Django Unchained (2012) User Reviews

Great film with the crazy passion of a great director

[pedroborges-90881 · 8/10 · 13 July 2020]

Great direction, screenplay, performances, soundtrack, cinematography, costume design, production design, all the things you can expect from a Tarantino film.

Also like others Tarantino films, only those who really have a extensive knowledge of films are going to really appreciate some things, like the Franco Nero scene.

Unmistakable Tarantino

[SnoopyStyle · 9/10 · 24 August 2013]

Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) is a bounty hunter. To identify his next catch, he tries to purchase Django (Jamie Foxx). Thing go all wrong Tarantino style. The two become friends and Dr Schultz decide on a plan to free Django's wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from a notorious plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

This is Quentin Tarantino all the way. His style has become as unique & original as they come. There is no mistaking it for another. It's the music, the violence, the visuals, the black humor, and the subject matter. This is all Tarantino. If there is one complain, it's the double climax. While I understand the need for a happy Hollywood ending, it would have been better to have 1 big gun fight and just finish with it. Not that big of a deal. Certainly it's still a great film.

The Perfect Movie

[alexcole10 · 10/10 · 16 June 2020]

For anyone who isn't much into cinema, I would recommend watching Django Unchained and you will fall in love with films forever.

This film is a classic western full of drama, suspense and tension with a tremendously unpredictable plot but with a sense of realism taken into consideration.

I believe it would be hard to dislike this masterpiece as it has it all: action, adventure and even a sense of romance and the occasional humour.

Tarantino is undefeated

[nadavsaar · 10/10 · 15 November 2020]

This is a movie that wouldn't work with every other director other than Tarantino. Just like all of his movies, film making top tier. Every aspect of this film is amazing

My favourite Tarantino, and that's a bold statement.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 8 January 2023]

A German bounty hunter flees a Slave, Django, and the pair embark on a mission to find Django's wife.

As soon as I heard Luis Bacalov's Django, I was hooked.

This remains my favourite Tarantino film, and let's be fair there are many classics in that particular catalogue.

Django is equal parts shocking, entertaining, dramatic, bold, funny and original, to this day no other film exists that is remotely similar. It's a western, action packed love story, it really is a one off.

Three hours passed by effortlessly, it's one of those films where I wasn't aware of time passing by, I was engrossed and absorbed into it.

Some of the humour is hilarious, and in the context of the film works to perfection, the humour is as good, as the violence and misery of slavery are guy wrenching.

The music is absolutely wonderful, the perfect soundtrack accompanies this great film. Indeed the whole production is exemplary, it's a skilfully crafted film, the visuals are jaw dropping, it's very skillfully put together, with costumes, sets and lighting all on point, with the unbelievable staging as well.

Now I am sometimes quick to highlight who stands out in a film or TV series, but how can you do that here, every single performance is on point, Waltz, Foxx, DiCaprio, Jackson, I honestly don't think it gets better than this assembly of greats.

It's no wonder it gave us so many memes, who hasn't seen this masterpiece. If you haven't grab your remote, and improve your day.

10/10.

Best Tarantino movie and you can't change my mind

[postolachivalentin · 10/10 · 25 April 2021]

Jango (D is silence) is just one of those movie you can watch every year and it never gets old.

It's also the origin of those Di Caprio memes you saw online, so you know is good.

Also Christoph Waltz stole the show here and made me discover all other his movies.

Tarantino at his best

[shawnmikedryer · 10/10 · 19 December 2020]

(Jamie Fox, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Walton Goggins, James Remar, Don Johnson, Bruce Dern & Samuel L. Jackson)

Set in the Wild West in Texas in 1858, a former dentist turned bounty hunter named Schultz stumbles upon the Speck Brothers who are in transit moving slaves they own. Schultz gets to talking with a slave named Django inquiring if he's heard of the Brittle brothers, upon affirmation of such information Schultz proceeds to purchase Django if he helps him locate and take care of the brothers than he would grant Django his freedom along with a horse and $75. Schultz then takes Django under his wing training him the ways of the bounty hunter and he becomes his deputy. After successfully tracking and taking out the Brittle Brothers and many other targets over the winter Django tells Schultz his story of how he and his wife attempted to escape their former owner and then were sold separately, and how he would like to use that reward to purchase his wife back. They discover the location of a Mississippi plantation where Broomhilda, his wife , was sold. They learn the ruthless Calvin Candie Von Shaft is the new owner and they now know that a scheme needs to be plotted to successfully purchase Broomhilda without raising suspicion that she was the target all along.

