Nice story until you realize there is something sick about it.

Rating: 4/10 (23 April 2013)

I was looking forward to a great western including what I presumed would be a deservedly negative portrayal of slavery. There was a clue right in the beginning of the sickness that would come to dominate the film, but it takes a while to realize where you are being taken. So the clue: Advice from our hero to some freed slaves that they should murder their subdued captors, said with a smile.
The movie continues with a sense of joy and happiness in sadistically killing people. Two bounty hunters head off initially killing wanted men (criminals), but then it branches off into killing white southerners. When Django (one of the bounty hunters) is asked what he thinks of their task, he responds "killing white people and getting paid too, what's not to like." In the same way, perhaps early Nazis got a piece of paper from a superior authorizing them to round up men, women, and children, and have a great time killing them, this movie develops that strange sense of moral "okay" because it is written on a piece of paper. So, for example, because a warrant says dead or alive, the bounty hunters take this to mean that having-a-blast killing has now been authorized. So, instead of easily arresting a criminal, you shoot them, put them in pain, and then before a crowd, and with a smile, kill them dead.
In another great scene, as the movie slips further into its killing spree, a wanted man is plowing a field with the help of his son. So from a distance, they shoot him and listen to the horrified son say, "Oh, dad." You would think that this is somehow setting up for making a deep statement about slavery. Well, no. Our bounty hunters (one white, one former slave) eventually decide to rescue the former slave's wife. Why not just go get the wife? It seems they want a properly documented sale. Back to this notion that be it a warrant or a bill of sale, these pieces of paper are all controlling. An interesting point, but it gets lost in all the joyous killing.
One last example: Django asks a couple of female slaves to say goodbye to a southern bell, and then shoots her (along with all the other whites). I guess he was worried she might curse at him---how can Django been seen as anything other than a murdered? I had hoped for some sense of morality, of review of slavery, of a fantasy of righting some wrongs. However, the movie just wants to have fun murdering and with different reasons, setting up people to be casually executed.
It is worth noting that it was Abraham Lincoln, having witnessing the horror of all the killing, wished to purge slavery and heal the nation. The north did not send out squads to murder the southern white population in joyous revenge.
I object to presenting a movie that carries with it the message that given some basis of moral authority, you are then free to enjoy and needlessly murder to your heart's content.