Three years since Inglourious Basterds was released, Quentin Tarantino storms back onto the screen with another revenge drama in Django Unchained. Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave in the pre-Civil War Deep South who finds himself in the company of a bounty hunter disguised as a German doctor, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). Schultz promises Django freedom and to help him find his wife, if he agrees to assist him in his quest to locate the Brittle Brothers.
Jamie Foxx gives a solid performance as the dark and brooding Django, but is completely overshadowed by the masterful gravitas that Christoph Waltz carries, as per usual. More importantly, (and more surprisingly for me) Leonardo DiCaprio is outstanding as the ruthless and slimy Calvin Candie, who cuts a repugnant figure. To my knowledge this is DiCaprio’s first outing as a villain and he should definitely do these kind of roles more often.
Tarantino shapes Django as a loving blend of Blaxploitation and Spaghetti Western, with all the accompanying throwbacks, such as camera angles and music cues. Not to mention many cameos which will have the film buffs among you salivating (such as the brilliant moment when Django meets the original Django). As expected, Django is a stylish film coloured vibrantly with some truly beautiful and well put together scenes. It has a dream-like quality about it – you are constantly aware of it’s existence in a parallel universe rather than taking the film at face value and believing these were at any time real historical events.
Although the plot is very linear and pretty straightforward, Django is, in a sense, the first of its kind for the way it approaches traditional cultural stereotypes. The conventional white gunslinger and his accomplice is turned on its head and it quickly becomes a tale of retribution where Django is in charge, all guns blazing. Violence depicted towards black characters are purposefully brutal and realistic whereas violence towards the mainly racist white characters is almost of a cartoonish quality to evoke sympathy from the audience and show black freedom fighting from white oppression.
This is Tarantino at his best; tactfully and sombrely broaching the harsh topics of racism and slavery but also with the ability to poke fun at audience expectations and have some really silly scenes, such as when a KKK gathering descends into an argument about hoods. But, like most Tarantino which has come before it, apart from being highly stylised and a glorious homage to the genres it represents, there’s not an awful lot of substance behind it. You will come away with a sense of enjoyment but feeling a kind of pointlessness about it all.
But to an extent that is the point of it. Django Unchained is unapologetic about everything: it’s almost methodical use of profanity, blood, violence, belly laughs, everything. It’s proud to be a popcorn flick, and so it should be, as it may be the best one of this coming year.
Verdict: 4.5 Stars