Review of Django Unchained (2012) by Brandon F — 22 Jul 2014

Quentin Tarantino is and probably always will be one of my all-time favorite directors, thus I admittedly am a tad biased when it comes to his films. Having said that, "Django Unchained" is especially worthy of praise due to the fact that even among his other films it is completely unique.

Tarantino's eighth film is a period piece/spaghetti-western about a freed slave named Django (an homage to the 1970s Italian cult classic) who's on a quest to reunite with his wife, Broomhilda and is joined by the bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz.

Of course Tarantino is no stranger to controversy, even so "Django" is probably his most controversial movie to date, with many film critics and historians finding the film's violently over-saturated depiction of American slavery in the South to be (understandably) ill-conceived and morally questionable. It's important to note however, that the film is in no way meant to be a realistic depiction of historical events but rather a satirical experiment into just how far themes like slavery can be taken in the context of a story and/or genre that has little or nothing to do with such themes. After all, look at just how many speculative fiction stories use themes from the Holocaust as a backdrop for a story that is otherwise completely unrelated, and yet there are a very seldom few that use American slavery as a backdrop (and even less that use it as audaciously as "Django" does); and it's for that reason that I say this film is unique among most others.

Beyond the more obvious aspects, "Django Unchained" also hosts a slew of great performances as well as cameos throughout -- speaking of which, without giving away the scene, I have to mention the hilarity of Tarantino's character's death scene: trust me when I say, he makes one hell of an exit.

"Django Unchained" is loud, obnoxious, violent, exploitative, sadistic, wacky, dramatic, ironic, sad, clever, and loaded with some of the best dialogue QT has ever written. In short: everything we've come to expect of the director/writer of the film.