Quentin Tarantino seems like one of those filmmakers who is impossibly good at what he does. As much great news about the casting and scripting that was attached to Django Unchained over the last few years, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that this would be a misstep for Tarantino. I’m not entirely sure what about this project made me feel like it was bound to fail. I thought Tarantino dealing with slavery would prove to be too controversial (which has partially come true) and that the film would be distasteful and offensive. Ultimately, I was excited for Django Unchained (because it isn’t physically possible for me NOT to be excited for a Quentin Tarantino film), but it wasn’t even close to being my most highly anticipated film of 2012. Perhaps it was my semi-low expectations going into the movie, but Django Unchained has proven to be one of his best movies. In my opinion, it is his best since film the classic Pulp Fiction.
This movie is probably Tarantino’s most epic movie. It tells the story of a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) who is freed by a German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz (played brilliantly by Waltz) in order to get some help finding some elusive criminals who have a large bounty on their heads. Eventually Schultz befriends Django and they become partners with the ultimate goal of saving Django’s wife, who has been sold to a different plantation named Candyland. Calvin Candie, played by DiCaprio, is the main antagonist in the film, and without giving too much away I will say that his character is developed in such a way that you will hate him at a core level.
Django Unchained features an assortment of amazing performances. I cannot think of any weak point in any of the performances (except perhaps Tarantino’s cameo, which is great but one can’t help but groan at the accent he tries to nail). The most surprising performance, at least for me, was DiCaprio’s sly turn as a bad guy. I have spoken to many people who usually don’t care for his work who admit he is fantastic here. Equally great, if not more so, is Christoph Waltz. He won an Oscar for his performance, and rightfully so. The entire first half of the movie belongs to him as he delivers line with grace and undeniable comedic ability. He doesn’t top his performance in Inglorious Basterds (for which he also won an Oscar), but that’s nitpicking because he is fantastic on a different level. I even think that Jamie Foxx is great in this film, if not underrated. It takes a while for his character to fully develop, but by the end of this film I was easily rooting for Django and Foxx’s performance easily captures the folk-hero elements of his character. Keep your eyes open for a variety of cameos, ranging from more modern comedy actors to actors who appeared in classic spaghetti westerns from the last few decades.
Like all Tarantino films, dialogue is the main emphasis in Django Unchained. Tarantino is more than capable of carrying such a long film with more than just explosions and bullets. Not to say that there isn’t plenty of action, because I promise you there is. In fact, one shootout near the end of the film is without question one of the most amazing and entertaining shootouts I’ve ever seen in a movie (seriously, those of you who have seen this movie know what I mean). Still, there are long sections of this film that don’t have action in the “BANG” sense. There is a long section lacking any action after Calvin Candie is introduced, but a lot of attention is put on building tension and setting up the plot for all hell to break loose. For me, none of these scenes dragged on (as a few other have complained about). The dialogue is razor sharp, humorous, and always referential to a point. Tarantino was awarded his second Oscar for Original Screenplay with this film, and very few other movies this year could even come close to taking that award for themselves.
One final thing I would like to mention is the style and tone that Tarantino’s maintains throughout Django Unchained. Often, especially with Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino likes to prove to audiences just how much he knows about film history. He does this by constantly having his characters throw out references or having obvious music queues that are directly from other movies. I found that Django Unchained was much more restrained at doing this. All film references are reserved purely for the camera movements and framing of the shots. He clearly has a love of spaghetti westerns and shows it by using familiar western tropes but in creative enough ways to keep things interesting. The sound and look of the movie is enough to keep this film from being boring (I recommend picking up the soundtrack, its as diverse as any I’ve ever heard). Django Unchained comes together flawlessly in nearly every scene.
So if you haven’t seen Django Unchained yet, you should get on it ASAP. Tarantino has crafted his most outrageous and entertaining masterpiece in a very, very long time. For me, this is his second best film. I love being able to eat my own words and dispose of all of the doubts I had about this movie. This was number 3 on my top films of 2012 for a reason. Movies don’t get much better than this.
10/10
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