''Django Unchained'' () is a 2012 American
revisionist Western
The revisionist Western (also called the anti-Western, sometimes revisionist antiwestern) is a sub-genre of the Western film. Designated a post-classical variation of the traditional Western, the revisionist subverts the myth and romance of th ...
film written and directed by
Quentin Tarantino, starring
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He became widely known for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film ''Ray'', for which he won the A ...
,
Christoph Waltz,
Leonardo DiCaprio,
Kerry Washington, and
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer. One of the most widely recognized actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him ...
, with
Walton Goggins
Walton Sanders Goggins Jr. (born November 10, 1971) is an American actor. He has starred in a number of television series, including ''The Shield'' (2002–2008), '' Justified'' (2010–2015), '' Vice Principals'' (2016–2017), ''The Righteous ...
,
Dennis Christopher
Dennis Christopher (born Dennis Carrelli; December 2, 1955) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' Fade to Black'' (1980), '' Chariots of Fire'' (1981), '' It'' (1990) and ''Django Unchained'' (201 ...
,
James Remar
William James Remar (born December 31, 1953) is an American actor. He has played numerous roles over a 40 year career, most notably Ajax in '' The Warriors'' (1979), Albert Ganz in ''48 Hrs.'' (1982), Dutch Schultz in '' The Cotton Club'' (1984 ...
,
Michael Parks
Michael Parks (born Harry Samuel Parks; April 24, 1940 – May 9, 2017) was an American singer and actor. He appeared in many films and made frequent television appearances, notably starring in the 1969–1970 series '' Then Came Bronson'', but ...
, and
Don Johnson
Donnie Wayne Johnson (born December 15, 1949) is an American actor, producer and singer. He played the role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s television series ''Miami Vice'', for which he won a Golden Globe, and received a Primetime Emm ...
in supporting roles. Set in the
Old West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
and
Antebellum South, it is a highly stylized, heavily revisionist tribute to
Spaghetti Westerns, in particular the 1966 Italian film ''
Django'' by
Sergio Corbucci (the star of which,
Franco Nero
Francesco Clemente Giuseppe Sparanero (born 23 November 1941), known professionally as Franco Nero, is an Italian actor, producer, and director. His breakthrough role was as the title character in the Spaghetti Western film '' Django'' (1966), ...
, has a
cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...
). The story follows a black slave who trains under a German bounty hunter, with the ultimate goal of reuniting with his long-lost wife.
Development of ''Django Unchained'' began in 2007 when Tarantino was writing a book on Corbucci. By April 2011, Tarantino sent his final draft of the script to
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America pri ...
. Casting began in the summer of 2011, with
Michael K. Williams
Michael Kenneth Williams (November 22, 1966 – September 6, 2021) was an American actor. He rose to fame in 2002 through his critically acclaimed role as Omar Little on the HBO drama series ''The Wire''. He has been described as a "singular pr ...
and
Will Smith
Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom '' The Fresh ...
being considered for the role of the title character before Foxx was cast. Principal photography took place from November 2011 to March 2012 in California, Wyoming, and Louisiana.
The premiere of ''Django Unchained'' took place at the
Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 11, 2012, and was theatrically released on December 25, 2012, in the United States, grossing over $425 million worldwide against its $100 million budget, becoming Tarantino's highest-grossing movie to date. The film received acclaim from critics, mainly for Waltz's performance and Tarantino's direction and screenplay, though the film's usage of the word "
nigger
In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
" and its depiction of violence drew controversy. The film received numerous
awards and nominations
An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration.
An award ...
, winning two out of five nominations at the
85th Academy Awards. Waltz won several awards for his performance, among them
Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards,
Golden Globes and
BAFTAs. For his screenplay, Tarantino won an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, a
Golden Globe, and a
BAFTA.
Plot
In 1858
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, brothers Ace and Dicky Speck drive a group of shackled
black slaves
The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
on foot. Among them is Django, sold off and separated from his wife von Shaft, a
house slave
A house slave was a slave who worked, and often lived, in the house of the slave-owner, performing domestic labor. House slaves performed largely the same duties as all domestic workers throughout history, such as cooking, cleaning, serving meals, ...
who speaks
German and English. They are stopped by Dr. King Schultz, a German
dentist-turned-
bounty hunter
A bounty hunter is a private agent working for bail bonds who captures fugitives or criminals for a commission or bounty. The occupation, officially known as bail enforcement agent, or fugitive recovery agent, has traditionally operated outsid ...
seeking to buy Django for his knowledge of the three outlaw Brittle brothers, overseers at the
plantation of Django's previous owner and for whom Schultz has a
warrant. When Ace refuses to sell Django to Schultz and levels his gun at him, Schultz kills him and shoots Dicky's horse in order to pin him to the ground. Schultz insists on paying a fair price for Django before leaving the other slaves to kill Dicky. Schultz offers Django his freedom and $75 in exchange for help tracking down the Brittles.
Django and Schultz kill the Brittle brothers at Spencer "Big Daddy" Bennett's
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
plantation. Bennett lets Django and Schultz leave due to the warrant, but later tries attacking them with a posse. Schultz ambushes the posse with explosives and Django kills Bennett. Feeling responsible for Django, Schultz agrees to help him find and rescue . They return to Texas where Django collects his first bounty, keeping the
handbill
A flyer (or flier) is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in a public place, handed out to individuals or sent through the mail. In the 2010s, flyers range from inexpensively photocopi ...
as a memento. He and Schultz rack up several bounties before spring, when they travel to
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
and learn that 's new owner is Calvin J. Candie, the charming but cruel owner of the Candyland plantation, where slaves are forced to wrestle to the death in brutal "
Mandingo" fights. Schultz and Django hatch a plan: deciding that Candie will price Broomhilda beyond their reach if they try to buy her upfront, they will instead offer for one of his best fighters as a pretext to acquiring Broomhilda for a nominal sum. They meet Candie at his gentlemen's club and make the offer. Intrigued, Candie invites them to Candyland. En route, the group encounters Candie's
slave trackers who have cornered D'Artagnan, an escapee Mandingo fighter. Schultz attempts to save him, but Django intervenes to prevent him from blowing their cover. Candie has the trackers' dogs maul D'Artagnan to death, visibly upsetting Schultz.