For a nearly three hour movie it certainly doesn't feel that way as the film is so action packed that it'll keep you on your toes the entire duration of the film. A beautifully produced piece of film that stacks up with every other great Tarantino film, it just fits the mold so perfectly. Well developed characters and a unique story like none other. So much originality has been missing in westerns i feel like this one fueled the next decade of great westerns that have been released. This long list of actors in this film is quite extraordinary as there was even more great actors i could have listed. The soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal and I'll admit i listen to this frequently it just fit the film perfect. The dialog was written so nicely creating some iconic scenes. Anyone who truly loves film can not get enough of this Tarantino masterpiece.

A Bountiful Tale...

[Xstal · 8/10 · 9 November 2022]

Django's luck, has taken quite a turn, the chains around his legs, have suddenly been spurned, Dr Schultz did him a favour, uncoupled him from viscous slavers, now they're off to see what bounties can be earned. The rewards are more enticing than plain cash, as they hunt down evil villains and watch them crash, their revolvers take them out, seldom having time to shout, it's akin to picking up, discarded trash. Now Django's keen to find his wife who's kept, by Calvin Candie who is cunningly adept, at keeping people tethered, disobey and they get leathered, but the duo plan to make an intercept.

Great performances, great dialogue and a bountiful tale set during the less celebratory times of a countries history.

Great Mix Of Action And Comedy

[CalRhys · 24 January 2013]

Quentin Tarantino, one of the most iconic directors of the 21st (and late 20th) century, why? Simple. Because of masterpieces like this. Tarantino defies the laws of film, he shoots them in his own way, however he wants. Tarantino has always focused upon the action thriller genre from Reservoir Dogs up until Inglourious Basterds. However, Django Unchained is Tarantino's first look at the Western genre, his first attempt at it and he executed it beautifully. The scenes were shot perfectly alongside an amazing soundtrack as well as his own small cameo.

Django Unchained tells the story of Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave who is soon picked up by bounty hunter Dr King Shultz (Christoph Waltz). The story follows on as Shultz takes on Django as his "deputy" during their tasks of bounty hunting, in return Shultz says that after winter he will help find Django's lost wife, Broomhilda. This takes them to a huge plantation in Mississippi owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), from here they plan up a scheme on how to get away with Broombilda.

The cast boast out amazing performances, particularly Christoph Waltz (also famous for his previous collaboration with Tarantino on Inglourious Bastards as Colonel Landa). Both Foxx and DiCaprio's performance are both equally amazing. All three are able to add some light-hearted humour in the mix to make sure it doesn't stay too serious, as well as having comic actor Jonah Hill play a member of the KKK.

There's a reason the film has been nominated for 5 Oscars.

Better than "Death Proof"

[Groverdox · 6/10 · 26 September 2019]

I pretty much gave up on Tarantino after "Death Proof". He had been my favourite filmmaker in the '90s, but as far as I'm concerned, with that movie, he totally lost the plot. The signs were there: with "Kill Bill, vol. 2" I kept wondering what happened to his ability to write witty and original dialogue.

The dialogue was what was so great about his first movies. Back in the early '90s, movies used dialogue to advance the story. That was pretty much it. Watch an early '90s blockbuster like "Basic Instinct" for an example. Every time the characters talk it is only to communicate information that the screenwriters want the audience to know to help the movie get to its final destination. Tarantino's characters don't just talk because the movie needs them to. They talk because they have personalities of their own; there were no "Mr Expositions" in "Pulp Fiction" or "Reservoir Dogs".

In "Death Proof", however, Tarantino totally fell on his own sword. That was the one where characters talked. And talked. And talked. And talked. And died in a car crash. And were introduced. And talked. And talked.

The first time I watched "Django Unchained", I didn't get very far. There was too much Christopher Waltz, and of course, too much uninteresting dialogue. But I decided to give it another go just now.

What I can say about the movie is that it is nowhere near as bad as "Death Proof". The dialogue isn't endless and tedious to that extreme. It's also not that interesting, though. The movie often lost my attention; it was hard to care too much for the plot. It was enlivened by its set pieces and hand picked character stars.

It did not need to be almost three hours. I think most of the dialogue between Waltz and Foxx could have been cut out, and the details discussed shown, rather than told.

