Quentin Tarantino is back with another of long awaited projects, DJANGO UNCHAINED. A love letter to Spaghetti Westerns and Blacksploitation films, with the title character himself being a shout out to the original Italian western DJANGO (1966), this is one rip roaring movie that managers to ground itself with such spectacular moments of acting that it boggles the mind how Tarantino is able to pull it off.
But there are some low points.
But let’s get this party going.
THE STORY AND THE PEOPLE WHO GET PAID TO TALK….
Django (Jamie Fox, RAY (2004) is a slave being transported on foot on a cold day and night through the south. He was separated from his wife by his slave masters and sent out into the world to be traded to the lowest bidder. Out of the darkness Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Shultz, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS (2009) appears and shoots the traders and makes Django an offer he can’t refuse. If Django helps find and kill the men who separated him from his wife to collect a bounty he will in turn help Django find his wife and hopefully freedom.
And they do just that, finding and killing people to collect the bounties on their heads, often in very entertaining ways. So in short, the story itself is sound.
The acting throughout, as to be expected with a Tarantino movie, is top class. One thing you have to give him credit for is his love of just pointing the camera at these actors and letting them ramble and…quote simply….act.
The two standouts throughout the movie are Leonardo DiCaprio as plantation owner Calvin Candie and Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen, the plantations headmaster and caretaker of the Candie family for generations. I don’t recall DiCaprio playing a villain, but here he plays it like he was born to. At times joyfully ignorant but terrifyingly brutal, he’s a character that is now a highlight of DiCaprio’s career.
On the other side you have
And Kerry Washington as Broomhilda (Also in Ray), Django’s long lost wife gives an amazing, emotive performance that grounds the movie throughout. She takes scenes that could be trivial or, much worse, mishandled and instead serves up subtle and unique emotions. Again, top notch acting right here, and others in the supporting cast step up as well.
Jamie and Christoph? More on them later.
WHAT’S ACTION A GO GO…
Oh, so many things. But what I want to focus on his Tarantino’s overall filmmaking here. With INGLORIOUS BASTERDS there were levels of drama in that movie that I simply thought Tarantino didn’t want, or couldn’t, bring to the screen. Obviously I was wrong, and believe that if the whole movie was played straight and didn’t go out of its way to rewrite history it would have won best picture that year. And this is not me talking out of my a$$ or some BS hyperbole. That Jew Hunter scene at the beginning of the movie belonged in SCHINDLERS LIST (1993), not INGLORIOUS BASTERDS.
Moving on, I believe that’s what Tarantino has done with DJANGO UNCHAINED to a certain extent. A lot of the camp and superfluous style for its own sake has been removed so that the viewer can focus on what is going on in the frame, ponder it, and be ready for what’s coming next. Now, these elements are present, particularly when it comes to the music and some details, but he mostly plays it straight, and to great effect.
Of course, the action is good. I believe at heart he’s an action director, and that’s one of his comfort zones, and it shines here.
The scenery, so integral to any true western, plays a starring role here as well. A few rather important cameos are hidden throughout (bonus points to whoever can list them in the comments) and that adds a little bit of fun to the mix.
Finally, the movie does play with some intense subject matter. It wallows in the inherent racism of the time and doesn’t blink when it comes to violence of any kind. I think he handled this well and it gives the movie a certain authenticity that goes beyond mere chronicling of history. Strangely, the only other movie I can think of that did this as well this year was LINCOLN (2012), another Spielberg picture that deals with these issues from a completely different angle. Wait a minute, is Tarantino a Bizzaro Steven Spielberg? On man, I might be onto something…
But we got to move on….
WHAT’S ACTION A NO NO…
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| THIS IS HOW WE DEAL WITH BLOATED DIALOGUE! |
Some of my Tarantino gripes are still popping up in regards to DJANGO UNCHAINED. The gratuitously long dialogue is one thing that sags down the plot. At best it’s wallowing in the actors’ talent and digging a little deeper into a plot point. At worst it’s rambling that simply drones on and at points narrates what is obviously going on in the frame. It’s superfluous and makes you understand why studios always want to put directors on short leases. But that’s his style, and it is a love or hate thing. I veer towards hate at times, particularly in regards to Dr. King.
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| A crazy behind the scenes shot from DJANGO UNCHAINED |
Also, this movie has a splatter problem. The squib to blood ratio is gratuitous, and managed to take me out of the moment. I know, it’s minor and a bit wimpish to complain about blood on an action movie blog, but I had to say it. Not every hit should produce a Jackson Pollock painting, but that’s just me.
Finally, the two main characters are weak to me this go around. Django doesn’t become an interesting character until the last third of the movie. And Dr. King seems more like an excuse to show off the talents of Christolph Shultz than he is a truly interesting character.
Of course, these aren't deal breakers. These quibbles about the actors are more structural than anything.
THE FINAL VERDICT
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| My friend, I do believe you need to see this movie... |
It’s one of Tarantino’s best films, if not the best. PULP FICTION (1994) is still a cinema defining moment in history, but this film is striving for something more while delivering something unique.
Through its hyperbole it may be one of the best movies about slavery ever made, never mind how it stands as a spaghetti western or action film.
And that just may be what caps off Tarantino’s career as a film maker. A movie that takes America’s darkest secret, racism, and throws it in your face for two and a half hours and entertains you all the way. The ultimate film making hat trick.
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| Free yourself from the bondage of preconceptions. |
So go see it.
Its one wild blast before a new year begins again and a whole new crop of movies get shoved into theaters.
Good bye 2012. Your list will be here soon.
P.S Oh wow...look....pictures...just laying here....
HAPPY NEW YEAR KERRY WASHINGTON!!!
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