Having told of their plan, Schultz offers to buy her as his escort while negotiating the initial deal during dinner. Candie's staunchly loyal and suspicious head
house slave
A house slave was a slave who worked, and often lived, in the house of the slave-owner, performing domestic labor. House slaves performed largely the same duties as all domestic workers throughout history, such as cooking, cleaning, serving meals, ...
Stephen realizes that knows Django, deduces their plan and alerts Candie. Candie alters the deal at gunpoint to sell Broomhilda for $12,000 instead of the fighter; Schultz reluctantly agrees. During the sale's finalization, Candie threatens to kill Broomhilda if Schultz does not
shake his hand to seal the deal. Having had enough of Candie's arrogance, Schultz shoots and kills Candie. Butch Pooch, Candie's bodyguard, kills Schultz, and Django kills Pooch, Candie's lawyer Leonide Moguy, and several of Candie's henchmen, but is forced to surrender when is taken
hostage
A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or refr ...
.
The next morning, the chained Django is tortured and about to be
castrated
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharmac ...
by Candie's henchman Billy Crash when Stephen arrives, informing him that Candie's sister Lara, who has taken charge of the plantation, has ordered him to be sold to a mining company and worked to death. En route there, Django devises an escape plan and uses his first handbill to prove to his escorts that he is a bounty hunter. He falsely says the men on the handbill are at Candyland and promises the escorts a share of the reward money. Once released, Django kills his escorts and returns to Candyland with
dynamite. Recovering 's freedom papers from Schultz's corpse, Django bids him goodbye and avenges him and D'Artagnan by killing the trackers, and frees just as Candie's mourners return from his burial. At the mansion, Django kills Lara, Crash and the remaining henchmen, releases the two remaining house slaves, and
kneecaps Stephen before igniting the dynamite he had planted throughout the mansion. Stephen manically screams that Django could never have it in him to destroy Candyland, before the dynamite explodes and blows him and the house into pieces. Django and Broomhilda watch it whilst he smokes, and then they both leave.
Cast
*
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He became widely known for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film ''Ray'', for which he won the A ...
as Django Freeman. Django is loosely based on
Dangerfield Newby
Dangerfield F. Newby (c. 1820 – October 17, 1859), described as a "huge mulatto", was the oldest of John Brown's raiders, one of the five black raiders. He died during Brown's raid on the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
Life
As was ...
.
*
Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz
*
Leonardo DiCaprio as "Monsieur" Calvin J. Candie
*
Kerry Washington as "Hildi" von Shaft
*
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and producer. One of the most widely recognized actors of his generation, the films in which he has appeared have collectively grossed over $27 billion worldwide, making him ...
as Stephen Warren
*
Walton Goggins
Walton Sanders Goggins Jr. (born November 10, 1971) is an American actor. He has starred in a number of television series, including ''The Shield'' (2002–2008), '' Justified'' (2010–2015), '' Vice Principals'' (2016–2017), ''The Righteous ...
as Billy Crash
*
Dennis Christopher
Dennis Christopher (born Dennis Carrelli; December 2, 1955) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' Fade to Black'' (1980), '' Chariots of Fire'' (1981), '' It'' (1990) and ''Django Unchained'' (201 ...
as Leonide "Leo" Moguy
*
James Remar
William James Remar (born December 31, 1953) is an American actor. He has played numerous roles over a 40 year career, most notably Ajax in '' The Warriors'' (1979), Albert Ganz in ''48 Hrs.'' (1982), Dutch Schultz in '' The Cotton Club'' (1984 ...
as Butch Pooch / Ace Speck
*
David Steen as Mr. Stonecipher
*
Dana Gourrier
Dana Michelle Gourrier is an American actress, known for her roles as Cora in the film ''Django Unchained'' (2012), and as Minnie Mink in ''The Hateful Eight'' (2015), both directed by Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born Ma ...
as Cora
* Nichole Galicia as Sheba
*
Laura Cayouette as Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwilly
*
Ato Essandoh
Ato Essilfi Bracato Essandoh (born July 29, 1972) is an American television and film actor.
Early life
Essandoh was born in Schenectady, New York to Ghanaian parents and graduated from New Rochelle High School in 1990. He received a B.S. in ch ...
as D'Artagnan
*
Sammi Rotibi as Rodney
* Clay Donahue Fontenot as Luigi
* Escalante Lundy as Big Fred
* Miriam F. Glover as Betina
*
Don Johnson
Donnie Wayne Johnson (born December 15, 1949) is an American actor, producer and singer. He played the role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s television series ''Miami Vice'', for which he won a Golden Globe, and received a Primetime Emm ...
as Spencer "Big Daddy" Bennett
*
Franco Nero
Francesco Clemente Giuseppe Sparanero (born 23 November 1941), known professionally as Franco Nero, is an Italian actor, producer, and director. His breakthrough role was as the title character in the Spaghetti Western film '' Django'' (1966), ...
as Amerigo Vessepi
Other roles include
James Russo
James Vincent Russo (born April 23, 1953) is an American film and television actor. He has appeared in over 150 films in three decades.
Early life
Russo was born in New York City, New York, to an Italian father and German mother. A graduate of t ...
as Dicky Speck, brother of Ace Speck and erstwhile owner of Django.
Tom Wopat
Thomas Steven Wopat (born September 9, 1951) is an American actor and singer. He first achieved fame as Lucas K. "Luke" Duke on the long-running television action/comedy series ''The Dukes of Hazzard''. Since then, Wopat has worked regularly, ...
