Writing on Film - Article 2 - Django Unchained

My second article for my Writing on Film class at Edinburgh University was a review of the Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained. The review had to be roughly 250 words. The article is below:

Django Unchained Review

The main theme of Django Unchained is revenge and this is presented within the context of the slave trade in pre-civil war Mississippi. The deep American South is very much a back drop as two Bounty Hunters - Django (Jamie Foxx) and Dr Schultz (Christoph Waltz), travel the outposts and slave plantations looking for outlaws. Django is not your average bounty hunter, he is a black man given freedom by Schultz and hired as an assistant.

Schultz is ruthless and prefers to take his victims dead, as opposed to alive, however he is very much a forward thinking liberal. Schultz has joined forces with Django to free the former slave's wife from slave traders, whilst capturing a group of outlaws.

Taking its major influence from Spaghetti Westerns, Django Unchained presents the viewer with an atypical perspective on the slave trade. We see the story from the viewpoint of Django as he endeavours to find justice within a prejudice society. The intriguing elements of the movie occur when Django has the upper hand and finds himself with power and respect. This creates a effective method to present a fantastic take on a story of power and ignorance.