5/5
Django Unchained is a masterful pastiche of character and story told in the format of a slave-era film derivative of old spaghetti westerns. Quentin Tarantino has written and directed himself yet another film worthy of masterpiece status, his latest film being a truly unique movie that no one else could ever have made. Django Unchained is bold and wonderfully shot, taking place on a grand scale in the southern United States. Tarantino has written such a compelling tale of revenge, violence, and love, and as a director he gets top-notch performances from all of his cast members. Django Unchained is Tarantino at the very top of his form, and this film is one of the best of the year for sure.
Taking place in the south two years before the Civil War, Django Unchained is unfiltered in its full absorption into the world of slavery. While Tarantino wants to shove the audience into this horrific time of American history, this isn’t a film about slavery. Instead it’s a film about characters and their stories that takes place in slavery states. Tarantino and cinematographer Robert Richardson choose a collage of vivid settings across the southern states, and a majority of the shots are outdoors, frequently showing large gleaming shots of mountains, cotton plantations, or desert. This film is one of Tarantino’s most visual yet, the tangible world being created through an almost surrealist image of the south, utilizing a combination of archaic kickback camera techniques and modern hip-hop music. Django Unchained is a spaghetti western for our time, a violent and at times comedic approach to storytelling that is wildly entertaining and expertly executed.
Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington Django Unchained is a masterful pastiche of character and story told in the format of a slave-era film derivative of old spaghetti westerns. Quentin Tarantino has written and directed himself yet another film worthy of masterpiece status, his latest film being a truly unique movie that no one else could ever have made. Django Unchained is bold and wonderfully shot, taking place on a grand scale in the southern United States. Tarantino has written such a compelling tale of revenge, violence, and love, and as a director he gets top-notch performances from all of his cast members. Django Unchained is Tarantino at the very top of his form, and this film is one of the best of the year for sure.
Taking place in the south two years before the Civil War, Django Unchained is unfiltered in its full absorption into the world of slavery. While Tarantino wants to shove the audience into this horrific time of American history, this isn’t a film about slavery. Instead it’s a film about characters and their stories that takes place in slavery states. Tarantino and cinematographer Robert Richardson choose a collage of vivid settings across the southern states, and a majority of the shots are outdoors, frequently showing large gleaming shots of mountains, cotton plantations, or desert. This film is one of Tarantino’s most visual yet, the tangible world being created through an almost surrealist image of the south, utilizing a combination of archaic kickback camera techniques and modern hip-hop music. Django Unchained is a spaghetti western for our time, a violent and at times comedic approach to storytelling that is wildly entertaining and expertly executed.
Jamie Foxx stars as Django, a slave who at the outset of the film is purchased by a German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz (formerly a dentist). Schultz promises Django his freedom in exchange for helping him track down the Brittle Brothers, an evil trio of slavers who previously owned Django and his wife Broomhilda von Shaft (Kerry Washington). Schultz and Django collaborate together as a bounty hunting team for the winter season, and then in the spring Dr. Schultz decides that in return he will help Django find and rescue his wife Broomhilda. After a profitable winter of murdering outlaws and collecting rewards, the duo discover that Broomhilda has been sold to Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), the sadistic owner of a sprawling cotton-plantation, who is known for his interest in Mandingo fighting, which involves purchasing strong slaves and forcing them to fight each other to the death for sport. Schultz and Django create a ruse to impersonate potential buyers of some of Calvin Candie’s finest Mandingo fighters. This brings them to Candie’s plantation, the ironically named “Candie Land”, and to a climax that contains one of Tarantino’s bloodiest shoot-outs yet.
Every actor in this movie becomes his or her respective role so completely that we fully believe in this story. Leonardo DiCaprio steals his scenes as the horrifying plantation owner, his talent as an actor with deep sense of character being displayed better here than in possibly any of his other work, he will most certainly get an Oscar nomination for his performance here. Samuel L. Jackson plays the house-slave Stephen so precisely that we almost forget who the actors behind the make up really is, and Christoph Waltz is once again engrossing and terrific in his spewing of Tarantino’s killer dialogue. Jamie Foxx is convincing as Django, the quiet hero, but he is surrounded by so much talent that his performance is at times understated.
Calvin J. Candie Every actor in this movie becomes his or her respective role so completely that we fully believe in this story. Leonardo DiCaprio steals his scenes as the horrifying plantation owner, his talent as an actor with deep sense of character being displayed better here than in possibly any of his other work, he will most certainly get an Oscar nomination for his performance here. Samuel L. Jackson plays the house-slave Stephen so precisely that we almost forget who the actors behind the make up really is, and Christoph Waltz is once again engrossing and terrific in his spewing of Tarantino’s killer dialogue. Jamie Foxx is convincing as Django, the quiet hero, but he is surrounded by so much talent that his performance is at times understated.
Quentin Tarantino shows audiences the darker side of slavery that most filmmakers would shy away from. He references torturous methods such as attack dogs pulling slaves limbs apart, the castration of slaves, lashings, or the hot-box that slaves were left in outside in the sun. The film doesn’t directly show all of the bloody violence of these acts, but throughout the film harrowing allusions and references are drawn. Yet at the same time, Tarantino so brilliantly intersects the harsher mood with scenes of ironic spaghetti western qualities, or comedic intervals. For example, in one scene a band of racist whites on horseback (poking fun at KKK precursors) are depicted as imbeciles who fiddle with their white head-bags, much to the amusement of the film’s audience.
While Django Unchained is in a way unlike anything Tarantino has done before, there are still so many parallels to his other work. Here we see a writer/director who instead of slumping after many successful films, is instead improving upon his own formula to create a magical and original movie that no one else could possibly dream up. His actors all give tremendous performances, and the dialogue is witty as well as tense. Django Unchained is certainly one of the best films of the year, as well as one of the finest works by the superb Quentin Tarantino.
While Django Unchained is in a way unlike anything Tarantino has done before, there are still so many parallels to his other work. Here we see a writer/director who instead of slumping after many successful films, is instead improving upon his own formula to create a magical and original movie that no one else could possibly dream up. His actors all give tremendous performances, and the dialogue is witty as well as tense. Django Unchained is certainly one of the best films of the year, as well as one of the finest works by the superb Quentin Tarantino.