"Who's that stumblin' around in the dark? State your business or prepare to get winged."
Django Unchained (2012) is the 8th picture from one of the most talented directors of our time, the man who does not posses the fear for controversial subjects and avoids using modern technology such as 3D. Quentin Tarantino is a director who posses the ultimate taste for smooth, intelligent and cliché breaking storytelling. And that is what Django Unchained is all about.
Django Unchained is fundamentally a tale of revenge with a lot tasty ingredients added to it. It's not about striving to achieve world peace, it's about rescuing Django's wife. A small scale story with lots of little details and rich characters. It's done in a way so mezmerizing that it feels like bigger scale film.
What makes Django Unchained so mesmerizing then? The answer to this question is quite simple, because it is fearless, mature and wickedly entertaining (and lots of other things too). The story is not afraid to take into account such a nasty and dark subject as slave trading of black people. It does not to try to hide its subject or try to please the viewer by not showing cruel and horrible things. As this is a movie everything is made to be as entertaining as possible but deep beneath Django shows how bad things actually were in the past. Tarantino does the same for Western here as he did for World War 2 in Inglourious Basterds (2009).
The direction in Django Unchained is glorious. Tarantino is really skilled in directing interaction between humans and it shows. He is one of the few directors around who is able to make table conversation scenes so exhilarating that you feel like you're watching a Finland vs. Sweden Ice Hockey match. The tension is enormous. Also his way of directing action is really refreshing as he does not use CGI (Computer Generated Image) at all. Thank god for that. Blood and explosions are done the old style, shit blows up and real looking fake blood spills out from humans when they are shot. Looks real and makes you happy. Why aren't other directors doing this? Just asking..
The screenplay for Django is detailed and contains a lot of references to his other works and for old movies as well (just like his every film does). It is a movie about movies. A true fan piece. The protagonist Django (Jamie Foxx) is an honest slave who loves his wife and with the help of German born Dentist turned Bounty hunter, played by the extremely talented Christoph Waltz, he begins his quest to rescue his beloved Broomhilda from an evil Plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo Di Caprio). The story contains lots of juiceful events before Django and Dr. Schultz reach Candieland where Broomhilda is held. Tarantino makes all his story's characters, even the small ones interesting and somehow he always manages to find the perfect persons for them. I mean Don Johnsson as a greedy plantation owner. A-list actor in a small role. Fuck yeah where do I sign!
As for what comes to the acting in the film, it is phenomenal (starting to run out praising adjectives here..). Jamie Foxx is a talented actor playing maybe a bit less challenging role. He is Django in every way, Django's character just is not that versatile when compared to other characters in the film. It is not a minus in my books though, just a note since there is nothing wrong either. Christoph Waltz (playing Dr. King Schultz) is a master actor. Dr. Schultz is a charming, intelligent and thoughtful character. He has many sides and is a true incarnation of Waltz's skills as an actor. Leonardo Di Caprio plays the bad guy in Django. He has come a long way from the guy in Titanic. If I'm right this is first time he plays an actual villain. Well played indeed. He makes the character of Calvin Candie a nasty, evil person with a twisted mind. The leader slave and right hand man of Calvin Candie played by who else than Samuel L. Jackson completes the ridiculous amount of talent on screen. Jackson is terrific as always as playing the "dumb smart" slave who is loyal to his master. Absolutely wonderful and funny character I must admit.
In the end Django Unchained is everything you could hope for a film to be. It has a deeper message, it is entertaining, well made and my god the soundtrack is good. During the film I was thinking "This is what a movie should be like". And I still think that way. Go watch it, nevermind your gender, interests, or hobbies. Just make sure you're over 18.
"Auf wiedersehen. Bullseye"
*****/*****
