By JOSHUA LEONARD (digitalBURG) –

A throwback to Sergio Leone-style Spaghetti Westerns, “Django Unchained” captures the look and feel of the Clint Eastwood classic Western. Quentin Tarantino captivates his audience once again through his mesmerizing dialogue and characters and made “Django Unchained” an instant classic.

Already nominated for five Academy Awards, including best film, “Django Unchained” stars Jamie Foxx (Django) as a slave who is saved by a German bounty hunter by the name of Dr. King Shultz (played by Christophe Waltz; who was in “Inglorious Basterds”). Shultz befriends Django, trains him as a bounty hunter, and they band together, taking out one outlaw after the other.

The main plot revolves around Django wanting to find his wife, Broomhilda (played by Kerry Washington), save her, and live a free life. Broomhilda is owned by a ruthless rich plantation owner named Calvin Candie (played by Leonardo DiCaprio). It is up to Django and Shultz to rescue Broomhilda and take out Candie once and for all.

“Django Unchained” has some of the best dialogue and character development I have ever seen in cinema. DiCaprio’s performance is like always – through the roof, and he legitimately was an intimidating and scary character to see on screen. DiCaprio’s right-hand man in the film, played by Samuel L. Jackson, also brought his A-game. It is hard to decipher which of the two was more evil. The acting all around was superb.

The movie had more comedic scenes than I expected; but that only helped the film. There is even a cameo appearance by Franco Nero, who played Django in the movie, “Django” (“Django Unchained” is loosely based off this film) that was released back in 1966.

Western fan or not, I would recommend watching “Django Unchained” over the holidays. I will warn you, however, there are a lot of racial slurs toward African-Americans and gratuitous violence in the film. Tarantino attempted to cultivate the feeling of how the use of words, the way people talked and interacted, back in 1855. If you can get past those two aspects (which I did), “Django Unchained” is an all-around good flick, and I recommend giving it a watch.