Django Unchained Movie Review
Nathan Swank
December 24th, 2012
I am so thankful I live in a world where Quentin Tarantino makes films. Exciting, creative, colorful (visually and in language), fascinating characters, interesting dialogue and wildly entertaining, Tarantino films regularly land on top of my favorite list. DJANGO UNCHAINED is no exception. The unique director aims his love toward Spaghetti Westerns and blaxploitation flicks by presenting a heightened stylized shoot ’em up revenge story about American slavery.
Jamie Foxx (RAY) is Django, a slave freed by a dentist turned bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz, played by a wickedly enjoyable Christoph Waltz (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS). Using his intellect and his handy Travis Bickle hidden wrist revolver, Dr. Schultz has made a pretty good living by finding and killing wanted men. However, he needs the help of the tough, gun slinging Django to find a specific group of baddies worth a handsome amount of money. Django knows these fellows as the men who beat him and his wife, then sold them separately, insuring they never see one another again. Dr. Schultz and Django strike a deal, Django helps Dr. Schultz track down some bounties and Dr. Schultz will help Django track down his wife.
Every twist and turn through DJANGO UNCHAINED unveils another deliciously cinematic tale. Each bounty serves up a dish of delightful dialogue and scenarios that tickles the taste buds within the viewers eye and mind. Perhaps a bit non-sequitur to the overall story but I think purposely mirrors the absurdity of our history’s actions, is a particularly hilarious conversation among Ku Klux Klan members about the inconvenient size and position of their cut out eye holes on their white hoods before a lynching.
Things get a bit more edgy, when our leads discover Django’s wife (Kerry Washington) has been sold to the infamously ruthless slave owner Calvin Candie, portrayed with another Oscar worthy performance from Leonardo DiCaprio. Appropriately and inappropriately named Candie Land, Monsieur Calvin Candie owns the the largest and most notorious slave plantation in Mississippi, that will entail some clever deceit and cool restraint from Django and Schultz to win this not so child’s game.
Every scene with both Waltz and DiCaprio is so overwhelmingly full of skillfully written dialogue and charismatic acting goodies, one can’t help but to drink up the fountain of talent that springs forth on screen. These two actors, I believe are underrated giants when it comes to actual ability at their craft and they go toe to toe better than anyone. Samuel L. Jackson is terrifically nasty as the head house slave, who seems to be more racist and strict to the pecking order of people than the actual slave owners. The rest of the cast is also super in this hard R-rated flick, but these three mentioned are among my favorite for the entire year.
The pleasure I take in watching a daring and unconventional film like DJANGO UNCHAINED is unmatched. As I write this review, I’m giddy with excitement at the thought of my second viewing. Supposedly, Tarantino finished editing the film just a couple of weeks before the deadline, which may explain the appearance of a few segments feeling a bit hurried. But that’s also a testament to just how engrossing the film truly is, as I wanted even more detail in a few places when the film already comes in at about two hours and 45 minutes. The unusual mixture of modern and old music (a staple for Tarantino films) is perfectly used in unsuspecting fashion to fire up scenes that are already energized in direction. The long running time flies as we are treated to rich entertainment through wildly expressive filmmaking in all aspects of the process. DJANGO UNCHAINED is quite simply a joy to watch.
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