Review of Django Unchained (2012) by Filius S — 13 Dec 2015

Django Unchained is movie DJ Quentin Tarantino's 7th film, and his first foray into Western territory.

The film stars Jamie Foxx as the titular Django, a slave who has been separated from his wife during that slavey time in US history. One day while walking in a chain, his march is abruptly halted by Christoph Waltz, who plays a German American Bounty Hunter, posing as a traveling dentist. One way or another (watch the movie fucker) he manages to get Django in his employ so that he can identify a couple of people needed for a bounty. Together they set out on their adventure towards the west.

During their travels, Waltz becomes impressed with Foxx's good marksmanship, and friendly company, and decides to extend his hand in partnership. As they travel around collecting bounties, they form a bond, and it's agreed that Waltz will help Foxx find his wife, ahem, 'Broomhilda' (fucking Tarantino).

Unbeknownst to the pair, Broomy, is living in the most racistly racist plantation in the South, known as Candyland (more similar to Willy Wonka's factory than you'd think), run by its 'White is Right' owner John Calvin Candy, and staffed by his loyal house nigger Stephen. Both challenging roles are expertly portrayed, the former by Leo Dicaprio, and the latter by Tarantino veteran, Samuel L. Jackson, with their relationship serving as a broken mirror image of the one shared by Foxx and Waltz.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty, this is an expertly woven storyline, with characteristic Tarantino dialogue, a decent amount of laughs, and the typical Tarantino level of over the top violence. The characters feel like they're really interacting with one another, and the world feels fleshed out and realistic - which is sort of unbelievable considering the pulp feel of this film.

The cinematography is good, but lacks some of the impressive and memorable framings found in other works by the director. The lighting is what tends to stand out more here, with places like Candy's private Mandingo fighting room putting on a level of opulence and warmth so over the top that it almost emanates through the screen.

Tarantino's films have become noted for their soundtracks, heavily reliant on music from pop culture, and Django Unchained is no different. The film makes heavy usage of Ennio Morricone and Luis Bacalov (two famed Spaghetti Western composers) songs, including the theme song from the Corbucci classic Django, from which this films title, and character's name is derived. Unfortunately, Tarantino decided to break the 4th wall, in a sense, by including a trap-snare filled song from Rick Ross called 100 Black Coffins which not only doesn't fit the scene it's in, but it fails to do so in an ironic fashion. This pulled me out of the movie by way of my suspension of disbelief in a method so severe that I don't think any other situation in any other film could compare. The choice of song actually feels vaguely insulting to me, in the sense that Rick Ross uses the moniker of a famous Drug Dealer, while he himself was a corrections officer prior to becoming a rapper, giving the whole line of "we need a 100 black coffins" an air of such inauthenticity that it cheapens the message of the film. As a result, the trade off for using a "gangster song" to make the character seem "gangster" ends up feeling like a complete cop out.

But, I digress. Essentially, the film is marred by it's partially spotty (still partially amazing) soundtrack, its lack of any particularly memorable camera work and shots, a few characteristically over the top deaths, and a couple of jokes that dragged too long. Still, that isn't quite enough to give it a bad review, and the amount of good things in this film are enough to heavily outweigh the bad.

TL;DR - 8/10.

Django Unchained is a good piece of film, but when stacked against Tarantino's other work, it does fall flat. The dialogue and story doesn't compare with Pulp Fiction. The tension and grittiness doesn't match Reservoir Dogs. The brutality and intrigue doesn't match Inglorious Basterds. The over-the top action and out of place music doesn't match Kill Bill. The result is the film is much less memorable, and I blame part of that on Django's character himself. Jamie Foxx is a good actor, but he offers absolutely nothing to the lead character, and the whole movie suffers as a result. In fact, if you were to take away Waltz and Dicaprio, this film would absolutely plummet in rating, and it's not enough for a film to be propped up by two supporting actors at the expense of the lead.