There’s been a lot of speculation about Quentin Tarantino’s new film Django Unchained and after Cannes audiences were treated to a preview the first batch of reviews are in.

The film has been shrouded in a fair amount of negative press with not one but five of the original cast members – including Sacha Baron Cohen, Jonah Hill, Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell and Joseph Gordon-Levitt – leaving the film during filming. While many of the actors sited scheduling clashes for their reason for departure it is widely believed that the films controversial subject matter and violent content was what drove the actors away.

Just yesterday audiences at Cannes Film Festival were shown some footage from Django Unchained and the first batch of reaction views are already appearing online. So what did the critics think?

As you’d expect from any Tarantino film it’s hugely bloody and gore but by all accounts the footage that the reviewers saw was no more violent than any of the directors other films to date.

Despite the fact some big names have dropped out of the film, the remaining cast – particularly Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio – shine in their roles. Foxx plays Django a slave who seeks revenge on his former owner while DiCaprio takes on the role of the evil owner who takes pleasure in making his slaves compete in gladiator style events.

The language in the film has been something that has raised eyebrows with the n-word cropping up regularly throughout the film however considering that it’s set in the deep south before the civil war that is hardly surprising.

So there you have it. It seems that Tarantino is delivering yet another gritty, bloody and controversial film but it doesn’t sound like it’s anything out of the ordinary for him. Perhaps all those actors really did have scheduling clashes after all…

Django Unchained is released on 18th January.

Image: Entertainment Weekly