,
Omar J. Dorsey
Omar J. Dorsey (born December 22, 1975) is an American actor. He has appeared in films '' The Blind Side'' (2009), ''Django Unchained'' (2012), and '' Selma'' (2014) playing James Orange. In 2016, Dorsey began starring as Hollingsworth "Holly ...
and
Don Stroud
Donald Lee Stroud (born September 1, 1943) is an American actor, musician, and surfer. Stroud has appeared in over 100 films and 200 television shows.
Early years
Stroud was the son of vaudeville actor Clarence Stroud (of "The Stroud Twins" team ...
play
U.S. Marshal
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforce ...
Gill Tatum, Chicken Charlie and as Sheriff Bill Sharp respectively.
Bruce Dern appears as Old Man Carrucan, the owner of the Carrucan Plantation.
M. C. Gainey,
Cooper Huckabee and Doc Duhame portray brothers Big John Brittle, Roger "Lil Raj" Brittle and Ellis Brittle respectively, overseers of both Carrucan and Big Daddy's plantations.
Jonah Hill plays Bag Head #2, a member of Bennett's masked
white supremacist group. Additional roles include
Lee Horsley as Sheriff Gus,
Rex Linn
Rex Maynard Linn (born November 13, 1956) is an American film and television actor. He is best known domestically for playing the role of Sgt. Frank Tripp in the CBS drama ''CSI: Miami'' and more recently for playing Kevin Wachtell in the televi ...
as Tennessee Harry,
Misty Upham as Minnie and
Danièle Watts as Coco.
Russ Tamblyn
Russell Irving Tamblyn, also known as Rusty Tamblyn (born December 30, 1934) is an American film and television actor and dancer.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Tamblyn trained as a gymnast in his youth. He began his career as a child actor f ...
and his daughter
Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In ...
appear as townspeople in Daugherty, Texas; their roles are respectively credited as "
Son of a Gunfighter" and "Daughter of Son of a Gunfighter".
Zoë Bell
Zoë E. Bell (born November 17, 1978) is a New Zealand stuntwoman and actress. Some of her most notable stunt-work includes doubling for Lucy Lawless in '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' and for Uma Thurman in ''Kill Bill''.
As an actress, Bell has a ...
,
Michael Bowen,
Robert Carradine
Robert Reed Carradine ( ; born March 24, 1954) is an American actor. A member of the Carradine family, he made his first appearances on television Western series such as ''Bonanza'' and his brother David's TV series, '' Kung Fu''. Carradine's fi ...
,
Jake Garber
Jake Garber (born April 16, 1965) is an American make-up artist who has done over 140 movies and television shows. For films he is most known for movies such as '' Star Trek: First Contact'', ''Scream 3'', ''Ghosts of Mars'', ''Kill Bill'', ''Hul ...
,
Ted Neeley
Teddie Joe "Ted" Neeley (born September 20, 1943) is an American singer, actor, musician, composer, and record producer. He is known for portraying the title role in ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' (1973), a role for which he was nominated for two Gol ...
,
James Parks, and
Tom Savini
Thomas Vincent Savini (born November 3, 1946) is an American prosthetic makeup artist, actor, stunt performer and film director. He is known for his makeup and special effects work on many films directed by George A. Romero, including ''Martin' ...
play Candyland trackers.
Jacky Ido, who played Marcel in Tarantino's ''
Inglourious Basterds
''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an altern ...
'', makes an uncredited appearance as a slave.
Michael Parks
Michael Parks (born Harry Samuel Parks; April 24, 1940 – May 9, 2017) was an American singer and actor. He appeared in many films and made frequent television appearances, notably starring in the 1969–1970 series '' Then Came Bronson'', but ...
as Roy and
John Jarratt
John Jarratt is an Australian television film actor, producer and director and TV presenter who rose to fame through his work in the Australian New Wave. He has appeared in a number of film roles including '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (1975), ' ...
as Floyd, alongside Tarantino himself in a
cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...
as Frankie, play the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company employees. Tarantino also appears in the film as a masked Bag Head named Robert.
Production
Development
In 2007, Tarantino discussed an idea for a type of
Spaghetti Western set in the United States' pre-Civil War
Deep South. He called this type of film "a Southern", stating that he wanted: Tarantino later explained the genesis of the idea:
Tarantino finished the script on April 26, 2011, and handed in the final draft to
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America pri ...
. In October 2012, frequent Tarantino collaborator
RZA said that he and Tarantino had intended to
cross over ''Django Unchained'' with RZA's Tarantino-presented martial-arts film ''
The Man with the Iron Fists
''The Man with the Iron Fists'' is a 2012 American martial arts film directed by RZA and written by RZA and Eli Roth. The film stars RZA, Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, Rick Yune, Dave Bautista, and Jamie Chung. Set in 19th cen ...
.'' The crossover would have seen a younger version of the blacksmith character from RZA's film appear as a slave in an auction. However, scheduling conflicts prevented RZA's participation.
One inspiration for the film is Corbucci's 1966 Spaghetti Western ''
Django'', whose star
Franco Nero
Francesco Clemente Giuseppe Sparanero (born 23 November 1941), known professionally as Franco Nero, is an Italian actor, producer, and director. His breakthrough role was as the title character in the Spaghetti Western film '' Django'' (1966), ...
has a cameo appearance in ''Django Unchained''. Another inspiration is the 1975 film ''
Mandingo'', about a slave trained to fight other slaves.
Tarantino included scenes in the snow as a homage to ''
The Great Silence''.
"''Silenzio'' takes place in the snow. I liked the action in the snow so much, ''Django Unchained'' has a big snow section in the middle," Tarantino said in an interview.
Tarantino credits the character and attitude of the German dentist turned bounty hunter King Schultz to the German Karl May Wild West films of the 1960s, namely their hero Old Shatterhand.
