The Director's Series: Quentin Tarantino, No. 4


Throughout 2025 I'm turning my focus to Directors. They help craft the vision on screen that makes a movie work. This year I'm looking at five favorite films from 18 directors I admire and 10 films directed by different women that I have enjoyed. Join me Fridays and Saturdays throughout 2025 as we take this journey.

Django Unchained (2012)
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Quentin Tarantino
About: There is a phase in Tarantino's work where we got a big, Third Act bloodbath. That was certainly the case with my last selection, and it's the case here. This has a wild ending that is nothing short of a blood bath. But what helps this stand out a bit more for me is some of what comes before it. DiCaprio is great in the part, and I enjoy Jackson in that Third Act. But it's about the friendship and partnership between Waltz and Foxx. They playoff off each other well here, and I like a lot of the way this film is put together. It's a tough subject and it's certainly tough to sit through at times, but there's some good craft to the film and some fine performances. I like a lot of the dialogue and the way the sequences are shot as well.

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