Django (1966)

Though Sergio Leone created the spaghetti western with A Fistful of Dollars, the genre was not popularized in Europe until Sergio Corbucci's Django, which subsequently spawned countless illegitimate sequels. The film stars the Belgian hunk Franco Nero as Django, a mysterious gunslinger who drags a coffin behind him that contains a Gatling gun. Django soon happens upon a Mexican town where a group of Mexican revolutionaries, led by the nefarious Colonel Jackson, have overrun the town, wantonly killing its citizens. Soon, Django, who has a personal vendetta against Colonel Jackson, finds himself in league with a group of Mexican bandits who want to steal the Colonel's gold with the help of Django and his Gatling gun. Combining a stylish use of spaghetti western conventions -- among them a cruel and cartoonish bad guy as well as dramatic music that punctuates the action -- Django is one of the best and most popular films the genre has ever produced.