The title ''Django Unchained'' alludes to the titles of the 1966 Corbucci film ''Django''; ''
Hercules Unchained'', the American title for the 1959 Italian epic fantasy film ''Ercole e la regina di Lidia,'' about the mythical hero's escape from enslavement to a wicked master; and to ''
Angel Unchained'', the 1970 American biker film about a biker exacting revenge on a large group of
rednecks.
Casting
Among those considered for the title role of Django,
Michael K. Williams
Michael Kenneth Williams (November 22, 1966 – September 6, 2021) was an American actor. He rose to fame in 2002 through his critically acclaimed role as Omar Little on the HBO drama series ''The Wire''. He has been described as a "singular pr ...
and
Will Smith
Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom '' The Fresh ...
were mentioned as possibilities, but in the end
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He became widely known for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film ''Ray'', for which he won the A ...
was cast in the role.
Smith later said he turned down the role because it "wasn't the lead".
Tyrese Gibson
Tyrese Darnell Gibson (born December 30, 1978) is an American actor and singer. He released his self-titled debut album in 1998, which featured the single " Sweet Lady", peaking at number twelve on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100. His second ...
sent in an audition tape as the character.
Franco Nero
Francesco Clemente Giuseppe Sparanero (born 23 November 1941), known professionally as Franco Nero, is an Italian actor, producer, and director. His breakthrough role was as the title character in the Spaghetti Western film '' Django'' (1966), ...
, the original Django from the
1966 Italian film, was rumored for the role of Calvin Candie,
but instead was given a cameo appearance as a minor character. Nero suggested that he play a mysterious horseman who haunts Django in visions and is revealed in an ending flashback to be Django's father; Tarantino opted not to use the idea.
Kevin Costner was in negotiations to join as Ace Woody,
a Mandingo trainer and Candie's right-hand man, but Costner dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
Kurt Russell was cast instead
but also later left the role. When Kurt Russell dropped out, the role of Ace Woody was not recast; instead, the character was merged with
Walton Goggins
Walton Sanders Goggins Jr. (born November 10, 1971) is an American actor. He has starred in a number of television series, including ''The Shield'' (2002–2008), '' Justified'' (2010–2015), '' Vice Principals'' (2016–2017), ''The Righteous ...
's character, Billy Crash.
Jonah Hill was offered the role of Scotty Harmony, a gambler who loses to Candie in a poker game,
but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with ''
The Watch.''
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Noam Baron Cohen (born 13 October 1971) is an English actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral ...
was also offered the role, but declined in order to appear in ''
Les Misérables''. Neither Scotty nor the poker game appear in the final cut of the film.
Hill later appeared in the film in a different role.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt said that he "would have loved, loved to have" been in the film but would be unable to appear because of a prior commitment to direct his first film, ''
Don Jon.''
Costume design
In a January 2013 interview with ''
Vanity Fair'', costume designer
Sharen Davis said much of the film's wardrobe was inspired by spaghetti westerns and other works of art. For Django's wardrobe, Davis and Tarantino watched the television series ''
Bonanza'' and referred to it frequently. The pair even hired the hatmaker who designed the hat worn by the ''Bonanza'' character Little Joe, played by
Michael Landon. Davis described Django's look as a "rock-n-roll take on the character". Django's sunglasses were inspired by
Charles Bronson's character in ''
The White Buffalo
''The White Buffalo'' is a 1977 fantasy Western film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Charles Bronson, Kim Novak, Jack Warden, Slim Pickens and Will Sampson.
Plot
Wild Bill Hickok is haunted by his dreams of a giant white buffal ...
'' (1977). Davis used
Thomas Gainsborough
Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 (baptised) – 2 August 1788) was an English portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. Along with his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds, he is considered one of the most important British artists of ...
's 1770 oil painting ''
The Blue Boy'' as a reference for Django's valet outfit.
In the final scene, wears a dress similar to that of
Ida Galli
Ida Galli is an Italian film actress best known for her roles in Spaghetti Western and giallo films in the 1960s and 1970s. Galli has appeared under several pseudonyms, including Arianna, Evelyn Stewart and Isli Oberon.
Extremely prolific, som ...
's character in ''
Blood for a Silver Dollar'' (1965). Davis said the idea of Calvin Candie's costume came partly from
Rhett Butler
Rhett Butler (Born in 1828) is a fictional character in the 1936 novel '' Gone with the Wind'' by Margaret Mitchell and in the 1939 film adaptation of the same name. It is one of Clark Gable's most recognizable and significant roles.
Role
Rh ...
, and that Don Johnson's signature ''
Miami Vice
''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, two M ...
'' look inspired Big Daddy's cream-colored linen suit in the film. King Schultz's faux chinchilla coat was inspired by
Telly Savalas
Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas (January 21, 1922 – January 22, 1994) was an American actor and singer whose career spanned four decades. Noted for his bald head and deep, resonant voice, he is perhaps best known for portraying Lt. Theo Kojak on th ...
in ''
Kojak
''Kojak'' is an American action crime drama television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theodopolis "Theo" Kojak. Taking the time slot of the popular ''Cannon'' series, ...
''. Davis also revealed that many of her costume ideas did not make the final cut of the film, leaving some unexplained characters such as Zoë Bell's tracker, who was intended to drop her bandana to reveal an absent jaw.
Filming
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...
for ''Django Unchained'' started in California in November 2011 continuing in Wyoming in February 2012 and at the National Historic Landmark
Evergreen Plantation in
Wallace, Louisiana, outside of
, in March 2012. The film was shot in the
anamorphic format
Anamorphic format is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio. It also refers to the projection format in which a distorted ...
on
35 mm film. Although originally scripted, a sub-plot centering on Zoë Bell's masked tracker was cut, and remained unfilmed, due to time constraints. After 130 shooting days, the film wrapped up principal photography in July 2012.