What the hell did Waltz win the Oscar for? If any performance in the movie was Oscar-worthy, it was DiCaprio's. Waltz was a plot device, and pretty one-note.

A masterpiece!

[manseetswaroop · 9/10 · 16 October 2020]

Django Unchained is a 2012 Hollywood movie depicting the story of a former slave turned freeman who just wants to get his wife back. He will stop at nothing to unite with his wife.

A brilliant masterpiece of a movie. The gut-wrenching way in which slavery in past-America is depicted is simply awe-inspiring. Quentin Tarantino goes all out to show the viewers what slavery was like in those days.

Every character in the movie were aptly cast and put on a splendid show. Every scene with Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz is memorable and impressionable.

All in all, this is a Tarantino movie. So, you gotta watch it. A revenge story so good that it will stir up your insides!

Very Disappointing

[mcnaps76 · 3/10 · 25 December 2012]

I saw Django Unchained with the expectation of any Tarantino fan. But I left shaking my head in disappointment. This is not a bad film, but I'm not saying it's a good one.

The length of the film is one of the main flaws. There are many scenes that do not serve a purpose to its characters and story. Which leads to its pacing problem. These irrelevant scenes exist in the film that often slows it down. It is very unbalanced.

Mostly, it's the characters and performances. Many are giving praise to Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio. Waltz, first of all, is in similar territory when he was in Inglorious Basterds. He and his character served their purpose and Waltz was just fine in the role, but nothing to highly praise. DiCaprio as Calvin Candie was nothing worth noting. Either its in the performance or the script, I never really invested in him. It's as if Tarantino wanted to write a great movie villain and that's what DiCaprio took as his only direction. There is a scene where he gets the evil monologue, but it comes very forced with ultimately ends up destroying the character.

Jamie Foxx, first of all, was the right choice for Django, but I believe that Tarantino did not trust his protagonist. It takes a long while to get invested in him, but at that point, why bother? BUT, the standout for me was Samuel L. Jackson. He takes his character Stephen is able to go beyond the material that is given. There is fun in his performance which is what the film should be.

I am well aware that I will be in the minority, when it comes to disliking the film. How people will try to tell me that there was more to the story than meets the eye, how it's a great revenge tale, how the characters were great and well written etc. But this is not a good Quentin Tarantino film.

The film is too long, with characters that hold the most minimal of interests. I will be really dishearten to see this film receive awards and praise. Maybe it's the love of Quentin that will jade people. I know it will. But after coming out of a strong year for film, Django falls flat.

The movie lacks the confidence of character(s) and story in a hyper active world. It loses it's identity somewhere along the line and the little scenes of greatness cannot save it. Most of all it does not have the joy of film that often add life to Tarantino films.

a brilliant film

[pka-646-702201 · 8/10 · 21 November 2020]

Tarantino is unpredictable. You never know what to expect in the next scene. And that's make the movie interesting. The music is also excellent. Only this blood is too much for me. So I give 8.

"D-J-A-N-G-O.... the 'D' is silent."

[classicsoncall · 9/10 · 30 December 2012]

After all the hype, all the articles and reviews, after all the controversy over the 'n' word, after all is said and done, Tarantino kicks butt again and comes up with a terrifically entertaining movie. Notice I said entertaining and not necessarily enjoyable. There are a number of scenes that are clearly not enjoyable, in fact, downright troubling like the dog attack of the black slave D'Artagnan (Ato Essandoh) and the hot box scene involving Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). But over all, Tarantino has fashioned a well told revenge tale modeled on the Spaghetti Western genre of the Seventies. And it begins immediately with a classy credit for the 'friendly participation of Franco Nero', the original coffin dragging gunslinger from the 1966 film who's name is resurrected here because frankly, it just sounds really cool.

Now here's the problem I have with folks who find racism around every corner - when a movie depicts events or themes that have racism at it's core, it doesn't mean that the picture or the film maker is racist or is making a racist statement. The entire controversy in the media surrounding the use of the 'n' word here is a prime example of critiquing the movie as a racist film. Personally, whenever I heard it used in the picture, it sounded to me like part of the era's vernacular and not as a pretext for sensationalism. So here's a question I have for the critics - when will you put Jamie Foxx and Samuel L. Jackson on the spot for their participation in the project? Are they being racist, or are they artists? Or is it only Quentin who has to answer for the film's language and subject matter?

