Taking place in a pre-Civil War Deep South, we follow Django Freeman, an ex-slave turned bounty hunter played by Jamie Foxx, and his German mentor Dr King Schultz, played by Cristoph Waltz. The film is divided into three parts: It initially follows Dr Schultz as he buys Django to help him find the Brittle Brothers, then goes on to show Shultz take Django on as his protege. The main story involves Schultz helping Django rescue his wife Broomhilda von Shaft from Calvin Candie, a ruthless plantation owner played by Leonardo DiCaprio. So, it's a pretty long film.
Both Jamie Foxx and Cristoph Waltz give great performances, especially Waltz. The best scene is when he shoots the sheriff in the town they're in, and then gives himself up to the marshal - in the process revealing the sheriff's identity as a criminal and requesting the bounty.
The main story can get pretty tense as Django and Schultz deal with Candie and his head house slave Stephen, played by Samuel L Jackson. Candie presents himself as charming and affable, but he is an utterly horrible person, while Stephen is a lot more cunning than he presents himself to be. The tension arises not from whether or not Stephen will see through their scheme, but whether Candie becomes so unbearable that they give themselves away.
Of course, there is a lot of gratuitous violence (it was directed by Quentin Tarantino after all), with a lot of inappropriate language. The anti-slavery message conjures up a lot of unpleasant imagery with this, but it certainly doesn't sugar-coat it.
All in all, the film is a combination of Blazing Saddles and The Wild Bunch.
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