised a 
number of very obvious similarities to the Lucasfilm series:
It is called Texas, Adios (or it's original Italian title Texas, Addio) 
and has a young blonde guy, Jim (who looks not unlike Mark Hamill) who 
learns that his father and mother were killed by an evil guy called 
Cisco Delgado, so he embarks on a journey with his older brother, Burt 
(who is a Texas Ranger - in this story a kind of a cross between the Han 
Solo and Obi Wan characters) to Mexico to kill Delgado. 
On the way they visit a wise old man with a white beard who lives in a 
cave in the desert (Obi Wan, not Bin Laden!) and visit a cantina (albeit 
less busy with no aliens!) where Jim asks the bartender for information 
and promptly gets threatened by a riled customer. Burt comes to his 
rescue with a very fast draw (pistol, not lightsabre) and shoots the 
agressor.
When Jim finally gets to Delgado's guarded fortress, he is clumsy and 
gets himself captured, he tells Delgado he will kill him for what he has 
done but to the suprise of his guards Delgado refuses to kill Jim - but 
towards the end of the movie when Jim finally gets the chance of getting 
his revenge, he finds out that Delgado is really his father!
Sound familiar? Luke and Darth Vader?
Going back to the Django/Jango connection, the film Texas, Adios was, 
like Django, also an Italian/Spanish co-production Spaghetti Western 
made in 1966 and also produced by Manolo Bolognini. It was also 
co-written by Franco Rosetti and camera work also by the splendid Enzo 
Barboni. And Jim's brother Burt was played by Franco "Django" Nero. 
Director was, for those interested, Ferdinando Baldi.
The storyline of Django was loosly copied from Sergio Leone's 1963 
'Spaghetti' A Fistful of Dollars, which in turn was copied pretty much 
shot for shot from Yojimbo (The Bodyguard/The Bounty Hunter) made by 
Akira Kurosawa, which was in turn taken from some old gangster story 
which was eventually remade as Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis.
Another title which Texas, Addio went under in the States was The 
Avenger and we bet you all know that Return of the Jedi was originally 
titled Revenge of the Jedi but it was decided that Jedi do not avenge so 
promptly changed.
Now there's a fair amount of triva there but just wanted to know what 
you lot think - I'm not trying to rock the boat or anything - just 
interested and thought you may be too. And if any Star Wars fanatics 
have actually seen Texas, Adios (it's out on DVD at Amazon) then I'd be 
especially interested to hear from you!

 Franco Rosetti and camera work by the splendid Enzo Barboni.
with whom you share the nickname.
lupus
--
*M*FC #001

 with whom you share the nickname.
he he! I wondered if anyone would spot that!