Part spaghetti western, part slavery/vengeance pic and all Quentin Tarantino, the first trailer for "Django Unchained" has arrived and it's everything you could ask for and expect from the filmmaker.
You already know what it's about. Jamie Foxx stars as Django, a slave freed by the bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz, played by Christoph Waltz, who trains the man and then accompanies him on a journey to track down his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), who is being held by the sadistic plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). The Weinsteins are selling this as The New Film By Quentin Tarantino — one of the few helmers who is a brand name too — and it has everything that title implies. Mixing brutal violence with a caustic wit, and an exaggerated sense of reality, those looking for a "Roots" style story, best head somewhere else. This is slavery and westerns through the Tarantino prism, and if you're already a fan of the filmmaker this likely doesn't disappoint.
Cast wise, everyone looks uniformly strong, with DiCaprio standing out as the sneering villain and Foxx nicely commanding the title role with some charisma to spare. This is basically an edit of the ten minutes of footage we saw at the Cannes Film Festival and unfortunately, you'll have to wait to see Don Johnson, who slayed in the reel that played. But enough talk — "Django Unchained" opens on Christmas Day. Watch below.