Photo: The Weinstein Company
Director Quentin Tarantino’s movies are known for his dialogue, but the eccentric filmmaker pays a lot of attention to music as well, so the Django soundtrack was almost as equally popular as the movie itself. Django Unchained (2012) was 2h 45mins of pure badassery and fun, and the soundtrack correlates completely. A great mixture of old instrumental themes and more modern songs, Django’s soundtrack became an instant classic and one of the most recognizable movie soundtracks in recent years.
A simple premise of a freed slave setting out to rescue his wife from a slaver with the unlikely help of a German bounty hunter was enhanced by Tarantino’s signature dialogue, but also by the score.
So enjoy these best Django Unchained soundtrack songs, and we guarantee, by the end of the last track you will feel like an invincible sharpshooting entity ready to cause havoc across the prairie.
Django Soundtrack: Best Songs
Django
The first real track on the soundtrack is also the most pivotal, most recognized one, the theme to a hero Tarantino created. Sounding like it’s proudly announcing the coming of a different kind of a samurai, with the heavy Oriental and classical music influences combined with the charm of a classical American voice. Capturing, almost mimicking, the different tones Django Unchained delivers on this song is one of the best original movie songs ever.
I Got a Name
Quite possibly the song that stands out the most from the Django soundtrack, this Jim Croce track from 1973 was the theme song of a true story movie The Last American Hero about a NASCAR driver Junior Johnson, starring Jeff Bridges. Tarantino picked from several influencing movies for the Django Unchained soundtrack songs, and he surely did make a perfect fit with this folk-rock feel good anthem.
Ancora Qui
As was the actual movie inspired and served as an homage to spaghetti western movies Tarantino grew up on, the track was also heavily influenced by it, and none more than Ancora Qui. Ennio Morricone, a legendary composer for old westerns like A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, made this hauntingly beautiful, powerful and melancholic song with an angelic assistance by the Italian singer Elisa. An underappreciated perfect song.
Who Did That to You?
Most modern sounding track out of the Django Unchained soundtrack songs, and the one by the most famous artist in John Legend but in far different, more grittier tone than what we’re used to from the R&B singer. Legend recorded the song out of his own accord when he heard about the movie’s story, courting to Tarantino by sending it to him on a cassette. Since Who Did That to You it fits the theme of retribution so well it became the pivotal musical feature of the movie.
Too Old to Die Young
Another track that is quite different than the rest of the soundtrack, and yet it doesn’t seem off to the vibe of the movie. Reaching greatness with simplicity is the mark of a true artist, and a not so well-known Louisiana musician Brother Dege achieved just that with this track. A song impressionable and catchy enough to deserve its own spin-off movie or a TV show, Too Old to Die Young is genre-merging American anthem.
I Giorni Dell’ira
The recognizable spaghetti western sound is strong in I Giorni Dell’ira even though the song is from the not so well known 1967 movie of the same name, Day of Anger in English, or Days of Wrath translated literally. Composed by an Italian film composer Riz Ortolani, I Giorni Dell’ira is highly evocable of the old times while still not being old-fashioned or campy. Completely instrumental and elementary, this forgotten gem of the past got the deserved limelight thanks to Tarantino.
La Corsa (2nd Version)
Starting like a horror movie score, this haunting song transfers into a complex film music anthem quickly and perfectly displays how one tone can change the whole feel of the song. Yes, the one at 0:46. An original Django soundtrack song, composed by Luis Bacalov, La Corsa is the ideal musical display of the hero’s success and provides an appropriate epic and complex backdrop to Tarantino’s western.
Which of the songs from the Django soundtrack is your favorite?