What I didn't expect from the movie was the amount of humor and comedic dialog that came along with it. The bag head scene was surreally comic and just mind blowingly funny, but you really have to listen to the dialog to get it. The guy who was upset over the critique of his wife's working on the hoods was something one could easily relate to, and yet it sounded completely ludicrous even in context. I guess you have to be a little warped to come up with something like that, but warped seems to be right up Tarantino's alley. He proves it once and for all when he has Django blow himself sky high with the bag of dynamite. Priceless.

As for the violence, well it's red meat bloody and about as visceral as it gets, so if you're on the squeamish side, there are a few scenes that may give you the heaves. It's one area where the director explicitly goes over the top and much of it is quite unbelievable. I have to admit though, the 'say goodbye' scene with Miss Lara Lee (Laura Cayouette) was the best, and it wasn't bloody at all. That was one of the times the picture entered 'Kill Bill' territory.

As for a recommendation, you'll just have to guage your own preferences. I'm a Western movie and Tarantino fan and there was no way I was going to miss this. Casual movie goers with a low tolerance for gore and gratuitous shoot 'em up scenes should most likely stay away. Finally, for those hung up about the media's fascination with the 'n' word, I tried keeping up with the count as the picture progressed. I've read accounts that placed the number at well over a hundred, but I came up with seventy seven myself, realizing that I probably missed a few because it's easy to have your attention diverted by other elements in the story. No reason we can't get a recount with captioning on the DVD when it comes out.

Absolutely love this movie.

[theoledoux · 10/10 · 15 January 2021]

Probably the best Tarantino film in my opinion. But let's be fair, it's really close. Regardless, Django represents everything I appreciate about this director. Drama, comedy, amazing dialogue, extreme violence, etc. I named my dog after this masterpiece, so remember the D is silent!

I like the way you write Quentin!

[Morejambo54 · 9/10 · 31 December 2020]

This is a fun movie! Great acting, great soundtrack, great editing and great story! The scenes in the big house...top class! Every scene with Leonardo diCaprio was amazing! Now my problems with the movie: the main meat of the movie, the mid section, dragged on a little too long and some of the dialogue was a bit dull but it was necessary to tell the story. The opening of the movie though, was great, I was hooked instantly and the end was so chaotic and fast paced! I wasn't expecting this movie to be as hilarious as it was either, so many scenes had the timing of humour spot on and actually made me laugh out loud. The story isn't complicated or hard to follow which is good, I enjoyed being able to relax and watch the movie unfold. I like this...9/10.

Brutally hilarious and quite messy, but a total blast from start to finish

[DonFishies · 8/10 · 23 December 2012]

I only had one thought on my mind for this Christmas: see Django Unchained. Quentin Tarantino's latest opus, a Western set two years before the Civil War, concerns a former slave named Django (Jamie Foxx). He is freed by bounty hunter Dr. King Shultz (Christoph Waltz) in order to help him with a bounty. Quite quickly, Shultz takes Django under his wing and trains him as his partner. But he made him a promise: that he would rescue his wife from a plantation owned by the ruthless Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). And rescuing her is not going to be all that easy.

What pains me the most about Django Unchained, as a die-hard Tarantino fan, is just how sloppy it all seems. I enjoyed every minute of it, but I could never shake the feeling of how messy and thrown together it all feels. Portions of the film feel episodic (the search for the Brittle Brothers, mentioned heavily in the trailers, begins and ends practically within minutes), and some scenes just seem to play out just for the fun of it. Another scene from the trailers involving a lynch mob with bags covering their faces seems added for comedic purposes, and has no real point of actually existing. More than any of his films before it, Django feels like Tarantino simply making a movie for sheer pleasure and with no outside motivations or controllers.

The film threatens to go totally off the rails at any given moment, and lacks any real sense of direction or focus. It may sound ridiculous, but the loss of editor Sally Menke confirms a sneaking suspicion I always had about Tarantino – he needed a steady right hand to help encourage him as to what was needed and what was not. I do not want to criticize Django's editor Fred Raskin, but it is obvious he is no Menke and that works against the film heavily. It lacks the polish we have come to expect, and is practically stripped of the glossy/cool texture so prevalent in Tarantino's work up until now.

