DJANGO UNCHAINED Review
By: RAMA
So what did RAMA think of this new film from Quentin Tarantino?
It’s a great day to be Quentin Tarantino’s fans! DJANGO UNCHAINED is his best work yet. What you have here is some bloody good time in the theaters, a little bit of revenge, a little bit of rescue, a little bit of spaghetti western, a little bit of love story, a little bit of good vs. evil, and whole lotta great performances all across the board from such calibers as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Samuel L. Jackson. DJANGO UNCHAINED is unforgiving. Merry Christmas to us!..
Set in the South two years before the Civil War, DJANGO UNCHAINED stars Academy Award®-winner Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Academy Award®-winner Christoph Waltz). Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles – dead or alive. Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways. Instead, Schultz seeks out the South’s most wanted criminals with Django by his side. Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago. Django and Schultz’s search ultimately leads them to Calvin Candie (Academy Award®-nominee Leonardo DiCaprio), the proprietor of “Candyland,” an infamous plantation. Exploring the compound under false pretenses, Django and Schultz arouse the suspicion of Stephen (Academy Award®-nominee Samuel L. Jackson), Candie’s trusted house slave. Their moves are marked, and a treacherous organization closes in on them. If Django and Schultz are to escape with Broomhilda, they must choose between independence and solidarity, between sacrifice and survival.
Christoph Waltz won Oscar for playing the merciless Nazi whose sense of humor is understood by nobody but himself in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Leonardo DiCaprio usually plays the the very tensed, the very serious good guy, and now those two have switched places and they do a damn good job at each, respectively. Keep in mind that much of it is thanks to Quentin Tarantino who crafted these characters and story out of his own head, but he always gives his actors room for interpretation, he’d give them the idea and let them run with it, in the case of Dr. Schultz, Waltz brings his usual A game, he’s very articulate, he’d enunciate every word carefully, Waltz is the kind of person who’d do well as a professor in a classroom giving lecture and everybody would pay attention without resistance. Schultz is an interesting character because he’s a foreigner in this country, in a time where slavery trade and the treatment of slaves were at its most brutal, so he doesn’t share that point of view, and he’s not here to free the slaves or abolish slavery or support emancipation or bring over his German political views, he’s just here to make money as bounty hunter and though he understands that it’s a dirty business — he doesn’t mind the idea of taking the life of a criminal in front of his own son — there are some lines he wouldn’t cross, he doesn’t let the brutality of his work negatively affect his intellect or change his class, in fact, much of the film’s smart humor comes from Schultz’s basically talking down on the ignorant around him.
Schultz’s relationship with Django is not that of a bromance, but more of a mentor-recruit or partnership type. They don’t see eye to eye on certain things and Django often wonders why Schultz would even help him out, but there’s always a level of respect between them.
Jamie Foxx is fantastic as Django which by the way is an iconic name is spaghetti western cinema, something that Quentin Tarantino is more or less an expert on. You can see in Foxx’s eyes as Django, the hatred and the thirst for blood over the yeas of pain that slavery and slave owners have inflicted upon him and the love of his life, played by the radiant Kerry Washington whose performance is like torpedoes that shoot and sink enemies’ ships on mark perfectly.
The love story in this film is not mushy or cuddly, it’s very subtle but effective enough to remind you from time to time what it is that motivates Django to do what he does, to stick by Schultz through the winter season.
I have to give mad props to the incredible Samuel L. Jackson, the only man on earth who can make the word ‘motherf*cker’ sound like music to the ears. He looks unrecognizable in this film, much thanks to the make up folks and Sam’s marvelous acting.
Stephen is to Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) what Schultz is to Django. Stephen cared for Calvin for years, he’s the kind of slave who’d turn on his own people if it means guaranteeing safety of Calvin, Stephen and Calvin’s relationship is like the babysitter who allows his baby/kid to grow up doing pretty much what he pleases. Which leads us to Leaonardo DiCaprio, one of the greatest actors of our time, deserving Oscar nod for best supporting actor for his role as the murderous slave owner Calvin Candie. He’s like a spoiled brat, coming from generations of slave owners, and so he’s bored and to entertain himself, he’s involved in the business of mandingo fighting. DiCaprio is a tour de force, he’s unpredictable, he’s explosive, he’s devil-like, you ain’t seen DiCaprio like this before.
Great cast including Don Johnson who as Big Daddy dressed up somewhat like Colonel Sanders gives the film one of its most memorable scenes when he interacts with both Django and Schultz.
Here’s what I love about Quentin Tarantino’s works, and I think which also gives the reason as to why his movies are usually long, it’s because he thinks of every possible scenario. There are films out there that just don’t think things through or would leave a lot of loopholes in between, that’s not the case with Tarantino because he can imagine what kind of B should happen after A has occurred, he can craft a conversation that fits the characters’ personalities, the kind of conversation that makes sense and doesn’t dumb you down.
And along the way, he’d slip in lots of fun facts because Tarantino is just one knowledgeable man.
DJANGO UNCHAINED is heavy dialogue and very stylized, those of us who grew up watching Spaghetti westerns or just western cinema in general would love Tarantino’s take and as usual, it’s not Tarantino’s film if it doesn’t have outrageous violence, blood squirting in an exaggerated manner, the violence is just off the wall, something to be expected from a Tarantino presentation.
I was thinking about this the other day, trying to figure out what it is that Tarantino is trying to convey with DJANGO UNCHAINED and it dawned on me that it’s the same intention as KILL BILL and INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, which is.. in Tarantino’s world, the bad guys get what they deserve. In real world, millions of Jews may have been killed in WWII, millions of slaves may have been killed in 1860′s south and so Tarantino comes up with his own history rewrite, that in his world, things are going to different. DiCaprio’s line as Calvin Cadie wonders why don’t the blacks just rise up and kill all the whites, well, that’s exactly what happens in DJANGO UNCHAINED. You’ll see how DJANGO gets mentored, how he rescues his love and how he rises to be the legend that he’s destined to become; as the fastest hands in the south.
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GRADE: 5 out of 5
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