10 Most Brutal Movie Beatings

8. Django Unchained

Like Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino has produced some of the most memorable scenes of onscreen savagery. Indeed, it's difficult to settle on just the one. There's the part in Reservoir Dogs in which Mr Blonde ties up and tortures a terrified cop. There's the bit in Kill Bill Vol. 1 wherein The Bride repeatedly slams a heavy hospital door into Buck's head. And there's the 'Bear Jew scene' from Inglourious Basterds... but I think we've had enough baseball bats for now (it is three strikes and you're out, after all). And so we turn to his most recent work, where we arrive at the compound of plantation owner Calvin Candie (a devilish Leonardo Dicaprio); a man who entertains his guests, and himself, with a nice spot of ''mandingo fighting'' by the fire. For the uninitiated, the spectacle sees two slaves fight each other to the death, purely for no other purpose than the owner's amusement and for no other prize than the survivor to be declared the winner. And although the guests may avert their gaze, the audience are denied such a privilege. Instead, the camera follows this bloodsport to the very end. The slaves' grunts and screams fill the air, with the impact of every punch reducing their bruised bodies to sandbags. Bones break, ribs crunch - and the finishing blow is certainly not for the squeamish. While lacking the visceral shock of the Narrator (Edward Norton) beating Angel Face (Jared Leto) into a bloody pulp in FightClub, this scene is made all the more uncomfortable by the basic, bottom-line fact that we're watching a white man forcing two black men to give their lives for his pleasure.