Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino has done it again. Django Unchained has quickly become one of the most popular films gracing the silver screens, and for good reason. Django is the story of a freed slave teaming up with Bounty Hunter King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to take down a trio of brothers. After some gory gun fights and monologues we find out that Django is married and has been searching for his wife for years which is where the meat and potatoes of the plot arrive. In order for Django to be reunited with his beloved wife they must seek out Calvin Candie (Leo DiCaprio) and his infamous Candie Land (hahaha)....

This film is ruthlessly wonderful. The acting in this film is even better than Basterds!! Christoph Waltz gives us another Academy Award worthy performance (he also won the Golden Globe for best supporting actor in a dramatic film just the other day) as the bounty hunter King Schultz, and Leonardo DiCaprio (also nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category as Waltz) gave the best performance of his career. Jamie Foxx is, however, a little lackluster, he's good, and he suits the part but doesn't really compare to his supporting actors. Now all the characters will, at some point, make you laugh, but none will make your side split more than Samuel L. Jackson.

The plot does seem to draw a lot from other spaghetti western films as well as blaxploitation... But so are most of Tarantino's films... It is also fairly controversial, one thing I did pick up on was the, possibly unintended, display of the weak and submissive slave. We see only one slave rising above the metaphorical and literal chains to stick it to the oppressive slave owners of the south. But that's stretching it, it really shows more of how backwards and racist the south can be. I have no problem with the screenplay however the infatuation Tarantino has with using the N-word gets to be a little to much. So much so that I have to comment on it.

The overall cinematography of this film is classic Tarantino, nothing too tricky and just enough to accentuate the real beauty of this film and that is its characters. It's a little gory, but if you are a fan of his work it'll come off as comical rather than gross.

This film is great, it's edgy and will probably piss off a bunch of people (Spike Lee was quoted saying he is boycotting this film) I give it a 9.8 out of 10. Everything about this movie was great, except for Jamie Foxx who just didn't seem to impress me enough. The film is still in theaters so I strongly urge you to find time and see it once, or twice, or three times...