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(Clockwise from
far left) Foxx; Foxx,
Leonardo DiCaprio,
and Waltz; Kerry
Washington and
Samuel L. Jackson;
Washington

Keep in mind: An exhausted Quentin Tarantino, even at 49 and
a long way from his wunderkind years, is still as energetic as a
regular person would be after two strong coffees. And he's char-
acteristically enthusiastic about his new film: a spaghetti Western silent. To a degree, Tarantino understands the response. "There
transposed to the antebellum South that follows a slave (Jamie is no setup for Django, for what we're trying to do. Truthfully,
Foxx) who teams up with German bounty hunter King Schultz some people are going to respond badly to the film, and maybe
(Christoph Waltz) to rescue Django's wife (Kerry Washington) they'll blame me, and I guess that's fair enough," he says, looking
from the clutches of noxious plantation owner Calvin Candie, genuinely pained. "No one likes to be misunderstood. It's a drag."
played by Leonardo DiCaprio in his first truly villainous role. Still, others will love it for its refusal to wear kid gloves, and
(See review, page 50.) It's a Tarantino experiment through and for the way Foxx's Django becomes the hero of his own story.
through, and comes three years after Basterds earned eight Oscar "Look, there will be people who are glad at the way the film
nominations and more than $320 million worldwide, cementing shines a light on what it does, and the fact that it doesn't hold
his place as one of the few filmmakers whose name alone is a box back about slavery," says Samuel L. Jackson, who plays
office draw. But while his previous film's cavalier historical revi- Stephen, Candie's head slave, a character the actor predicts
sionism lifted a few eyebrows, Django's up-front depiction of the will become "the most hated Negro in cinematic history" for
brutal horrors of slavery is likely to raise some serious hackles. his rabid defense of the hierarchical status quo. ''And there will
With rare exceptions like ABC's landmark 1977 miniseries be people who will be upset that every other word that comes
Roots, Hollywood has seldom dealt with America's original sin out of.our mouths is n-----. But I don't see that as a bad thing.
head-on. So Tarantino knows that his film-which features Isn't the problem that we haven't been talking about this stuff?"
liberal, if era-appropriate, use of the N-word-is all but guaran-
teed to spark controversy. After one of Django's first screenings JANGO IS Tarantino's first Western, but only
in New York City earlier this month, an African-American 0
technically. His love of the genre has infused his
woman stood up and, visibly distraught, told Tarantino she was previous films with Mexican standoffs, Sergio
horrified by what she had just seen. A few others voiced their Leone-style close-ups, and climactic showdowns.
agreement with her, although most in the audience remained The idea to do a "Southern" came to him post-Basterds, while he

December 21, 2012 EW.COM I 27