Django Unchained

Django Unchained is Quentin Tarantino’s eight feature film and sees a return to the historical genre that he explored so well during Inglorious Basterds, albeit with the same kind of wit, humour and dialogue driven scenes that he is known for. Considering the coincidence of having this and Spielberg’s Lincoln (a film I haven’t seen yet) come out at the same time, as they both deal with slavery in a similar time period, Django takes place two years prior to the American Civil War, they both seemingly address it very differently, one dealing with the politics of removing slavery while the other, in very Tarantino way, deals with the experiences of the slaves and world they lived in.

The basic story of Django Unchained is relatively straight forward, it follows Django (Foxx), a slave freed by Dr King Schultz, a bounty hunter (Waltz), as they knows what three wanted criminals look like, the Brittle brothers. After they are dispached (it’s very early on, so shouldn’t be classed as a spoiler), Django tells Schultz of his wife and how they were separated and sold to different owners at a market. Schultz agrees to help Django go and rescue his wife, if he works with him through winter to collect more bounties.

Jamie Foxx plays the titular character of Django, a character that has to play to different personalities, one the vengeful husband out to find his wife and the other, an act put on when he is with Schultz and around white people of a black slaver, one of the lowest things you can be in this world. It is Foxx who holds the films performances together, he plans the straight man, which allows everyone else the freedom to go off and take it that bit further, something that the other three male stars do very well with.

Violence has always been apart of Tarantino’s films,  none more so here. The effect of the weapons of the time on the bodies is more than likely exaggerated, but leaves no doubt of the destruction that these early firearms would have done. One gun fight in the second half of the film, literally covers the walls in blood as the bodies are hit with all manner of different guns. This is the only gun fight where the level of blood my risk pushing going over the top, but it just manages to keep a hold on it.

The fighting violence and slaver on slave violence is however more restrained and brutal, one parlour fight between two slaves where two white owners watch on, is one of the nastiest fights I have seen on screen and is no doubt how fights like that would have looked, sounded and ended like. There is one dog scene, which I will say nothing about, but is hard to watch and actually shows some restrained camerawork and editing by Tarantino.

Christoph Waltz is an actor perfectly suited to Tarantino’s worlds, he is able to get across the dialogue and mannerisms of his characters and make them look and feel complete. Like his near perfect turn in Inglorious Basterds, Waltz gives us another great German character, the dentist turned bounty hunter who is cleverer than probably every other character in the film. He is charming, cold blooded, caring and intelligent and one of the highlights of Django Unchained.

Django Unchained is Trantino’s longest film, coming it and around 2hours and 45 minutes, so it is a commitment, but unlike other people who have seen the film, I didn’t find that it dragged at all, there are maybe parts that could have been shortened or omitted to get the running time down. But never did any of the scenes or sections feel drawn out or needlessly placed there. If the film does feel long, it’s no doubt due to the average length of scenes in Django, as with Inglorious there are a number of long scenes, that are very dialogue driven that last for over ten minutes, the standout being the Candieland dinner scene which comes close to the German pub scene from inglorious.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L Jackson play what would easily be described as the villains of the film, although both are not merely one dimension slavers. They are both cruel and treat their slaves as nothing but meat to bought and sold and then treated as they see fit. But both have motivations for their turns, which I won’t give away as it would ruin the second half of the film. DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie comes across as a spoilt teenager given too much power and money, then let loose to do as he sees fit with everything that his father had left for him.  Jackson, is the cruel house slave, who is in charge of all the other slaves, a role that is lower than even the black slaver in Django’s eyes. His performance, without giving anything away, is probably as scary and unsettling as Hans Lander in Inglorious.

Django Unchained sees Tarantino back to his best form and marks the second in a historical trilogy, which gives us more of his great dialogue and his flair for characters while paying homage to number of different genres, all within one that we are seeing less and less of.