''Django Unchained'' was the first Tarantino film not edited by
Sally Menke, who died in 2010. Editing duties were instead handled by
Fred Raskin, who had worked as an assistant editor on Tarantino's ''
Kill Bill''. Raskin was nominated for a
BAFTA Award for Best Editing
This is a list of winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing, which is presented to film editors, given out by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts since 1968.
The film-voting members of the Academy select the five nomi ...
but lost to
William Goldenberg for his work on ''
Argo''.
Kerry Washington sought to bring authenticity to her performance in several ways. The actor playing her overseer used a fake whip, but Washington insisted the lashings really hit her back. And to dramatize her punishment inside an underground, coffin-size metal container, she and Tarantino agreed she would spend time barely clothed in the "hot box" before the filming began so the feeling of confinement would be as realistic as possible.
Broken glass incident
During the scene when DiCaprio's character explains
phrenology, DiCaprio cut his left hand upon striking the table and smashing a small glass. Despite his hand profusely bleeding, DiCaprio barely reacted and remained in character under the astonished eyes of his fellow actors. He is seen taking out pieces of broken glass from his hand during the scene. After Tarantino's cut, there was a standing ovation by the other actors to praise DiCaprio's performance despite the incident; Tarantino therefore decided to keep this sequence in the final cut. DiCaprio is seen with his left hand bandaged in the scene after when he is signing Broomhilda's papers. Contrary to popular belief, DiCaprio wiped fake blood on Washington's face in a separate take.
Music
The film features both original and existing music tracks. Tracks composed specifically for the film include "100 Black Coffins" by
Rick Ross and produced by and featuring Jamie Foxx, "Who Did That To You?" by
John Legend
John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and record producer. He began his musical career by working behind the scenes, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's " Eve ...
, "Ancora Qui" by
Ennio Morricone and
Elisa, and "Freedom" by
Anthony Hamilton and
Elayna Boynton.
The theme, "Django", was also the theme song of the 1966 film. Musician
Frank Ocean wrote an original song for the film's soundtrack, but it was rejected by Tarantino, who explained that "Ocean wrote a fantastic ballad that was truly lovely and poetic in every way, but there just wasn't a scene for it." Ocean later published the song, entitled "Wiseman", on his
Tumblr blog. The film also features a few famous pieces of
western classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" ...
, including
Beethoven's "
Für Elise
Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor ( WoO59, Bia515) for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" (, ), is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions. It was not published during his lifetime, only being discovered (by Ludwig Nohl) 40 ye ...
" and "Dies Irae" from
Verdi's Requiem. Tarantino has stated that he avoids using full scores of original music: "I just don't like the idea of giving that much power to anybody on one of my movies." The film's soundtrack album was released on December 18, 2012.
Morricone made statements criticizing Tarantino's use of his music in ''Django Unchained'' and stated that he would "never work" with the director after this film, but later agreed to compose an original film score for Tarantino's ''
The Hateful Eight
''The Hateful Eight'' (sometimes marketed as ''The H8ful Eight'' or ''The Hateful 8'') is a 2015 American Western mystery thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leig ...
'' in 2015. In a scholarly essay on the film's music,
Hollis Robbins notes that the vast majority of film music borrowings come from films made between 1966 and 1974 and argues that the political and musical resonances of these allusions situate ''Django Unchained'' squarely in the Vietnam and Watergate era, during the rise and decline of Black Power cinema.
Jim Croce
James Joseph Croce (; January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973) was an American folk and rock singer-songwriter. Between 1966 and 1973, he released five studio albums and numerous singles. During this period, Croce took a series of odd jobs to p ...
's hit "
I Got a Name" was featured in the soundtrack.
Release
Marketing
The first teaser poster was inspired by a fan-art poster by Italian artist Federico Mancosu. His artwork was published in May 2011, a few days after the synopsis and the official title were released to the public. In August 2011, at Tarantino's request, the production companies bought the concept artwork from Mancosu to use for promotional purposes as well as on the crew passes and clothing for staff during filming.
Theatrical run
''Django Unchained'' was released on December 25, 2012, in the United States by
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America pri ...
and released on January 18, 2013, by
Sony Pictures Releasing in the United Kingdom.
The film was screened for the first time at the
Directors Guild of America on December 1, 2012, with additional screening events having been held for critics leading up to the film's wide release. The premiere of ''Django Unchained'' was delayed by one week following
the shooting at an elementary school in
Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012.
The film was released on March 22, 2013, by Sony Pictures in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. In March 2013, ''Django Unchained'' was announced to be the first Tarantino film approved for official distribution in
China's
strictly controlled film market. Lily Kuo, writing for ''
Quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...
'', wrote that "the film depicts one of America's darker periods, when slavery was legal, which Chinese officials like to use to push back against criticism from the United States". The film was released in China on May 12, 2013.
Home media
The film was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
,
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
, and Digital Download on April 16, 2013. In the United States, the film has grossed $31,939,733 from DVD sales and $30,286,838 from Blu-ray sales, making a total of $62,226,571.
Reception
Box office
''Django Unchained'' grossed $162.8 million in the United States and Canada and $262.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $425.4 million, against a production budget of $100 million.
, ''Django Unchained'' is Tarantino's highest-grossing film, surpassing his 2009 film ''
Inglourious Basterds
''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an altern ...
'', which grossed $321.4 million worldwide.
In North America, the film made $15 million on Christmas Day, finishing second behind fellow opener ''
Les Misérables''. It was the third-biggest opening day figure for a film on Christmas, following ''
Sherlock Holmes'' ($24.6 million) and ''Les Misérables'' ($18.1 million). It went on to make $30.1 million in its opening weekend (a six-day total of $63.4 million), finishing second behind holdover ''
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey''.
Critical response
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 87% based on 291 reviews, and an average rating of 8.00/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Bold, bloody, and stylistically daring, ''Django Unchained'' is another incendiary masterpiece from Quentin Tarantino."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a rating to reviews, gives the film a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...
