Django Unchained (2012)
★★★★★ — Django Unchained (2012)
Quentin Tarantino's seventh feature arrived in December 2012 on the back of Inglourious Basterds (2009), which had itself revisited the revisionist-history formula he'd return to again with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Django Unchained is a Southern Gothic spaghetti western of sorts, drawing loosely on the long tradition of Italian Django pictures (the 1966 Sergio Corbucci original being the most obvious reference point) while setting its story against American antebellum slavery. Produced through The Weinstein Company and Columbia Pictures on a $100 million budget, it was a considerable commercial gamble on an unapologetically violent, nearly three-hour film tackling deeply uncomfortable historical territory. It returned over $425 million worldwide. Christoph Waltz, fresh from his Oscar win for Basterds, reunited with Tarantino, while Leonardo DiCaprio took his first turn as a villain in a major studio picture.
Peak Tarantino. One of the greatest films ever made. Easily in my top 10 of all time. Ennio Morricone’s haunting, operatic touches in the soundtrack are absolutely perfect. The explosive, action and sometimes hard to watch gore are NEEDED. The dialogue is sharpened to a razor’s edge. And the performances from the ensemble cast are all unreal. There is absolutely ZERO weakness in this movie. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers the best work of his career as the vile yet endlessly watchable Calvin Candie, as did Christoph Waltz as King Schultz, somehow making one of the most violent bounty hunters in cinema history seem like your favourite eccentric uncle. Jamie Foxx was a great casting choice here and I honestly can't think it could have been cast better. I’ve gone back and forth so many times with an almost sacrilegious question.... Do I prefer this to Pulp Fiction? I honestly don’t know. But what I do know is that Django Unchained is one of the most satisfying, stylish, and straight-up masterful films I’ve ever seen.
Rating: ★★★★★ | Year: 2012 | Watched: 2025-04-02
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Quentin Tarantino: Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) · Inglourious Basterds (2009) · Pulp Fiction (1994) · Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More western: The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) · Rio Bravo (1959) · Ride Lonesome (1959) · The Great Train Robbery (1903)
