Tarantino's Django Unchained trailer hits

Quentin Tarantino's latest, Django Unchained, won't be out until Christmas, but the first trailer has been released. Although ostensibly a full-on tribute to the stylish Italian Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, the movie won't politely squeeze into a specific genre category. This is a Tarantino picture after all.

Just from looking at the trailer, plenty of Western movie iconography is on display. Some scenes appear to be filmed in the rocky area near Lone Pine, California, where numerous directors like Budd Boetticher, John Ford, and Anthony Mann set some of their most famous Westerns. The town sequences utilize the old Deadwood set. There's also the moment at the end of the trailer with Jamie Foxx speaking to the great Franco Nero, the actor who originated the character of Django in the 1966 film of the same name. A heavy blaxploitation vibe is also present, which is appropriate since back in the 1970s the two subgenres occasionally collided in films like Take a Hard Ride.

Tarantino movies are like pop culture sponges, so none of this is particularly unique for him. But it looks fantastic and should make for an appropriate companion piece to his other revisionist period movie Inglourious Basterds.