Django Unchained is certainly Quentin Tarantino's most commercially-successful film & is arguably also his most controversial Fellow director Spike Lee has denounced the representation of race & slavery in the film while many African American writers have defended the white auteur The use of extremely graphic violence in the film even by Tarantino's standards at a time when gun control is being hotly debated has sparked further controversy & has led to angry outbursts by the director himself Moreover Django Unchained has become a popular culture phenomenon with t-shirts highly contentious action figures posters & strong DVDBlu Ray sales The topic (slavery & revenge) the setting (a few years before the Civil War) the intentionally provocative generic roots (Spaghetti Western & Blaxploitation) & the many intertexts & references (to German & French culture) demand a thorough examination Befitting such a complex film the essays collected here represent a diverse group of scholars who examine Django Unchained from many perspectives