Django Unchained (2012)
w- Quentin Tarantino
d- Quentin Tarantino
dp- Robert Richardson
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| The superb Jamie Foxx as Django |
Set in 1858, the film concerns the exploits of a freed slave, Django (Jamie Foxx), and his emancipator- a former dentist turned bounty hunter, named Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). The pair roam the countryside taking out "bad guys" that the government has put wanted (dead or alive) notices out on. Shultz develops a quazi paternal feeling of responsibility for Django and proposes that he 'll help Django find his wife, who was sold away at the same time as himself. They track her down to "Candie Land" - a plantation run by scuzzball Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), a man who passes his time forcing black gladiators to fight to the death. Django and Schultz devise an elaborate plan to liberate his wife from Candie's clutches.
There is much bloodshed and mayhem.
But it wouldn't be a Tarantino flick without it, right? Well a lot of people are grousing about the violent content in the film, but that's what Tarantino has used as his stock-in-trade since he started out with "Reservoir Dogs" back in 1992. In "Django" it's as prevalent as ever, but the manner of depicting the violence is cartoonish, almost parody of style, as if Tarantino anticipated the huge upwhine and is winking at us from across the screen. Bodies explode right and left from bazooka-like 6 shooters, gushing huge gouts of blood everywhere. At one point, a recalcitrant slave is literally ripped apart by dogs.And through it all Django remains unscathed, walking through dozens of men shooting at him, all of them missing, but of course he hits each one a single bullet apiece. This is, as I said, totally cartoonish, and that's what Tarantino DOES. And he does it damn well. Remember the Bride in "Kill Bill'? Case rested.
The performances are top notch here. Absolutely superb. Christoph Waltz proves that his astonishingly brilliant turn in "Inglorious Basterds" was indeed no fluke. He's given less to do here in a sympathetic role, but he's fine indeed, mixing the flim flam, fast talking silver tongued devil with that of a man motivated by ideals and compassion.
Now Jamie Foxx as Django. Oscar please take note. Again, Foxx demonstrates his ability to communicate more with his eyes in one look than any other actor can do with a whole page of dialog. He and Waltz have quite a bit of chemistry between them, and Tarantino always knows how to use chemistry among actors. Another of his stock in trade talents. Leo DiCaprio obviously had a lot of fun with his mega douchbag performance, and it shows onscreen and makes his scenes, particularly his dinner table monolog such great cinema. Samuel L. Jackson plays the real heavy of the film, Candie's valet/right hand slave, Stephen. He's nastiness, cunning deviousness personified. And of course Jackson plays it like only he can. Oscar....please note. There is a lot of controversy brewing about Jackson's portrayal of a nasty slave, and Tarantino's handling of the whole slave issue, as if he somehow is not treating it with the respect that is it's due as one of history's most shameful human rights violations. I don't see it that way myself, but the again, I'm not black, and so maybe I'm missing something.
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| DiCaprio as Calvin Candie - and his awesome churchwarden pipe |
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| Samuel L Jackson as Stephen |
My main problem with this film is in it's pacing and structure. The film lags in the middle-too much time is spent getting to Candieland and the meat of the story and then towards the end with the sequence with the Tarantino cameo. It needed to be much tighter. Perhaps we are seeing the effects of the loss of Sally Meineke, Tarantino's longtime editor and collaborator who died tragically last summer. The loss is most palpable, it seems to me.
It also seems to me that although I obviously know little, I do know that this film gets...... .....
Three and a half dopes
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