Review of 'Django Unchained'
Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave in 19th century America that is rescued by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a bounty hunter who is more interested in the “dead” part of “dead or alive”. Schultz is interested in information from Django about a gang whose bounty he seeks. After claiming the bounty they realise that they work well as a team with Django showing a amazing accuracy with a gun and Schultz, originally from Germany, showing little interest in the slavery and racism surrounding him treating Django as an equal. Django is more interested in finding his wife Broomhilda von Shaft (Kerry Washington) who is a slave owned by the mega-tycoon Calvin Candie (played horrifically by Leonardo DiCaprio) at the “Candyland” plantation.
Being Tarantino expect a lot of extreme gore with blood frequently splattering across the screen - Any bullet hit tends to result in fountains of the stuff and there are LOTS of bullet hits. The humour is extremely dry, particularly from Schultz who simply does not seem to take much around him very seriously, no matter how brutal, until seeking to help his friend in rescuing Broomhilda. This is a film with some very nasty people. Expect several seriously bloody bloodbaths. Samuel L. Jackson makes an appearance (as he does in most Tarantino films) as Candie's valet “Stephen”, who is as white as his owners, yeah, not nice.
This is a tale of redemption and revenge. A subject very familiar to Tarantino. Not a lot of moralising. Many will love it. Me? I found the characters compelling but the violence, unsurprisingly, shocking. Difficult to watch. Tarantino doesn't do anything by halves and prefers to use a sledgehammer than a light tap. No deep message and it is certainly obvious who the “good guys” are.
Rating: “A bit better than average”
Review Date: 2017-01-29
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Year: 2012
Length: 165 minutes
Genre: Action/Adventure
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1853728/
Other reviewed films by Quentin Tarantino:
- Death Proof (2007)