Review of Django Unchained (2012) by Nesbitt10 — 09 Jul 2013

A wild-bloody, live action cartoon with a homicidal vengeance, a reversal of roles, much like "Inglorious Basterds"; rewriting history if you will, they way Quinten Tarantino sees it, and the way we enjoy it. Quinten takes his blood-spattered historical tent show on the road, putting down stakes in Antebellum Dixieland. Not technically a "Basterds" prequel, "Django" stems from a similar impulse, to reframe and rewrite American history in boldly absurd strokes. "Inglorious Basterds" is an exceptional film, but "Django Unchained" surpasses its predecessor, and then some.

The movie opens in 1858 Texas with the unorthodox purchase of a slave, Django (Jamie Foxx), by a dentist-turned-bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz (Christopher Waltz). Since Schultz doesn't believe in slavery, he soon frees Django and the two become partners in Schultz's business. After a profitable winter, they head to Mississippi where their goal is to locate Django's wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). When they succeed, they find an excuse to be invited to the plantation where she is being held. There, they are guests of the mansion's master, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), where their act bamboozles everyone except Candie's personal slave, Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), who smells a rat the moment he sets eyes on Django.

When Tarantino first introduces audiences to the two characters we'll come to embrace and respect, it's while Django (Foxx) is chained up to other slaves as they march slowly in the dark in the middle of nowhere. Dr. Schultz arrives playing the role of a dentist in a scene that's close to being as perfectly written and delivered as Waltz' farmhouse scene from “Basterds,” freeing Django and thus begins a reluctant partnership. What starts as an uneasy alliance in which one side holds all the power, transforms over the course of the movie into one in which the unlikely pair become partners and friends. Delivering this transformation along with character development, Tarantino is at his screenwriting best.

There is not a single misstep by any of the “Unchained” cast. Led by Foxx as a slave-turned-bounty-hunter, and Waltz as a man with more layers than initially revealed, this ensemble is a perfectly cast with everyone at the top of their games. “Django” is an absolute must-see for Tarantino fans, but it's not necessary to be into either Tarantino or just Westerns to be fully entertained. There are many notable cameos: Don Johnson (small part), Jonah Hill, Amber Tamblyn, Bruce Dern, Tom Savini, Robert Carradine, and Franco Nero (who played the lead character in the unrelated 1966 film, Django).

Tarantino is one of the few filmmakers that seamlessly and successfully merges style with substance. He is a creature of cinema, unashamedly standing on the shoulders of greats, forging new meaning out of the universal cultural experiences. That is why as far as I'm concerned “Django Unchained” is one of the best of 2012.