But then maybe that was his intention all along, and perhaps Tarantino is airing out his frustrations with life and film in general. Django is deliberately shot on film (or at least from the print I saw), and looks very gritty and messy at all times. It is significantly more brutally violent than anything he has worked on before (the borderline cartoonish Kill Bill included), and has a very go for broke attitude about itself. The film seems to revel in how brilliantly it can splatter all the blood and gore (done through the use of squibs and no digital!), and how uncomfortably numbing it can make the violence. I know he does not care what people think of his films, but this movie especially seems like an emphatically raised middle finger to the establishment. And for all of my complaints about how messy it all feels, I was never once bored or felt like the movie was dragging itself out. The staggering 165-minute running time shockingly flies by faster than you might ever imagine.

Acting wise, Tarantino stacks the deck with a number of recognizable character actors young and old for roles that vary in size. Most have very few lines, if any at all, and seem to just stand by, just as content as the audience is to watch the action unfold. It is a little off-putting, especially with how important some of these characters are initially made out to be. Washington as Broomhilda von Shaft (one of the most subtle references he's ever dropped) does well as the helpless victim and frequent dreamlike object – but she never really gets to show off any of her acting prowess outside of her facial reactions. They are increasingly effective, especially during horrific flashback scenes. But her work here feels ridiculously stunted in comparison to the other leads. Samuel L. Jackson, much like Tarantino himself, seems to just be having fun in his role as Candie's adviser Stephen. He plays on every ridiculous stereotype he ever has been associated with and then amps it up to a near ludicrous state. He is frequently hilarious, but the role seems to border on parody more than anything else.

Surprisingly, Foxx takes a very long time settling into the leading role. It may just be the character, but it is quite clear from the on- set that he is not very comfortable in Django's shoes, and leads credence to why Will Smith, amongst so many others, dropped out of the picture so quickly. But once he finds his footing, he does a fantastic job walking the thin line between empathetic and sadistic. It is not an easy character to play, but Foxx makes it his own, bringing a sense of style and grace that are virtually absent from the rest of the film. And of course, he gets all the best lines.

Waltz and DiCaprio are the clear standouts however, nailing every nuance of their sadly underwritten characters. While Waltz plays the straight man, DiCaprio is delightfully unhinged and vicious. Both are playing directly against type, yet are strangely comfortable in the roles. Watching them act circles around the rest of the cast, Foxx included, is the true highlight of the film. I just wish they were both given additional emphasis and more to do.

For all of its numerous faults, I had a blast watching Django Unchained. It is hilarious, it is a lot of fun, and is wildly enjoyable. I genuinely think it could have been a lot better if there was more focus and direction, but this is very clearly a picture Tarantino wanted to make on his own terms. And for that, I applaud him for the effort. It is not his best work, but certainly not his worst.

8/10.

It's not perfect but it's very good... and I'm not even a fan of Tarantino!

[filipemanuelneto · 8/10 · 3 December 2020]

I just saw this film and I confess that I am completely satisfied. I am not an admirer of Tarantino but I have little to say about this film, inspired by a character from the sixties western-spaghetti films and mixing western with blacksploitation. Tarantino's style (exaggerated, showy, extravagant and excessive) is all there before us, but unlike other films I didn't feel that this was a problem or transformed the film into a kind of parody.

The plot is about the search that Django, a former slave who is unexpectedly released and becomes a bounty hunter, will do for his wife, a slave who was sold and disappeared. He has the help of a German, responsible for his release. Together they discover that she is at the home of a rude slave-owner called Cotton Candy who, among other businesses, profits from death fights between slaves. So they decide to disguise themselves as experts in the field to go to his plantation and try to buy her freedom without Candy realizing what they want.

The film is very good and, despite being almost three hours long, it has no dead moments and entertains wonderfully. However, although Tarantino's exaggerations and histrionic vision were not a problem this time, there are some points that were really uncomfortable, mainly concerning historical rigor, which, we already know, is not something that he really takes seriously (another reason why I don't like him as a director). To begin with, such Mandingo Fights never existed. We are not in Ancient Rome and the slave owners, however bad they were, did not like to throw money out the window and kill for pleasure their best pieces! Tarantino went to get that silly idea from another film he liked and pasted it here. Another problem is the use of dynamite, which would only be invented a few years after the period in which the film takes place. The clothes also do not match the time or place of the action. The outfit of the Club's black maid, with that miniskirt, is particularly bad in that it sexualizes the character and imports a 21st century scent into the middle of the 19th century. I will not go on much longer, I think I proved my point. Another thing I have to say is that this is a very violent film, Tarantino style, that is, with a ton of blood for each bullet, spectacular shootings, some nudity and high doses of brutality. The dialogues are also full of racist insults and profanity, but I think that was something the film asked for, in support of its own credibility. In short, this is not a movie for anyone. With Tarantino, this is often taken for granted.