'' gave the film four stars out of four and said: "The film offers one
sensational sequence after another, all set around these two intriguing characters who seem opposites but share pragmatic, financial and personal issues." Ebert also added, "had I not been prevented from seeing it sooner because of an injury, this would have been on my year's best films list."
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''.
Early life and education
Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...
, film critic for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', awarded the film five stars, writing: "I can only say ''Django'' delivers, wholesale, that particular narcotic and delirious pleasure that Tarantino still knows how to confect in the cinema, something to do with the manipulation of surfaces. It's as unwholesome, deplorable and delicious as a forbidden cigarette."
Writing in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', critic
A. O. Scott compared ''Django'' to Tarantino's earlier ''
Inglourious Basterds
''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an altern ...
'': "Like ''Inglourious Basterds'', ''Django Unchained'' is crazily entertaining, brazenly irresponsible and also ethically serious in a way that is entirely consistent with its playfulness." Designating the film a ''Times'' "critics" pick, Scott said ''Django'' is "a troubling and important movie about slavery and racism." Filmmaker
Michael Moore praised ''Django'', tweeting that the movie "is one of the best film satires ever."
To the contrary,
Owen Gleiberman, film critic for the ''Entertainment Weekly'', wrote: "''Django'' isn't nearly the film that ''Inglourious'' was. It's less clever, and it doesn't have enough major characters – or enough of Tarantino's trademark structural ingenuity – to earn its two-hour-and-45-minute running time." In his review for the ''Indy Week'', David Fellerath wrote: "''Django Unchained'' shows signs that Tarantino did little research beyond repeated viewings of Sergio Corbucci's 1966 spaghetti Western
''Django'' and a blaxploitation from 1975 called ''
Boss Nigger
''Boss Nigger'' (also known as simply ''Boss'' and ''The Black Bounty Killer'') is a 1975 blaxploitation Western film directed by Jack Arnold, and stars former football player Fred Williamson, who both wrote and co-produced. ''Boss Nigger'' i ...
'', written by and starring
Fred Williamson."
''New Yorker''s
Anthony Lane
Anthony Lane is a British journalist who is a film critic for ''The New Yorker'' magazine.
Career Education and early career
Lane attended Sherborne School and graduated with a degree in English from Trinity College, Cambridge, where he also ...
was "disturbed by their
arantino's fans'yelps of triumphant laughter, at the screening I attended, as a white woman was blown away by Django's guns."
An entire issue of the academic journal ''Safundi'' was devoted to ''Django Unchained'' in "''Django Unchained and the Global Western''," featuring scholars who contextualize Tarantino's film as a classic "western". Dana Phillips writes: "Tarantino's film is immensely entertaining, not despite but because it is so very audacious—even, at times, downright lurid, thanks to its treatment of slavery, race relations, and that staple of the Western, violence. No doubt these are matters that another director would have handled more delicately, and with less stylistic excess, than Tarantino, who has never been bashful. Another director also would have been less willing to proclaim his film the first in a new genre, the 'Southern'."
Top ten lists
''Django Unchained'' was listed on many critics' top ten lists of 2012.
* 1st – Amy Nicholson, ''
Movieline''
* 2nd –
Mick LaSalle
Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form ( hypocorism) of Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a derogatory term for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia the meaning broad ...
, ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
''
* 2nd – Drew McWeeny, ''
Hitfix
HitFix, or HitFix.com, was an entertainment news website that launched in December 2008 specializing in breaking entertainment news, insider information, and reviews and critiques of film, music, and television. In mid-2010 HitFix crossed the 1,00 ...
''
* 2nd – Michelle Orange, ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
''
* 2nd –
Nathan Rabin, ''
The A.V. Club''
* 2nd – Betsy Sharkey, ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' (tied with ''
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincol ...
'')
* 3rd – Richard Jameson, ''
MSN Movies
MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95.
The Microsof ...
''
* 3rd – Alan Scherstuhl, ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
''
* 4th – Mark Mohan, ''
The Oregonian
''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...
''
* 4th – Joe Neumaier, ''
New York Daily News''
* 4th – James Rocchi, ''
MSN Movies
MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95.
The Microsof ...
''
* 4th – Kristopher Tapley, ''
HitFix
HitFix, or HitFix.com, was an entertainment news website that launched in December 2008 specializing in breaking entertainment news, insider information, and reviews and critiques of film, music, and television. In mid-2010 HitFix crossed the 1,00 ...
''
* 4th – Drew Taylor &
Caryn James
Caryn A. James (born Caryn A. Fuoroli) is an American film critic, journalist, university lecturer and writer.
Biography
James is one of at least three children born to James M. Fuoroli Sr. and Joan A. Ford. A native of Providence, Rhode Isla ...
, ''
Indiewire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
''
* 5th - ''
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
''
* 5th – David Ehrlich, ''
Movies.com''
* 5th – Scott Foundas, ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
''
* 5th –
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Mor ...
, ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
''
* 6th –
James Berardinelli, ''Reelviews''
* 6th – Lisa Kennedy, ''
Denver Post
''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...
''
* 6th – Kat Murphy, ''
MSN Movies
MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95.
The Microsof ...
''
* 6th –
Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...
, ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...
''
* 6th – Mike Scott, ''
The Times-Picayune
''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of ...
''
* 7th – Drew Hunt, ''
Chicago Reader''
* 7th –
A.O. Scott, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''
* 8th –
Ty Burr
Ty Burr (born August 17, 1957) is an American film critic, columnist, and author who currently writes a film and popular culture newsletter "Ty Burr's Watchlist" on Substack. Burr previously served as film critic at ''The Boston Globe'' for two ...
, ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
''
* 9th –
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy (born February 16, 1950) is an American film critic and author. He wrote for '' Variety'' for 31 years as its chief film critic until 2010. In October of that year, he joined ''The Hollywood Reporter'', where he subsequently served ...
, ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
''
* 10th –
Karina Longworth, ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
''
* 10th – Joshua Rothkopf, ''
Time Out New York''
* 10th – Marlow Stern, ''
The Daily Beast
''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008.
It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
''
* 10th –
Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
, ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
''
* Top 10 (ranked alphabetically) – Claudia Puig, ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
''
* Top 10 (ranked alphabetically) –
Joe Williams, ''
St. Louis Post-Dispatch''
* Top 10 (ranked alphabetically) –
Stephanie Zacharek
Stephanie Zacharek is an American film critic at ''Time'', based in New York City. From 2013 to 2015, she was the principal film critic for ''The Village Voice''. She was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist in criticism.
Early life
Stephanie Zachare ...
, ''
Film.com''
Accolades
''Django Unchained'' garnered several awards and nominations. The
American Film Institute named it one of their Top Ten Movies of the Year in December 2012. The film received five
Golden Globe Award nominations, including
Best Picture
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
, and
Best Director and
Best Screenplay for Tarantino. Tarantino won an
Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Christoph Waltz received the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the
BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor
Best Actor in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film Award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film. Actors of all n ...
, his second time receiving all three awards, having previously won for his role in Tarantino's ''
Inglourious Basterds
''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an altern ...
''.
The
NAACP Image Awards gave the film four nominations, while the
National Board of Review
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...
named DiCaprio their
Best Supporting Actor. ''Django Unchained'' earned a nomination for
Best Theatrical Motion Picture from the
Producers Guild of America
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 8,000 members of the producing establishment w ...
.
Controversy
Racist language, portrayal of African American slavery
Some commentators thought that the film's heavy usage of the word "
nigger
In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
" is inappropriate, affecting them to an even greater extent than the depicted violence against the slaves.
Other reviewers have defended the usage of the language in the historical context of race and slavery in the United States.
African-American filmmaker
Spike Lee, in an interview with ''
Vibe
''Vibe'' is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producers David Salzman and Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down producti ...
'', said he would not see the film, explaining "All I'm going to say is that it's disrespectful to my ancestors. That's just me ... I'm not speaking on behalf of anybody else." Lee later wrote, "American slavery was not a
Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It was a
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
. My ancestors are slaves stolen from Africa. I will honor them."
Actor and activist
Jesse Williams has contrasted accuracy of the racist language used in the film with what he sees as the film's lack of accuracy about the general lives of slaves, too often portrayed as "well-dressed Negresses in flowing gowns, frolicking on swings and enjoying leisurely strolls through the grounds, as if the setting is Versailles, mixed in with occasional acts of barbarism against slaves ... That authenticity card that Tarantino uses to buy all those 'niggers' has an awfully selective memory."
He also criticizes the lack of solidarity between slave characters, and their general lack of a will to escape from slavery, with Django as the notable exception.
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Mor ...
of ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' compared Samuel L. Jackson's Stephen character to black Republicans like
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall and has served since 1 ...
or
Herman Cain. Jackson said that he believed his character to have "the same moral compass as Clarence Thomas does". Jackson defended heavy use of the word "nigger": "Saying Tarantino said 'nigger' too many times is like complaining they said '
kyke'
ictoo many times in a movie about Nazis." The review by Jesse Williams notes, however, that these antisemitic terms were not used nearly as frequently in Tarantino's film about Nazis, ''
Inglourious Basterds
''Inglourious Basterds'' is a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger and Mélanie Laurent. The film tells an altern ...
'', suggesting the Jewish community would not have accepted it.
Marc Lamont Hill, a professor at
Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...
, compared the fugitive ex–Los Angeles police officer
Christopher Dorner to a real-life Django, saying "It's almost like watching 'Django Unchained' in real life. It's kind of exciting." Writing in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'', journalist Erin Aubry Kaplan noted the difference between Tarantino's ''
Jackie Brown
''Jackie Brown'' is a 1997 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, based on Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel '' Rum Punch.'' It stars Pam Grier as Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who is caught smuggling money. Samuel L. Jac ...
'' and ''Django Unchained'': "It is an institution whose horrors need no exaggerating, yet ''Django'' does exactly that, either to enlighten or entertain. A white director slinging around the n-word in a homage to '70s
blaxploitation à la ''Jackie Brown'' is one thing, but the same director turning the savageness of slavery into pulp fiction is quite another."
While hosting NBC's ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...
'', Jamie Foxx joked about being excited "to kill all the white people in the movie". Conservative columnist
Jeff Kuhner wrote a reaction to the ''SNL'' skit for ''
The Washington Times'', saying: "Anti-white bigotry has become embedded in our postmodern culture. Take ''Django Unchained''. The movie boils down to one central theme: the white man as devil—a moral scourge who must be eradicated like a lethal virus."
Samuel L. Jackson told ''Vogue Man'' that "''Django Unchained'' was a harder and more detailed exploration of what the slavery experience was than ''
12 Years a Slave
''Twelve Years a Slave'' is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and written by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York state, details himself being tricked to go to Washington, D.C. ...
'', but director
Steve McQueen is an artist and since he's respected for making supposedly art films, it's held in higher esteem than ''Django'', because that was basically a
blaxploitation movie."
Use of violence
Some reviews criticized the movie for being too
violent
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...
. The originally planned premiere of ''Django'' was postponed following the
Sandy Hook school shooting on December 14, 2012.
Thomas Frank
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the ...
criticized the film's use of violence as follows:
Not surprisingly, Quentin Tarantino has lately become the focus for this sort of criticism (about the relationship between the movies and acts of violence). The fact that ''Django Unchained'' arrived in theaters right around the time of the Sandy Hook massacre didn't help. Yet he has refused to give an inch in discussing the link between movie violence and real life. Obviously I don't think one has to do with the other. Movies are about make-believe. It's about imagination. Part of the thing is trying to create a realistic experience, but we are faking it. Is it possible that anyone in our cynical world credits a self-serving sophistry like this? Of course an industry under fire will claim that its hands are clean, just as the NRA has done – and of course a favorite son, be it Tarantino or LaPierre, can be counted on to make the claim louder than anyone else. But do they really believe that imaginative expression is without consequence?
