Django Unchained (2012) - Tarantino's gutsy, colorful 'Southern'

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+ Best Western of the Year

The potent, black-white-and-red poster for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained

Django is a slave, who has been sold away from his wife Broomhilda. He is now bought free from a strange, German bounty hunter; together they are to kill wanted men and find and rescue Broomhilda!

Django Unchained is not quite like any other film. It is like a modern piece of blaxploitation, but in epic length (165 minutes), which is justified by the film having a mission which the majority of the old spaghetti westerns it pays homage to didn't: Unchained entertains while exposing slavery as the epitome of depravity that it was.
The film is technically astute, with unusual musical choices and first-class performances from several cast members: Oscar-winning Christoph Waltz (Carnage (2011)), who, however, is perhaps just being himself, more or less; Kerry Washington (Scandal (2012-15)) is stunning; Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wold of Wall Street (2013)) is formidable; Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction (1994)) has probably never been better than he is here as the ultra-low slave handler Stephen; and Jamie Foxx (Ray (2004)) just is Django!
The film also has fun cameos and overly bloody shoot-outs, which may appeal more to some than master writer-director Quentin Tarantino's (Reservoir Dogs (1992)) beautiful dialogs that also elevate the film. He won the Best Screenplay Oscar for his work here.
Django Unchained is a filthy, undeniably still a bit overlong raised middle finger to racism and slavery.

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Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 100 mil. $
Box office: 425.4 mil. $
= Big hit
[Unchained is Tarantino's highest-grossing film to date. It was shot in 130 days in California, Wyoming and Louisiana. Its premiere was moved a couple of weeks due to the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting, so Unchained came out on Christmas Day. It was criticized for its violence, handling of slavery and use of the f-word, but became a huge crowd-pleaser anyway, grossing 162.8 mil. $ (38 % of the total gross) in North America, following a 30.6 mil. $ first weekend. It is Tarantino's first film that was approved by the Chinese authorities for release in the country. Besides the two Oscars for Tarantino and Waltz, Unchained was also nominated for Best Picture, Cinematography and Sound Editing. Additionally, the sale of DVD and Blurays of the film has accrued more than 62.2 mil. $ in North America alone.]

What do you think of Django Unchained?

Django, Prepare a Coffin/Preparati la Bara!/Prepare a Coffin!/Viva Django/Django/Get the Coffin Ready/Django Get a Coffin Ready/Django Sees Red (1968) - Baldi and Terence Hill see red

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Gunfight from a coffin here on the gritty-cool poster for Ferdinando Baldi's Django, Prepare a Coffin

QUICK REVIEW:

Django's wife gets shot in a hold-up, where he was transporting gold. By freeing innocently sentenced by the gallows, the widowed Django then gathers a gang that is going to carry out vengeance towards the corrupt governor. - But also within the gang there is a rotten apple; SPOILER the Indian García (José Torres (Death Rides a Horse/Da Uomo a Uomo (1966)) steals and murders!

In the end, SPOILER Django gets his revenge in the film's best scene, in which he shoots the governor and his whole gang with a Gatlin gun, hidden in a coffin.
In Coffin, co-written by co-writer/director Ferdinando Baldi (Suicide Mission to Singapore/Goldsnake 'Anonima Killers' (1966)) and Franco Rossetti (Crazy Westerners/Little Rita nel West (1967)), nearly everyone is a crook, safe for, of course, Django (Terence Hill (My Name Is Nobody/Il Mio Nome è Nessuno (1973))), and perhaps it is especially this, that Django is deserted again and again, that makes the film a little long to get through. Slightly dull.
The film doesn't lack fistfights, and the restored copy is handsome to look at. Coffin is filmed in the classic Italian style of the period by cinematographer Enzo Barboni (Vengeance of the Vikings/Erik il Vichingo (1965)).

Terence Hill behind his machine gun in Ferdinando Baldi's Django, Prepare a Coffin

Watch an original trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[The film follows Sergio Corbucci's classic Django (1966), which started a wave of reportedly over 30 unofficial sequels without the original's director or star Franco Nero. Baldi's film was, actually supposed to have Nero back as Django, but that didn't ultimately pan out. Coffin is also noteworthy for its title song You'd Better Smile by Nicola Di Bari, which was later sampled for Gnarls Barkley's worldwide hit Crazy (2005).]

What do you think of Django, Prepare a Coffin?