74Django Unchained (2012)

The Western, Southern, revenge fantasy follows an enslaved man as he frees himself and his family, wreaking fiery havoc on all oppressors. “I wanted to tell the story as a genre movie, as an exciting adventure,” writer Quentin Tarantino told Terry Gross on Fresh Air. “I like the idea of taking stories that oftentimes, if played out in the way that they’re normally played out, just end up becoming soul-deadening, because you’re just watching victimization all the time.” With his approach, the victim becomes the action hero on an Odyssean journey, with “the grand opera stage it deserves.” With operatic levels of violence, naturally.