Django Unchained

by Matt Slick

Django Unchained is a stylistic modern spaghetti Western, intermixed with contemporary music, over-the-top gun fights, and the phrase "yeah right" thrown in a few times for good measure.  It's violent, moderately paced, and racially charged.  Set two years before the beginning of the Civil War, it's the story of a bounty hunter (Christopher Waltz) who buys a slave (Jame Foxx) in order to use him to identify three wanted men so he can collect the bounty.  The two become friends, and after catching lots of bad guys they eventually embark on a journey to free Django's wife who was sold years earlier.  They hatch a plan, but it doesn't go smoothly and a lot of mahem ensues in the form gun-fire, killing, flying blood, gruesome fight scenes, and plenty of displays of white-powered-calousness.  Is it enjoyable?  Yes and no, depending on how much violence is too much.  It is very well acted and violent.  Did I say that it was violent already?  The f-bomb is thrown around liberally, but not nearly as much as the "N" word.  There's a brief scene where a woman is naked, but it isn't a gratuitous voyeuristic effort.  Also Django's genetalia are visible in another scene where he is hanging upside down, naked.

Django Unchained dives into the cruelty of American slavery and condemns it by revealing it.  We witness firsthand the brutality and moral callousness of so many slave owners entrenched in the social setting of bigotry and racial inequality.  Through it all, Django entertains, makes us squirm, and gives us something to think about.