The main role was given to Jamie Foxx, and he is superb and gives the character a strength and toughness that I liked, and which contrast nicely with the polite sensitivity of Dr. Schultz, brilliantly played by Christopher Waltz. This actor had already done an extraordinary job in "Inglorious Bastards" and now he was even better, with a character that seems tailor-made for him. I was particularly impressed with the work of Leonardo Di Caprio, who rarely manages to make villains. He is an actor with a rare talent and has managed to be worthy of our contempt in this film. Another actor who shines in this film is the veteran Samuel L. Jackson, in the role of a black butler so fond of the owner that he becomes more slavish than whites. I also liked the brief cameo of honor of Franco Nero, the actor who played Django in the original films. It was an elegant and honorable way for Tarantino to bow to the actor and the work that inspired him. Much less impressive was the performance of Kerry Washington, who has little time and material to show what is worth.

Technically, it is a film full of notable aspects that require our attention and that, to a large extent, are part of the director's brand image. It is the case of cinematography and the use of strong colors and slow motion footage in action scenes, features of a strong visual style that Tarantino loves. The sets are good, and also the costumes despite the anachronisms that I have mentioned. The film has a pleasant pace, but the first half was generally better yet more restrained: it seems that Tarantino gets lost in his own style as he approaches the most violent scenes. The soundtrack is great and takes advantage of several songs by various composers. Personally, I enjoyed listening to the original song from "Django" by Luis Bacalov, and the songs composed for this film by Ennio Morricone, a name that will always be associated, in collective memory, with the great western-spaghetti of the past. It was a careful, effective and honorable selection in the way it honors the genre.

TARANTINO'S WILD WILD WEST

[lukem-52760 · 6/10 · 27 January 2020]

Another great Tarantino film & another big hit, here Tarantino takes us back to the old south just before the Civil war & drops us off in the horrible racist Slavery times & takes us on a violent & bloody quest of vengeance!!! Tarantino DEFINITELY watched Will Smith's WILD WILD WEST whilst preparing this move!!!! Tarantino is an outstanding film maker as we know & here he delivers all the quality & great dialogue we've come to expect & his casting is again Amazing with an excellent Jamie Foxx as the "Django" the freed slave in search of his beautiful wife played by Kerry Washington, & "Django" is helped by a German bounty hunter named King Schultz, an outstanding performance by Christoph Waltz, the two become partners as bounty hunters & Django becomes an incredible marksman who can really handle his guns. The two Bounty hunters go from town to town & plantation to plantation in search of Criminals & Django's wife, this leads them to the evil plantation owner Calvin Candie, an excellent performance by Leonardo DiCaprio as such a nasty & evil villain of this piece. There's also Tarantino regular Samuel L Jackson as an evil black butler type who is just as racist as the Southern whites!!! There's lots of other great actors in small roles & there's lots of very funny moments & black humour throughout but there's also still the dark & raw look into the evil times of slavery & it gets extremely violent & bloody. I loved this mix of fact & fiction turned into a revenge fantasy just like Tarantino did with his "Inglourious Basterds" & his "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" that's why he's such a great story teller & film maker. I did notice alot of similarities to the excellent but underrated Will Smith western "Wild Wild West" from 1999, now i know the part of "Django" was written with Will Smith in mind but he turned it down, so there's lots of bits & bobs & scenes & it's look that Tarantino obviously borrowed from Smith's Wild Wild West!!! Smith would've been excellent as Django as he's a great actor but hey we got the excellent Jamie Foxx & he nailed the part as extremely tough & raw freed slave. When the killing gets going it's so exciting & gripping as these evil Slave traders so deserve to die brutally & Django delivers, my favourite line in the movie is "I like the way you Die boy" from Django before he blasts an evil redneck in the chest, it's beautiful.



The movie looks fantastic & never was it boring because it's so interesting watching these richly detailed characters & this dark & dangerous world they are in & i loved the idea of these two Bounty hunters on a quest of vengeance!!! Another great Tarantino movie & another instant Classic.

Tarantino-gasm!

[arnieiam · 10/10 · 26 December 2012]

Merry Christmas to all you Tarantino fans out there. I hope you made a Tarantino checklist so here we go.

