Django (/ˈdʒæŋɡoʊ/ JANG-goh)[5] is a 1966 Italian Spaghetti Western film directed and co-written by Sergio Corbucci, starring Franco Nero (in his breakthrough role) as the title character alongside Loredana Nusciak, José Bódalo, Ángel Álvarez and Eduardo Fajardo.[6] The film follows a Union soldier-turned-drifter and his companion, a mixed-race prostitute, who become embroiled in a bitter, destructive feud between a gang of Confederate Red Shirts and a band of Mexican revolutionaries. Intended to capitalize on and rival the success of Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, Corbucci's film is, like Leone's, considered to be a loose, unofficial adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.[2][7][8] The film earned a reputation as one of the most violent films ever made at the time, and was subsequently refused a certificate in the United Kingdom until 1993, when it was issued an 18 certificate (the film was downgraded to a 15 certificate in 2004). A commercial success upon release, Django has garnered a large cult following outside of Italy and is widely regarded as one of the best films of the Spaghetti Western genre, with the direction, Nero's performance, and Luis Bacalov's soundtrack most frequently being praised. Although the name is referenced in over 30 "sequels" from the time of the film's release until the early 1970s in an effort to capitalize on the success of the original, most of these films were unofficial, featuring neither Corbucci nor Nero. Nero reprised his role as Django in 1987's Django Strikes Again, the only official sequel produced with Corbucci's involvement. Nero also made a cameo appearance in Quentin Tarantino's 2012 film Django Unchained, an homage to Corbucci's original. Retrospective critics and scholars of Corbucci's Westerns have also deemed Django to be the first in the director's "Mud and Blood" trilogy, which also includes The Great Silence and The Specialists.[9]