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To make an extraordinary film, you need the right ingredients, namely, a director who has never created a bad movie and an actor who has never starred in one … Django Unchained uses this exact recipe and showcases Quentin Tarantino’s unique style alongside Leonardo DiCaprio’s fantastic ability to captivate an audience.
Tarantino once again takes on a sensitive historical subject, like that in 2009s Inglorious Basterds, and uses the American slavery theme to instead produce a violent (and at times hilarious) Spaghetti Western that will have viewers gripped.
Forget the historical facts, anything goes with Tarantino – even starring in his own movies (which will leave the audience rolling their eyes).
I may be biased as he is my favourite director, but the witty dialogue, peculiar characters and gory violence mixed with Tarantino’s exaggerated and stylised filming techniques including speedy zooms, major close-ups and a shocker of a soundtrack (Anthony Hamilton, Rick Ross, James Brown, Tupac Shakur) all added to the brilliance of this masterpiece.
Django Unchained’s plot repeats itself, goes back in time and is full of fun.
It follows Django, ‘the D’s silent’, (Foxx) who has recently been freed by the German Dr King Schultz (Waltz), ironically the only character in the film who is not a racist.
Schultz encourages Django to join him in the bounty hunter business where he must find the Brittle Brothers and hunt them down in exchange for $75 … he agrees … cue montage of the duo going on killing sprees with country tunes remixed with modern day rap songs playing in the background.
After a number of cameos including some great ones from Jonah Hill and Don Johnson, a hilarious KKK scene will leave viewers in stitches with the men wearing bags on their heads riding their horses blindly into the night to try and hunt down the bounty hunters.
However, after failing their mission due to the eye holes on the bags being cut out wrong, Django finds the Brittle Brothers and the job is done.
Schultz promises that if he joins him on his future escapades that he will help him in a quest to rescue his estranged wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from one of the country’s richest and most dangerous plantation owners, Francophile Calvin Candie (DiCaprio).And the journey begins, beautifully shot in sun and snow.
They arrive in ‘Candyland’ (the slave plantation) and after some savage moments and horrific scenes immersed in the horrors of that time period including slave-on-slave wrestling and a man being torn apart by wild dogs, they meet Broomhilda.
They inform her of the plan to help her escape … however when house slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) smells something fishy, a nerve-wracking dinner scene ensues and ends with Django showing the white folk who’s boss.
Every actor is on point in this film.Waltz, who won Best Supporting Actor for Inglorious Basterds in 2009, once again steals the spotlight from the leading man. His character fits him like a glove and although he may be shooting left, right and centre at anything that gets in his way, he is extremely likeable and shows the perfect combination of a weak, emotional man and a hard-hearted leader.
Having said this, DiCaprio stole the entire film. He brings life to a villain that is filled with charm and malevolence. Tarantino likes to complicate villains in most of his films, but DiCaprio takes it to another level and shows a ruthless and self-absorbed character in the simplest and most disturbing way – I was hooked on every word he said.
As for Foxx, his character may develop and grow over the series of events in the film, but I don’t believe he was the right choice for Django. He was too calm and didn’t show the resulting trauma that a slave would have undergone … if Denzel Washington played Django, this would definitely be the film of the year.
Samuel L. Jackson delivered the funniest performance and, although his character may have been a smaller supporting role, he definitely added light-hearted humour to intense and dark moments.
If you don’t get squeamish at the sight of blood-splattering gore then Django Unchained is a must-watch experience that pays perfect homage to Spaghetti Westerns with amazing performances from A-list actors.
*Showing in Cineco, Seef II, Al Jazeera, Saar Cineplex and Dana Cinema
