Prep School: Ten Films You Should Watch Before Django Unchained

10. Death Rides A Horse (1967)

Death Rides A Horse is one of those low-budget spaghetti westerns that manages to inhabit so many of the key traits associated with the genre, it’s become a definite example of its stylings. Not only does it cling to a simple revenge plot (a small boy witnesses the massacre of his family at the hands of a notorious gang and he grows up to exact vengeance on them), it also has a brilliant Ennio Morricone soundtrack, spaghetti western icon Lee Van Cleef at the helm, and the kind of crude construction that bridges the gap between genuine artistry and… well, the cheap.

It’s extremely thin, pulpy and it ain’t clever, but Death Rides A Horse is a blast to behold because it’s just out to give you a good time and nothing else. That’s the kind of philosophy that Tarantino has always adhered to, isn’t it? He’s referenced this movie a few times before already in his Kill Bill series: the flashing red sequences that appear when the Bride spots her targets are taken straight from Death Rides A Horse. And the title track was used in the first volume, when the Bride confronts O-Ren Ishii at the House of Blue Leaves.