Movies: Django Unchained

Score:  **** out of ***** (A-)

Long Story Short:  Django Unchained is the popular director Quentin Tarantino's newest film.  Having blasted Nazis in his last film, Tarantino turns his aim on slavery, depicted as a spaghetti western, with his newest.  An even more star-studded cast than usual make for some colorful characters; although Django himself is a bit of a letdown, Samuel L. Jackson returns to the fold in spectacular fashion.  If you can handle intense scenes of violence and slavery - and don't mind a little sadistic humor - then give it a try.


Before I proceed with my review of Django Unchained, I'd like to turn your attention to an experiment I'm trying this year.  Basically, it's my personal "Academy Awards".  Based only on the films that I've seen this year, I have selected nominees for several categories - what I'd like you, the reader, to do is to vote on each category, and also send in write-in choices if you wish.  You can get to my "ballot" by clicking here.

Django Unchained is the last film I'll see in theaters that was released in 2012 (OK, there may be some technicalities; I intend to see Zero Dark Thirty, which was released in 2012 but only wide release in January so I'm counting it as 2013).  I bid a fond farewell to 2012 films, having been a phenomenal year - but I'll get to that later with my year-in-review post.  Django Unchained is director Quentin Tarantino's latest film so, similar to Spielberg's Lincoln, I was immediately interested.  The premise seemed kind of similar to 2009's Inglourious Basterds, a great film, so with positive reviews coming in (88%) this was a no-brainer.  Django Unchained was directed by Tarantino and stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, et. al.

As Tarantino cranks up his trademark soundtrack in the opening scene, the audience watches as a line of slaves, chained together at the ankle, are marched through the wilderness by a pair of white males.  One night, the caravan comes upon a single man riding on a small wagon.  The man, a "dentist", bluntly inspects the slaves and, after some unpleasantries, rides away with one of them.  The "dentist" is actually a bounty hunter named Schultz (Waltz), and he has taken the slave, Django (Foxx), because he was once owned by the Brittle brothers who are Schultz's next target.  After mowing them down, Schultz sees promise in Django and offers to make him a partner for the coming winter's hits.

Schultz bonds with Django on their adventures, and discovers that Django has a wife, Broomhilda (Washington) who is still a slave.  Schultz decides to up his partnership, agreeing to try to help rescue her.  Unfortunately, Broomhilda is held by a plantation owner, Candie (DiCaprio), in Mississippi, deep in "enemy territory."  Schultz and Django must use all of their cunning to make their way to Broomhilda, and Django must keep his hope and his calm in the midst of so much evil being done to Candie's slaves.

Tarantino has once again assembled a fantastic cast, as the stars seem to line up for him (in more ways than one).  Jamie Foxx as Django is the main character, naturally.  He does a very good job, but... I wasn't all that fond of his part.  He gives furious, smoldering stares and does a great job kicking butt when it comes to that, but there's some troubling inconsistency, too.  Django swings a bit too easily from cowering, subdued former slave, to blazingly furious and focused, to detached and cool.  Foxx does each well, but he deserved a more streamlined part.  Christoph Waltz is fantastic once again (he played the main Nazi in Inglouious Basterds, netting the supporting actor Oscar for it), especially in the early going when he does most of the talking.  To be honest, this character is pretty similar to Landa, although he doesn't reach the all-time greatness of that role.  His character - again, due more to the script - becomes much more subdued later in the film.  Waltz is a joy to watch regardless.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays the main villain, plantation owner Calvin Candie, and only shows up about halfway through.  He seems to be having a blast being evil for once here, and he shows his character's charm as effectively as his callous brutality.  DiCaprio's Candie benefits from the script where Foxx's Django suffers.  Kerry Washington as Broomhilda is presented as a "main character," but really, she's a plot device, unfortunately.  On the other hand, a supporting role is given to Samuel L. Jackson - a Tarantino veteran - appearing late in the film, and he steals the show.  Accustomed to playing bad-ass characters who, while not saints, generally fight for good, Jackson plays the complete opposite here.  Seeming to be a senile old head slave, in the shadows he reveals an absolutely cruel soul.  Bravo, Mr. Jackson.

Most of the elements of a typical Tarantino film are evident in Django Unchained.  These range from the small, like old-fashioned displays of text in the midst of a scene, to the well-noted, as in the varied use of popular music in the score.  The score, in fact, is one of my favorite parts of this one, being even better/more appropriate, for the most part, than Quentin's other films.  Django also has a good, if often sadistic, sense of humor - and all characters contribute at least in part (there's even a pretend, early-KKK scene that gleefully mocks that organization).  The level of violence is about Tarantino-standard, with both scenes of immense, almost comical bloodshed as well as intimate scenes that are the ones that really make you squirm.  The one Tarantino trademark I felt was not as strong as usual was his specialty of extended, incredibly tense scenes of dialogue.  I don't count the climactic encounter with Candie (I won't spoil the details), since it's more of a monologue.  I guess the lack of these scenes reflect the more straightforward nature of the film, though.

***

I enjoyed Django Unchained quite a bit, but to be honest, I nearly rated this one a B+ instead of an A-. The overall story is much more straightforward than even Inglourious Basterds, several main characters are disappointingly underutilized, and the lack of cleverly tense scenes that I mentioned in the last paragraph.  But I realized I was comparing Django more to Tarantino's other films than to all other films I've seen this year.  Despite a formidable running time, Django rarely drags and is entertaining throughout.  Although Django the character and his wife could have been better developed, there are still Waltz, DiCaprio and Jackson making use of great roles.  And although I would have ended the film about twenty minutes earlier than it did (literally, just chop off the last few scenes and then tweak what would then truly be the final scene) due to going a bit overboard on the revenge, most of the stuff prior to those scenes is satisfying.  When deciding whether or not to see this, keep in mind if I haven't made is obvious enough already:  this is a Tarantino film.  LOTS of violence, LOTS of blood - oh, and it deals pretty directly with some of the horrors of slavery.  If you can handle that, and handle the film poking fun of it all, then I recommend you give it a try.