Review XXXV - Django Unchained

Review XXXV
Django Unchained (2012)

Happy new year to everyone! I decided to start out 2013 by watching a Quentin Tarantino film, and it was his latest theatrical release, Django Unchained. The film stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson, among others.

The film begins with a scene of a group of black slaves being forced to walk in chains across the country. While being transported by their owners, the Speck brothers (James Remar and James Russo), they are stopped by a man who appears to be a dentist, the German Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). He asks the slaves which one worked for the Brittle brothers previously. Django (Jamie Foxx) is that man, and after quite a persuasive argument with the Speck brothers (cough), Dr. Schultz buys Django. Dr. Schultz reveals himself to be a bounty hunter (he hadn't practised dentristry in five years) and explains there is a bounty on the Brittle brothers, but as he does not know what they look like, he is in need of Django's help. Django agrees, and a partnership is formed. However, Djanhgo's main goal is to find the man who bought his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). This turns out to be Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), a plantation owner and Mandingo enthusiast, and Django will stop at nothing to retrieve his wife back.

The first thing I want to talk about, no, need to talk about, is the soundtrack. If there's one thing Quentin Tarantino can do right in his movies (and, in my opinion, he does many "right" things, but anyway), it would be the music he chooses. The film is a Western, and music from several Spaghetti Westerns are taken, but there also some R&B and hip pop, which may sound inappropriate, but it worked well in this film. The film was enjoyable even just for the music. It worked well with each scene, and while it was jarring to just cut off the wonderful music after a scene was done (slight exaggeration) which seemed to happen often, it was superb.

Now for the film itself. I thought the story was interesting. It takes on a different light on the slave trade that occurred in the United States, similar to that of how Inglourious Basterds took World War II in a different light in relation to the Jews. Obviously there still exists some more realistic elements to the film (e.g. the language used and violence the blacks endured), but this is Quentin Tarantino's depiction of it, in a sense. It's definitely original, but what more can we expect from this director? If you've seen any Quentin Tarantino movie, you know he takes the B-movie element of originality and brought it into the mainstream media with near perfect success. I'm over-praising, sorry. The story is a love story, but the main theme is slave exploitation. It's always present, it's always there, but with a twist. How many times have I said "twist" and "light" in this paragraph? Too many. It's a Western, so it has violence in it, obviously, and let's just add the fact that it is a Quentin Tarantino movie, so while there is gore, it's overdone to make it comical. The film also had its taste of black (ahhh, pun intended!) and dark humour, which makes you laugh, despite the seriousness of the situation. I love dark humour, and this film had just the right amount.

The acting. Well, I don't really think I need to go in detail. Look for yourself - Jamie Foxx (won an Oscar), Christoph Waltz (won an Oscar, and he's Austrian - yes, I am totally of Austrian/German/Lithuanian descent partly), Leonardo DiCaprio (nominated for an Oscar three times), and Samuel L. Jackson (nominated for an Oscar). Hell, throw away the Oscar and other awards bit, and I'm sure you can name them in multiple films you enjoyed. These people can act, thus it's only expected that they would do wonderfully in their roles. They did. Jamie Foxx is a strong character who is haunted by the memory of his wife and forced to succumb to the segregated and racist Southern peoples and laws. Christoph Waltz plays a sympathetic and apathetic man who doesn't care about the colour of your skin, but, rather, cares about the justice he sees fit. Leonardo DiCaprio comes off, to me, as slightly caring towards the black population, but that slight care only goes to the exceptional - the one in 10 000. Truly a passionate play. Samuel L. Jackson is, well, a jerk, but he plays him well. He's in a good place in his life and will never give it up. He reminded me a bit of Uncle Ruckus from The Boondocks. Not to the extreme of hating the blacks and praying to be white, but still speaking down to them. The other actors who took on the roles of being racist Southerns (like Don Johnson, for example) did a great job as well. Kerry Washington, well, it's hard to praise considering she wasn't a protagonist in the film - more of an objective, and please, I did not mean that offensively. Still, she nonetheless proved a good actress in the intense scenes she was in. She also spoke German wonderfully!

I wrote a lot more than I normally do. Sorry about that... I'd give the film eight point two stars on ten. The plot was great, though the film did feel like it was dragging near the end. It could have been wrapped up earlier on, but the ending itself was still good - typical Quentin Tarantino, but I suppose that alone could tell you whether or not this film is for you.