Witty dialogue, check. Excessive profanity especially use the word 'nigger', check. Excessive violence including testicles getting blown off, check. Soulful musical score, check. Sometimes non-linear narrative, check. Shots of women's feet, check. Very great character driven plot, check. An actual spaghetti western, even though it takes place in the American South, check.

There are four standout characters played by the top billed actors.

Jamie Foxx plays Django, a freed slave who becomes a bounty hunter. Even though he is the titular character, he gets downplayed when in the presence of the other actors. Still he delivers a solid performance, in fact hes very convincing. We all know Jamie Foxx as this golden voice RnB singer and comedian with a very clean cut image. He was able to pull off the whole transitioning from a timid slave to a menacing bounty hunter. Not only that he had the whole look down too, with all the facial scarring and the messy hair.

Christoph Waltz plays Dr. King Schulz, a German dentist turned bounty hunter who frees Django so he could help pursue his previous owners who are targets. Waltz is a very charismatic actor, and thats how he does this role. Presents every line with finesse.

Leonardo Dicaprio is in his best yet. He plays a plantation owner, Calvin Candie, and is the owner of Django's wife. This is a very different role. We've seen Leonardo in gritty roles before but never did he play this lecherous antagonist. We were all used to Leo being this teen idol, who looked like a member of Hanson. Here he's this Southerner with discoloured teeth and a scruffy beard.

Finally Samuel L. Jackson who plays Steve, a house slave who you could say is the secret antagonist here. For all the screen time that he has he dominates. Sam usually plays boisterous roles as a tough guy, but it was very interesting seeing him play a devious and manipulative old man.

The only gripe here was that this film was a little too long exceeding the three act structure, but its an epic western film so I'll excuse Tarantino for that. Yet again he made another great film with a lot of flair and carried well by the four big hitter actors. Well done Mr. Tarantino.

Revenge.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 7 February 2015]

I enjoyed this action/comedy movie because I hated the evil doers and wanted to see them die because of their brutal natures. I reveled in their pain. And that's the problem.

I'm going along about half way on this one because the performances are as good as they are and I can appreciate Quentin Tarantino's collegial sense of humor. Two "Django's" shaking hands. Brunhilde and Siegfried coming out of nowhere. A musical score that is an homage to Ennio Morricone. The surprises that pop out of a man's mouth or his sleeve.

Tarantino's earlier stuff was pretty good -- "Reservoir Dogs", "Pulp Fiction" -- and "Jackie Brown" was finely written and directed, a very nice piece of work. The "Kill Bills" was far too stylized for me.

"Inglourious Basterds" was a disappointment. It was much more violent than anything else he's done, and instead of comic internal conflicts, he'd chosen as villains the Nazis, the most evil people of the century, and their torture and murder could be endorsed without chagrin by the least sophisticated of us, the kind who think "Don't just kill the enemy; torture them before killing them." It was a kind of pornography for the millions.

He's followed the same course here and I didn't like it much. Given the depraved character of the slave-owning Southerners, no punishment is too harsh, so Django can kill helpless and unarmed people -- including women -- at will. As a hero, the character of Django is not just flawed but practically turned inside out. Superman was a hero Roy Rogers was a hero. Django was a walking abattoir, savagely killing everyone he disliked -- and Tarantino has provided him with a the simple-minded excuse of hating that "peculiar institution." I don't want him as my hero. He's too Old Testament for me.

The performances are good, though, and the production values high. Jamie Foxx has about two notes on his instrument but Christoph Waltz does a great job as the German bounty hunter. His accent doesn't sound German at all. It sounds like it came from somewhere in outer space. And Don Johnson is surprisingly chipper and colorful as Big Daddy, the plantation owner who gets splashily offed by Django's powerful rifle. (The squibbs seem to have had double charges.) Tarantino obviously has a lot of talent and a keen sense of humor. I wish he'd get back to his roots and lay off the easy targets.

Tarantino... I am disappointed

[davidec23 · 4/10 · 11 January 2013]

I am a hardcore Tarantino fan and I must say I had great expectations for this movie. I can now honestly say that in my opinion Django Unchained is Tarantino's worst film to this day.

Lets start with the first major flaw. The soundtrack. Usually Tarantino has great taste for his soundtracks and on most of his movies (pulp fiction, reservoir dogs, kill bill) it actually is a fundamental part and complements the film. On Django it seems that Mr. Tarantino got Lil Wayne to choose some of the tracks. Hip Hop in a western?? Completely ruined the movie for me.

