Django Unchained

There are a few directors whose every movie is as eagerly awaited as the last, thanks to a reputation built on a back catalogue of top class offerings. Quentin Tarantino is certainly one of those, as in my opinion, he has yet to make a film anything less than very good. We expect something in particular from Tarantino in his film, more often than not a loving B-Movie flavour, often a very dark sense of humour, but always, always, a great deal of violence. Now, after years of waiting for it, Tarantino finally has his go at a Western, with Django Unchained.

Django is the tale of a slave, the eponymous Django, who is given his freedom by bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz, forming a partnership to take down a series of targets, before ultimately trying to rescue Django's wife from a plantation. The film takes an utterly brutal look at pre-civil war America, and most definitely focusses on the treatment of black slaves. The movie is nothing short of visceral in the handling of violence throughout, and a great deal of it - at least initially - involves the horrendous treatment of slaves, particularly in mandingo fighting. Definitely not one for the faint hearted, but of course, this is a Tarantino effort, so it's doused with a great deal of head-shaking humour to thoroughly confuse how you should be feeling about it.

The performances of the cast in Django are extremely impressive, although you might expect as much, with Tarantino's reputation. Jamie Foxx's hero grows from a quiet and naive slave to a ruthless bounty hunter, more than willing to get his hands dirty in the process, even assuming the character of a black slaver. Foxx is as he usually is, very focussed and solid, nothing whatsoever to really pick at him for. Leonardo DiCaprio, who Tarantino had sought after for years, plays Calvin Candie, the owner of the 'Candieland' plantation, a figurehead of a mandingo fighting ring, and owner of Django's wife Broomhilda, and he's pretty fantastic at it too. DiCaprio brings a swarthy, yet extremely slimy charm to the character, who is simultaneously sly and a little stupid, not to mention a genuinely unsettling burst of fury. As far as Tarantino villains go, Candie has pretty much everything we've come to expect; he's cool, stylish, has the odd couple of soon-to-be massively quoted lines, and he's very much not afraid to throw his weight around. Very enjoyable performance and quite probably my second favourite Tarantino villain, only second to a character played by the true start of the film: Christoph Waltz. In Inglourious Basterds Waltz was sheer perfection of a skin-crawling villain, loved and hated by all. This time, he's almost the opposite; Dr. Schultz is a kindly man, somewhat of a romantic and holds a great deal of moral obligations. However, he is also an incredibly successful bounty hunter, a profession which he keeps his emotions separate from. If DiCaprio brings charm to Candie, Waltz brings in by the boatload for Schultz, he is simply captivating in absolutely every single one of his scenes. In all seriousness, this is probably the dictionary definition of what a scene-stealing performance will say from now on, as no matter what is taking place in the scene, you cannot help but find yourself drawn to Schultz, just to see what he's going to do next. But there's also another impressive performance amongst them; that of Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen, an elderly house slave trusted by Candie. Although the make-up runs dangerously close to reminding us all of one of Eddie Murphy's Klump family members, Jackson is intimidating, funny and loathsome at all once.

The plot itself runs fairly smoothly, something Tarantino is bringing more and more into his films - just a straight, simple story. Not only is the main plot allowed to run freely, we're given a couple of genius little subplots to keep us fully enthralled, if a little caught unaware. The greatest example of these is Schultz and Django's run in with what we assume to be an early incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan, who are all too concerned with how their hoods are looking to go about their business. Added comedy comes from the unexpected appearance of Jonah Hill as a Klan member. The climactic end is tremendous, though you may have a sense of de ja vu, as it follows the same lines as both Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds...and arguably Reservoir Dogs: a great big slice of revenge for the hero against a huge amount of people he doesn't like. There's even a great similarity between the speech Django gives at the point of his vengeance and the speech the Bride gives at the culmination of the Crazy 88 scenes, however, you can either view this as a lack of creativity, or that Tarantino is just incredibly good at reinventing a similar story, and have you enjoy it without realising it might very well be close in parts to what you've seen before.

Visually, again it's what you expect from a Tarantino effort, particularly following on from the style in which he shot Death Proof. There's a nice nostalgic feel to the film, and it definitely captures the twang of B-Movies that Mr Director is so very clearly a huge fan of. Furthermore, it's more of the same when it comes to the score; you're really thrown off kilter a little when rap and rock music comes blaring out over a backdrop of  19th century Southern U.S. But it works phenomenally; not only does it help set the perfect tone for the film, but it also reminds us just who has made it.

5/5 - Up there with my other favourite Tarantino films, and, in case you couldn't tell, I'm somewhat of a fan of his. Despite it's disturbing content, despite an enormous amount of splatter violence, and despite a lengthy runtime, Django Unchained flows very easily, and keeps you interested, if not engrossed for the whole ride. There are some brilliant performances from DiCaprio and Jackson in particular, and an otherworldly performance from Waltz to help it on it's way. However, most importantly, this is a film which not only retains all the hallmarks of a Tarantino film, but it is a brilliant film outright. A definite to watch.