Django Unchained

Django Unchained (/ˈdʒæŋɡoʊ/) is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Produced by Tarantino's A Band Apart and Columbia Pictures, it stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson; Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar, Michael Parks, and Don Johnson also star in supporting roles. The film, set in the Antebellum South and Old West, is a highly stylized, revisionist tribute to spaghetti Westerns. Its title refers particularly to the 1966 Italian film Django by Sergio Corbucci (that film's star, Franco Nero, has a cameo appearance in Tarantino's). The story follows a slave who trains under a German bounty hunter with the ultimate goal of reuniting with his 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 (TWC). Casting began in the summer of 2011, with Michael K. Williams and Will Smith 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.

Django Unchained premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 11, 2012, and was theatrically released by The Weinstein Company on December 25, in the United States, with Sony Pictures Releasing handling international distribution. It was a commercial success, grossing $426 million worldwide against a $100 million budget, becoming Tarantino's highest-grossing film to date. The film received acclaim from critics, mainly for Waltz's & Dicaprio's performance and Tarantino's direction and screenplay.

The film's extensive graphic violence and frequent use of racial slurs were controversial. The film received numerous awards and nominations, 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, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA.

In 1858 Texas, several male African American slaves are being 'driven' by the Speck Brothers, Ace and Dicky. Among the shackled slaves is Django, sold off and separated from his wife, Broomhilda. The Speck Brothers are stopped by Dr. King Schultz, a German ex-dentist and bounty hunter from Düsseldorf. Schultz asks to buy one of the slaves, but while questioning Django about his knowledge of the Brittle Brothers, for whom Schultz is carrying a warrant, he irritates Ace who aims his shotgun at Schultz. Schultz quickly kills Ace and leaves Dicky at the mercy of the other newly freed slaves, who kill him. Since Django can identify the Brittle Brothers, Schultz offers Django his freedom in exchange for his help in tracking them down. After executing the Brittles, Django partners with Schultz through the winter and becomes his apprentice. Schultz discovers Django's natural ability with a gun. Schultz explains that, being the first person he has ever given freedom to, he feels responsible for Django and is driven to help him in his quest to rescue Broomhilda.

Django, now fully trained, collects his first bounty, keeping the handbill as a good luck charm. In Mississippi, Schultz uncovers the identity of Broomhilda's owner: Calvin Candie, the charming but brutal owner of the Candyland plantation, where slaves are forced to fight to the death in wrestling matches called "Mandingo fights." Schultz, expecting Candie will not sell Broomhilda if they ask for her directly, plots to feign interest in purchasing one of Candie's prized fighters, offer to purchase Broomhilda on the side for a reasonable sum, then take her and escape before the Mandingo deal is finalized. Schultz and Django meet Candie at his gentleman's club in Greenville and submit their offer. His greed tickled, Candie invites them to Candyland. After secretly briefing Broomhilda on the plan, Schultz claims to be charmed by the German-speaking Broomhilda and offers to buy her after arranging to buy a fighting slave.

During dinner, Candie's staunchly loyal house slave, Stephen, becomes suspicious. Deducing that Django and Broomhilda know each other and that the sale of the Mandingo fighter is just a misdirection, Stephen alerts and privately admonishes Candie on his greed. Candie is humiliated at being fooled by a black man, but he contains his anger long enough to theatrically display his knowledge of phrenology which he uses to justify white superiority and black inferiority. Candie's bodyguard suddenly bursts into the room with his shotgun trained on the two bounty hunters, and Candie furiously threatening to kill Broomhilda. He extorts Schultz for the complete bid amount, and taunts him by demanding a formal handshake to finalize the deal before he leaves. Schultz fatally shoots Candie with a concealed derringer. He apologizes to Django before Candie's henchman kills him. Django grabs a revolver and, after a shootout in the house's foyer, is forced to surrender when Broomhilda is taken hostage at gunpoint.

The next morning, Stephen tells Django that he will be sold to a mine where he will be worked to death. En route to the mine, Django proves to his dim-witted Australian escorts that he is a bounty hunter by showing them the handbill from his first kill. He convinces them that there is a large bounty for outlaws who are hiding at Candyland, and promises that they would receive the majority of the money. The escorts release him and give him a pistol, and he kills them before stealing a horse and leaving for Candyland.

Upon returning to the plantation, Django kills more of Candie's henchmen. He takes Broomhilda's freedom papers from Schultz's pocket and frees her from a nearby cabin. When Candie's mourners return from his burial, Django kills Candie's few remaining henchmen and his sister Lara, releases the two remaining house slaves, and kneecaps Stephen. Django ignites dynamite that he has planted throughout the mansion. He and Broomhilda watch from a distance as the mansion explodes, killing Stephen, before riding off together.

Other roles include: James Russo as Dicky Speck, brother of Ace Speck and erstwhile owner of Django; Tom Wopat, Omar J. Dorsey, and Don Stroud play U.S. Marshal Gill Tatum, Chicken Charlie, and as Sheriff Bill Sharp / Willard Peck 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 as Tennessee Harry, Misty Upham as Minnie, and Danièle Watts as Coco. Russ Tamblyn and his daughter Amber 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, Michael Bowen, Robert Carradine, Jake Garber, Ted Neeley, James Parks, and Tom Savini play Candyland trackers. Jacky Ido, who played Marcel in Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, makes an uncredited appearance as a slave. Michael Parks as Roy and John Jarratt as Floyd, alongside Tarantino himself in a cameo appearance as Frankie, play the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company employees. Tarantino also appears in the film as a masked Bag Head named Robert.

In 2007, Quentin 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. 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 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 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 1968 film 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.

Among those considered for the title role of Django, Michael K. Williams and Will Smith were mentioned as possibilities, but in the end Jamie Foxx was cast in the role. Smith later said he turned down the role because it "wasn't the lead" and was "not for me," but stated he thought the movie was brilliant. Tyrese Gibson sent in an audition tape as the character. Franco Nero, 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's character, Billy Crash.