Review 115: "Django Unchained"

It's Tarantino.

Of course it's good.

 

 

What's the Story?

 

     Django Unchained is the new film from director Quentin Tarantino, who I hope needs no introduction. The film follows Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave who is freed by Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) in order to help him hunt down a bounty. However, when the two become friends, they decide to keep bounty hunting together. That is, until, they learn that Django's wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) is being kept by the sadistic Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson). The two mount a rescue mission and soon find themselves in a whole heap of trouble.

 

 



Cool as ice.

 

  How Good is It?

 

     Very. Django Unchained is certainly the boldest film to get released this year. The film takes an unflinching look at some of the hideous atrocities committed to slaves back before the Civil War. And as such, is oddly Tarantino's most realistic film since Reservoir Dogs (My personal favorite Tarantino film), with Tarantino not having to do make that much stuff up. The film therefore is given a powerful emotional leg to stand on as the film proceeds.

    What works best in Django is Foxx, who does a magnificent job as the title character. Django was a character that could have potentially been a mess given the wrong hands but Foxx manages to play him just right, creating a cool and confident character that changes his mannerisms to a repressed shy man when he needs to. It's just one of the nice little details about the movie. The rest of the cast is uniformly great. Waltz is having a great deal of fun and the audience is having fun right along with him. DiCaprio play probably one of the most disgustingly horrible villains in recent memory and he does it so well that I wouldn't be surprised if people walked out of the theater actually hating DiCaprio personally for a little bit. The only problematic actor is Washington, who doesn't do much other than scream.

    The film delivers in all the areas Tarantino usually delivers from. The action, while infrequent, is excellent and extremely bloody. It even manages to make for some honestly hilarious jokes. The scenes of dialogue is both smartly clever and highly intense usually at the same time and especially when DiCaprio is onscreen. Tarantino isn't one to disappoint and with Django Unchained he certainly didn't.

 

Cool as hell.

What's the Verdict?

 

     Django Unchained is yet another Quentin Tarantino masterpiece. Tarantino gives audiences a no holds barred look at slavery and still manages to back a ton of his signature humor and bloody violence into the mix. The great cast gamely plays their parts, even if the play some horribly despicable people. Foxx hits it out of the park as Django and deserves at least a nomination. Django Unchained is easily one of the best film's of the year. Django Unchained gets 6 stars out of 6.