Django Trailer Breakdown
With us here at Entertainment Cocktail rather excited about Quentin Tarantino’s new flick Django Unchained - of which the trailer was released yesterday – we thought we’d give you a full shot-for-shot breakdown of exactly what you should understand from the first teaser of the film. We know quite a lot about it more than most, but we’ve kept it as spoiler-free as possible (although naturally, if you want to go in totally in the dark, close this tab!) and we’ve managed to fit in bits and pieces that you won’t be able to find without a bit of a harder look. Enjoy…
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So here’s our first look at Django (Jamie Foxx), along with a bundle of other slaves who have just been paid for at auction. You can see he’s pretty beat up – check out the gashes of a whip on his back – and he’s not particularly well groomed, with the afro that’s definitely not there for the sake of style. In fact, compared to the other fellas, he looks like he’s had more than his fair share of suffering…
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In waltzes (Christoph) Waltz, playing Dr King Shultz, an eloquent, smooth-talking and decorated bounty hunter who’s seeking the notorious Brittle Brothers, and Django is his key. “You’re exactly the one I’m looking for.” It’s gotta be for better, because Django can’t get into any worse, can he?
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But for all the articulate tongues in the world, Schultz doesn’t lack his own style of badass. Here he coolly makes light work of the two (now late) owners. He’s almost bored while it’s happening. Bodes well for the other slaves though.
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And here he announces himself. Quentin Tarantino, whose last film to grace the silver screen was the utterly brilliant and totally bonkers Inglourious Basterds back in 2009, is lavished enough as it is, with the prestigious Palm D’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival for Pulp Fiction no doubt sitting beside the countless other pieces of silverware from such critically acclaimed features as Reservoir Dogs (1992), Kill Bill vols. 1 & 2 (2003/4) and Jackie Brown (1997). He’s the king of snappy dialogue and all his films inhabit their own unique world, so his films are as unpredictable as they are a treat.
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And finally here he is, Django – unchained. Freed from his locks by Schultz, he shrugs off his cowl and sets off with the bounty hunter. Of course there’s very little trust in the relationship, but they’re both after something and they’re gonna have to learn to help each other…
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“Do you know what a bounty hunter is?” “You kill people. And they give you a reward”. Here they are in a little town where Schultz causes a ruckus by taking someone out in broad daylight, only to reveal that he’s got the warrant for his murder. The strangest thing about the scene is how he’s treating Django as if he’s another regular free white man, which causes almost as much of a stir as the dead guy in the street. “Mmm, and the badder the are, the bigger the reward.” He’s after the biggest bad, and the biggest reward.
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Here’s our first look in the trailer at the three Brittle Brothers (among others), faces hidden from view by pillowcases after one of the film’s funnier scenes. “I need your help… I don’t know what they look like. But you do…”
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…and that could be because they used to own poor Django, here seen with his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), as they’re forced to copulate for the entertainment of the brothers. That’s not all they’re forced to do, but that’s about all we’ll see before the censor’s decide it’s too much for a trailer.
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They bide their time tracking down the Brittle Brothers, starting off on low value targets before moving up to the big time. Over the year or so they travel around massively, and Django learns the trade to becoming a first-class bounty hunter himself. He’s already looking smarter then your average white man up on that horse, being treated as an equal by Schultz.
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This is the man that Django would be after – Leonardo DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie, a plantation owner with hundreds of slaves in his ‘employ’. One of them is Broomhilda, and Django ain’t none too pleased about that.
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And here’s another shot of Schultz teaching the tricks to Django, as he learns to pick off a long distance target without the aid of a scope. Prepare for a montage.
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“I like the way you die, boy.” He sure does look the part of a hardened killer now. “Kill white folks, and they pay you for it? What’s not to like?” Confidence exhuming from his every orifice and the determination of a jaded loved one, he’s now fully focused on saving the damsel in distress and bringing all kinds of thunder down on the powerful man who put her there.
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“Django. The ‘d’ is silent.” We’re ready to go. Take us to pleasure town, Mr Tarantino.
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…and in case you haven’t already seen it, here’s the trailer in it’s full, wonderful glory:
Django Unchained is released in the UK on 18 January (those lucky Americans get it a month earlier) and we may be reviewing the script in a future post, so keep watching this space!
What did you make of the trailer? Too much talking? Not a Tarantino fan? Let us know in the comments!
Ben Kahan
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