The first screening of Quentin Tarantino's newest film
Django Unchained took place over the weekend, and while no official reviews will be up for a while (since this viewing took place under the wing of the Directors' Guild of America), the buzz on Twitter from those who got to be at the special screening (including Rian Johnson, director of this year's
Looper) has been almost uniformly outstanding. This makes the wait for its Christmas Day release even more unbearable, but not to worry! Here at WhatCulture, we've come up with a list of ten westerns that you can watch to help pass the time. These are all movies that either have some subject matter relating to
Django Unchained, are made by filmmakers influential to Tarantino, or share a similar tone (humorous and violent) to the one present in
Django Unchained.
10. Django (1966)
It seems mandatory to mention this, since it is the first movie to feature a gunslinger named Django. This movie was so popular that countless other spaghetti westerns would put the name Django in the title of their films to entice people to see them. It's that old school exploitation mindset that made Tarantino name his main character Django, but in his magical movie geek way, he also cast the actor who played Django in this original film (Franco Nero) as a cameo role in
Django Unchained. He also used the title song from this film for
Django Unchained's soundtrack, and it's definitely a catchy tune. Not to mention anything about the movie itself. It's one of the few spaghetti westerns that takes itself a little less seriously and goes for a more "comic book" vibe, making director Sergio Corbucci's
Django a bloody bit of fun. It was actually notorious for being considered one of the most violent movies of its time, which only adds to its importance in the western genre. Just wait until you see what Django is carrying in that coffin he's dragging around during the opening credits, and you'll know this is going to be a blast.