''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' said the movie was part of "the new sadism in cinema" and added, "There is something disconcerting about sitting in a crowded cinema as an audience guffaws at the latest
garroting or falls about in hysterics as someone is beheaded or has a limb lopped off".
Adam Serwer from ''
Mother Jones
Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...
'' said, "''Django'', like many Tarantino films, also has been criticized as cartoonishly violent, but it is only so when Django is killing slave owners and overseers. The violence against slaves is always appropriately terrifying. This, if nothing else, puts ''Django'' in the running for Tarantino's best film, the first one in which he discovers violence as horror rather than just spectacle. When Schultz turns his head away from a slave being torn apart by dogs, Django explains to Calvin Candie—the plantation owner played by Leo DiCaprio—that Schultz just isn't used to Americans."
Historical inaccuracies
Although Tarantino has said about Mandingo fighting, "I was always aware those things existed", there is no definitive historical evidence that slave owners ever staged
gladiator-like fights to the death between male slaves like the fight depicted in the movie.
Historian
Edna Greene Medford notes that there are only undocumented rumors that such fights took place. David Blight, the director of Yale's center for the study of slavery, said it was not a matter of moral or ethical reservations that prevented slave owners from pitting slaves against each other in combat, but rather economic self-interest: slave owners would not have wanted to put their substantial financial investments at risk in gladiatorial battles.
The non-historical term "Mandingo" for a fine fighting or breeding slave comes not from Tarantino, but the 1975 film ''
''Mandingo'''' which was itself based on a
1957 novel with the same title.
Writing in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'',
William Jelani Cobb observed that Tarantino's occasional historical elasticity sometimes worked to the film's advantage. "There are moments," Cobb wrote, "where this convex history works brilliantly, like when Tarantino depicts the
Ku Klux Klan a decade prior to its actual formation in order to thoroughly ridicule its members' veiled racism." However, Tarantino holds that the masked marauders depicted in the film were not the KKK, but a group known as "The Regulators". They were depicted as spiritual forebears of the later post-civil war KKK and not as the actual KKK.
On the matter of historical accuracy,
Christopher Caldwell wrote in the ''Financial Times'': "Of course, we must not mistake a feature film for a public television documentary", pointing out that the film should be treated as entertainment, not as a historical account of the period it is set in. "''Django'' uses slavery the way a pornographic film might use a nurses' convention: as a pretext for what is really meant to entertain us. What is really meant to entertain us in ''Django'' is violence."
Richard Brody, however, wrote in ''The New Yorker'' that Tarantino's "vision of slavery's monstrosity is historically accurate.... Tarantino rightly depicts slavery as no mere administrative ownership but a grievous and monstrous infliction of cruelty."
Alleged copyright infringement
In December 2015, a $100 million lawsuit was filed against Tarantino by filmmakers Oscar Colvin Jr. and Torrance J. Colvin, who claimed that the script for ''Django Unchained'' bears extensive similarities to their film, titled ''Freedom''. The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in
Washington, DC. On January 24, 2017, the lawsuit was dismissed.
Comic book adaptations
A comic book adaptation of ''Django Unchained'' was released by
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
in 2013. In 2015, a sequel
crossover comic entitled ''Django''/''
Zorro
Zorro ( Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante w ...
'' was released by
Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publisher founded by Nick Barrucci in 2004 at Mount Laurel, New Jersey. It is best known as the owners of '' The Boys'' franchise across several IP medias. Dynamite primarily publishes adaptations ...
, co-written by Tarantino and
Matt Wagner, the latter being the first comic book sequel to a
Quentin Tarantino film.
Future
Proposed miniseries
Tarantino has said in an interview that he has 90 minutes of unused material and considered re-editing ''Django Unchained'' into a four-hour, four-night cable
miniseries. Tarantino said that breaking the story into four parts would be more satisfying to audiences than a four-hour movie: "... it wouldn't be an endurance test. It would be a miniseries. And people love those."
Potential crossover sequel
Tarantino’s first attempt at a ''Django Unchained'' sequel was with the unpublished paperback novel titled ''Django in White Hell''. However, after Tarantino decided that the tone of the developing story did not fit with the character's morals, he began re-writing it as an original screenplay which later became the director’s follow-up film, ''
The Hateful Eight
''The Hateful Eight'' (sometimes marketed as ''The H8ful Eight'' or ''The Hateful 8'') is a 2015 American Western mystery thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leig ...
''.
In June 2019, Tarantino had picked
Jerrod Carmichael to co-write a film adaptation based on the ''Django/Zorro'' crossover comic book series. Tarantino and
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He became widely known for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film ''Ray'', for which he won the A ...
have both expressed interest in having
Antonio Banderas reprise his role as
Zorro
Zorro ( Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante w ...
from ''
The Mask of Zorro
''The Mask of Zorro'' is a 1998 American swashbuckler film based on the character of the masked vigilante Zorro created by Johnston McCulley. It was directed by Martin Campbell and stars Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-J ...
'' and ''
The Legend of Zorro
''The Legend of Zorro'' is a 2005 American Western swashbuckler film directed by Martin Campbell, produced by Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Lloyd Phillips, with music by James Horner, and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. ...
'' in the film in addition to Foxx himself reprising his role as Django.
See also
*
List of films featuring slavery
*
Damsel in distress
*
Quentin Tarantino filmography
*
Revisionist Western
The revisionist Western (also called the anti-Western, sometimes revisionist antiwestern) is a sub-genre of the Western film. Designated a post-classical variation of the traditional Western, the revisionist subverts the myth and romance of th ...
References
External links
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