It was only a matter of time before Quentin Tarantino would get his hands on a Western. With its combination of pulp and high drama in a lawless setting, one might go so far as to argue that most of the director’s work owes some debt to the genre; the vigilante figures of Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield cast a long shadow. The release of Django Unchained just precedes that of Steven Spielberg’s examination of the man behind the 13th Amendment, in Lincoln, and the two stories concerning slavery could not be more different.

Travelling across Texas in 1858, bounty hunter Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) purchases a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) who can point out to him three nefarious nasties wanted by the law. In return, Django earns his freedom and enlists Schultz’s help in freeing his wife (Kerry Washington) from the ownership of cruel and temperamental plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). The pair are immediately suspicious, especially to Candie’s butler (an almost unrecognisable Samuel L. Jackson), and not just because they spurn the conventions of racial segregation and ownership.

Waltz simply feeds off Tarantino’s exposition, his embodiment of the moustache-twirling “dentist” always teetering on the edge of camp. As a far more classic hero figure, Foxx sometimes needs to pull in the opposite direction, grounding the film’s plot, even if it does render his character a lot less interesting.

In the antagonist’s quarter, the fascinating aspect of DiCaprio’s delicious Candie is that his humour functions on the same level as Schultz’s, the two constantly vying to out-charm the other. ­The latter does have the added and unsettling affinities for cruelty that variously involve Mandingo fighting, hammers, and fierce dogs.

­This sort of juxtaposition is inherent in all of Tarantino’s films and he certainly does not disappoint here. ­The film is stylish and macabre, entertaining and disgusting, often displaying all four in the space of minutes.

In response to some of the criticism the film has received it can be said that, unlike in the frankly less-than-stellar Inglorious Basterds, this is not so much re-writing history as pointing out some of the idiosyncrasies of the pre-Civil War West. In turn, do not make the mistake of looking for a serious message where there isn’t one; Tarantino makes films to tickle our sides, nothing more, although he may be deliberately trying to attract controversy. ­

That is not to say, however, that one should airily wave away Django Unchained’s mud and barbarity in light of its entertainment value – don’t forget that Monty Python did more for the portrayal of the Middle Ages than any Robin Hood film ever could. Tarantino’s script–both in terms of narrative and dialogue–is nowhere near as inventive or as downright cool as those that launched his career. 

Nevertheless, the end product is undeniably entertaining, with fantastic performances and enough references and cameos to keep even the most arduous of fans content.