Django Unchained, you had my curiosity. But now you have my attention.

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2013)

Well it's been approximately 39.5 hours since I experienced Tarantino's latest offering and I have not been able to shut up about it.
After feeling a touch let down with Tarantino's previous wonderfully titled Inglorious Basterds, I decided to completely erase any negative opinions/thoughts I held with his prior work *cough Kill Bill Vol 2 cough* and to just enjoy the ride and boy did I.
Sitting back in my premiere seat and consuming most of my popcorn during the trailers, a tingling burst of excitement ran up my spine as the opening scene began. I found myself slowly placing my popcorn on the ground, eyes fixated on the screen as the 'Django' song blasted through the cinema! The story of Django is one of pain, love and revenge. Django (Jamie Foxx) a former slave is freed by dentist turned bounty hunter Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and taken under his wing on a bloody mission to settle one bounty that could change both of their lives. On the basis that the bounty is settled, Shultz promises Django his freedom and more importantly to help him find his wife who has been taken and sold as a slave to the vile Calvin Candie (Leonardo Dicaprio). The bounty in question requires the heads of three men, three brothers in fact, the Brittle brothers.
Now before I saw the movie I was led to believe that the story of the Brittle brothers was the main focus of the film, watching the trailers and so forth. This isn't necessarily true, actually this particular part of the story ended pretty quickly, which perhaps was a little disappointing but enjoyable nonetheless.
The second part of the movie introduces Mr Calvin Candie a ruthless and quite honestly nasty piece of work, played as well as possible by Mr Dicaprio, even his southern accent wasn't that bad *Thumbs up* mucho better than his attempt at being a native of Zimbabwe. This being the most important mission for Django to date, he and Shultz devise a plan to buy his wife Broomhilda from Candie with a proposition too good to refuse. Of course, it doesn't go entirely according to plan as the suspicions of one gentleman in particular cause a great deal of anger and stress for Candie. This gentleman being Stephen (Samuel L Jackson), the head slave of the plantation, which by the way is brilliantly named Candyland. Stephen soon realises that in fact the two bounty hunters are here for Broomhilda and will not leave empty handed. What follows is a great deal of guns, blood, carnage and down right muthaf*ckin mayhem!
I found the movie to be an absolutely brilliant watch, so much emotion and heartache mixed with enough brutality to keep even the gore whore's out there happy. Focusing a great deal on slavery and the abuse African Americans were put through during this dreadful time, really opens your eyes to a period that many people seem to have forgotten about. I for one found myself researching slavery and really learning about a difficult era that is still visible in society today. The 'N' word is used, I'd say around 500 kazillion times throughout the movie, which can be a little uncomfortable to hear but it was the way black people were wrongly referred to at that time so I think Tarantino did what was relevant and realistic for the period he wanted to portray. Another item I found very uncomfortable watching was a scene involving dogs and one unfortunate soul . . .rarely have I covered my eyes in vomit inducing disgust, well unless Kristen Stewart is on screen :p
Highly recommended and an early favourite for film of the year BUT we are only in January peeps!!