Django UnchainedMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 81 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

not for kids

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

100

San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle
The most consistently entertaining movie of 2012. It's 165 minutes long and shouldn't be a minute shorter, a film of surprises, both in story and in casting, and of moments of agonizing, teased-out tension. The dialogue is dazzling. Read full review
100

Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern
The film doesn't play it safe, so neither will I. Instead, I'll say that it finds Mr. Tarantino perched improbably but securely on the top of a production that's wildly extravagant, ferociously violent, ludicrously lurid and outrageously entertaining, yet also, remarkably, very much about the pernicious lunacy of racism and, yes, slavery's singular horrors. Read full review
88

Boston Globe | Wesley Morris
The movie Quentin Tarantino has written and directed is corkscrewed, inside-out, upside-down, simultaneously clear-eyed and completely out of its mind. Read full review
88

Rolling Stone | Peter Travers
Wake up, people. Tarantino lives to cross the line. Is Django Unchained too much? Damn straight. It wouldn't be Tarantino otherwise. Read full review
88

USA Today | Claudia Puig
There's an epic spaghetti Western feel to Quentin Tarantino's latest action/comedy/romance hybrid that is by turns dazzling, daring, gruesome and astonishingly funny. Read full review
80

The Hollywood Reporter | Todd McCarthy
Only Tarantino could come up with such a wild cross-cultural mash, a smorgasbord of ingredients stemming from spaghetti Westerns, German legend, historical slavery, modern rap music, proto-Ku Klux Klan fashion, an assembly of '60s and '70s character actors and a leading couple meant to be the distant forebears of blaxploitation hero John Shaft and make it not only digestible but actually pretty delicious. Read full review
80

New York Daily News | Joe Neumaier
Just when we thought Quentin Tarantino had shown us all the cojones he has, in rides Django Unchained. Read full review
67

Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman
DiCaprio, having a blast, makes Candie the equivalent of Waltz's Nazi in "Inglourious Basterds": a racist villain who mesmerizes us by elevating his ideology into a puckishly thought-out vision of the world. Yet Django isn't nearly the film that Inglourious was. Read full review
63

Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea
Is Django Unchained about race and power and the ugly side of history? Only as much as "Inglourious Basterds" was about race and power and the ugly side of history. It's a live-action, heads-exploding, shoot-'em-up cartoon. Sometimes it crackles, and sometimes it merely cracks. Read full review
60

Movieline | Alison Willmore
The film also comes across like a rough cut that was never looked at as a coherent whole, and some segments that start off as promising become interminable while others feel entirely unnecessary. There's no pressure on or expectation for Tarantino to please anyone other than himself, and the film feels overstuffed with ideas that should have been pruned. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Django Unchained on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says not for kids Tarantino's slavery tale is uneven and brutal but brilliant.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that Django Unchained comes from writer/director Quentin Tarantino, and if you've seen any of his other films, you know what that means: incredibly strong, shocking "grindhouse" violence and language. Django Unchained (which takes place in Deep South in the mid-1800s) not only features guns, shooting, killing, and spurting blood, but also horrible violence against slaves. Male slaves are forced to fight each other, breaking bones and bashing each other into a bloody pulp. A female slave is briefly tortured, and a male slave is ripped apart by dogs. The "N" word is used countless times, as are other Tarantino favorites ("f--k," etc.). There's some partial nudity (both male and female) and kissing, as well as some cigarette smoking and background drinking. The good news is that this movie takes a matter-of-fact look at slavery, which may get discussions going among older teens and families. But otherwise, this movie is very brutal and not recommended for the under-18 set.

Families can talk about Django Unchained's brutal violence. Why do you think Tarantino chose to make the violence so intense and bloody? What effect does it have on the movie overall?
How does the movie depict slavery during the pre-Civil War era? What does this movie show that other movies set during that period don't show? Do you think it's exploitative, or will it get meaningful conversations started?
Why do you think actors are attracted to these kinds of vicious roles? What's appealing about them?

The good stuff

Positive messages: On the one hand, Django Unchained looks at slavery in a matter-of-fact way -- in a way that many other American movies have avoided -- and it could get discussion going about that part of American history. But on the other hand, the movie is largely about killing and revenge, with no real redemption or lessons learned.
Positive role models: Django Unchained is populated mainly by killers and scoundrels, people who are hateful and seeking revenge or are looking out for their own interests. One character agrees to help another out of what seems to be friendship, but this small act is more or less lost in the grand scheme of brutality.

What to watch for

Violence: In addition to explosive shootouts and killings with massive quantities of spurting blood, the movie shows shocking mistreatments of slaves; male slaves are forced to fight one another, breaking bones and bashing each other to a bloody pulp, and a female slave is tortured in a "hot box" for several days. A slave is ripped apart by dogs while people watch. A man is murdered in front of his young son. Slaves are branded.
Sexy stuff: Partial nudity includes one female breast and two naked men (not full frontal, though nudity is definitely suggested). Django and his wife share a passionate kiss in one scene. There's a good deal of flirting and sexual tension and some innuendo (such as a reference to "comfort girls").
Language: Very strong language throughout includes nonstop use of the "N" word; possibly the most ever used in a high-profile film. Other words include "f--k," "motherf---er," "s--t," "p---y," "t-ts," "goddamn," "ass," "damn," "hell," "bastard," "bitch," "goddamn," "oh my God," and more.
Consumerism: Not an issue
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Adult characters smoke cigarettes in a background way. The two main characters sip at two beers in a saloon. Characters drink stronger alcohol in a social setting.

Common Sense Media An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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