Second, the length of the movie is ridiculously long... Almost 3 hours. Usually films of such lengths have intricate plot lines and/or are made to tell an exceptionally long story. Not in this case. The movie could have easily been 100 minutes long. If it wasn't for the excessive and unnecessary dialogues, the useless KKK scene, the first 45 minutes of the movie which have almost nothing to do with the main plot line. The last 30 minutes of bloodshed serve to no use and I guess is just a fetish of the director. Mr. Tarantino seems to lose the sense of time and you can never tell where his ego ends and the plot begins.

Third, bad acting. Jamie Foxx is impalpable. Besides a few punch lines and some dramatic moments Foxx doesn't portray the slave from the pre-civil war era but mostly comes off as a thug from the hood. Di Caprio is too pretty-faced to seriously be the villain in this movie and if it wasn't for the horrors happening around the character (Candie) you could hardly tell he's the bad guy. Waltz and Jackson on the other hand with their excellent performances keep this movie together. I was really hoping Tarantino, with such an all-star cast, could have pulled off a both socially relevant and at the same time entertaining film, but again I was mistaken.

Loved it! It's a hit.

[masha_1512 · 10/10 · 26 December 2012]

Absolutely loved every minute of this movie. Usually I'm not too crazy about Tarantino's movies, but this one is definitely the best one I've seen in a long time. The actors were picked perfectly. The overall experience of a movie is amazing. When we first went to watch it, I was a bit skeptical and thought I'd end up leaving an hour into the movie (it's a 3 hr movie), but it grabbed my attention from the very beginning and I didn't even wanna get up to go to the bathroom, afraid to miss something. I'm usually very particular about the movies, nothing can hardly satisfy me, but this one is definitely in the top 5. Soundtrack was perfect. When I got home, I've done some more research on it and loved it even more! Overall, I would highly recommend this film!

I like the way you die

[nogodnomasters · 10/10 · 13 February 2018]

Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) is a well spoken bounty hunter who acquires Django (Jamie Foxx) to find and kill some men who are wanted, "dead or alive." Dr. Schultz isn't too keen on the "live" part.

The film divides itself into two parts. After the bounty hunting episodes are through, our duo conceive a plan to rescue the wife of Django (Kerry Washington) by purchasing her from Candie Land plantation. Dr. Schultz has no stomach for slavery or slave owners. Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't enter the film until the second part.

Like Tarantino films it incorporates humor. The bag over the head scene was reminiscent of something we might have seen in "Blazing Saddles." The flashbacks are minimal and not confusing. There is of course the over the top climatic ending and plenty of blood.

I have to question the use of the MF bomb several times in this picture. The first know usage of the word is the 1930s. It is speculated the phrase originated during slavery as a way to describe white owners who would take black mothers as comfort women. The phrase would of had a specific meaning and not used in the generic sense that Samuel L. Jackson tossed about.

Tarantino fans will not be disappointed. Great sound track.

Parental Guidance: F-bomb,N-word, nudity (Kerry Washington). No sex. Killing and slow motion blood splatter.

Freedom and Choices and Tarantino

[salbelmondo-570-512867 · 9/10 · 1 January 2013]

In Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, there is a scene in which Django (Jamie Fox), soon after being freed by the incredibly likable dentist turned bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), shops for new clothes to wear.

Schultz tells Django to pick out whatever he likes. Django looks at the smiling white man in disbelief. You're gonna let me pick out my own clothes? Django can't believe it. The following shot delivered one of the biggest laughs from the audience I watched the film with. After the white man confirms that yes, he is indeed letting the black man pick out his own clothes, we cut to a wide shot of Django riding his horse, now decked out in his very own (outlandish) cowboy outfit—an all blue with white ruffle get-up.

It's a great little scene that provides humor and allows the viewer to further warm up to the two main protagonists. But it also does more than that. It's a simple scene that speaks for the whole film. It's an affirmation that this man of color is now free and able to make his own decisions. The choice he made concerning his extravagantly loud outfit acts as a warning to those that plan to stand in his way—watch out, here I come, I ain't gonna be quiet no more.

And the humor the scene provides echoes the entire film—it wants us to get comfortable with our hero. Tarantino knows that a man of color makes an unconventional hero in a revenge- flick—that's why he made the film. When was the black man going to get his revenge film? It's been long overdue. With Django Unchained, that film has finally arrived and it has arrived in style. Beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, and meticulously written, it's Tarantino at his most epic.