Django Unchained

This being my first post in a while, I want to say a few things before I get to this review:

1) I'm sorry I've been gone so long.
2) Go see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Just do it.
3) I'm definitely back though. For real this time.

It kind of makes me sad that it's taken me this long to come back, but I don't think I would have wanted to come back to pick apart any other film than this one. Quentin Tarantino draws critics to his films like moths to flame, and Django Unchained is certainly no exception.

Tarantino is known for paying homage to his favorite styles of film. The Kill Bill series and Inglourious Basterds are his tributes to kung fu and World War II films, and now he's taking a stab at spaghetti westerns with Django Unchained. Set two years before the Civil War, the film follows a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) and his dentist-turned-bounty-hunter owner/partner Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) as they hunt fugitive slave-handlers and attempt to rescue Django's wife from the clutches of wealthy plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). If you have any prior knowledge of Tarantino, then you should automatically assume that a premise like that is going to be gruesomely violent, highly laden with vulgar language, and overall a fantastic cinematic experience. I am pleased to announce that your assumption is correct.

Although this is not my favorite one of Tarantino's works (that title belongs to Inglourious Basterds. You can tell me how wrong I am that it's not Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs in the comments. It's not going to change my mind), Django still impresses, doing everything it sets out to do with the same lopsided mixture of bloody action, unique characters, and quote-worthy dialogue that we have come to expect from Tarantino's off-kilter universe. Therefore, the burden is carried mostly by the performances of the cast, all of which were perfectly placed. Jamie Foxx's turn as the title character is an amazing mix of a man haunted by his brutal past and a gunslinger who is enjoying his job a little too much. DiCaprio is captivating as a plantation owner who is as repulsively vile as he is completely oblivious as to how evil he truly is. Even Samuel L. Jackson's relatively small role as head house slave Stephen is perfectly balanced between comedic relief and scheming cretin. But the runaway role goes once again to Christoph Waltz as bounty hunter King Schultz. Inglourious Basterds had us see Waltz as an actor who could play an incredible villain, even earning an Academy Award for his part as Nazi colonel Hans Landa. Django Unchained shows us that he is just as capable of playing the good guy. Waltz sells his character as a gunslinging man of the law who is willing to live and die by his altruistic moral code. The breakout character of the movie yet again, I will be truly surprised if he doesn't get nominated again this year.

The other facet of the film that really impressed me was its pacing. Quentin Tarantino is not known for making short movies, and Django is no exception, clocking in at right under three hours. Unlike most of his other films, however, it never feels quite like it. There is never a dull moment, from the first moments of the movie where we see Django being transported by slavers across the Texas desert to the film's explosive finale, as Tarantino never makes us feel like we spent all afternoon in a dark theater.

So if this movie is so good, why does it not make my top spot as my favorite Tarantino flick? The answers are very nitpicky. Although the characters are all played expertly by the actors, none of them (save maybe Waltz's character) are nearly as memorable as some of the characters we've seen in his prior films. Django is also a more action-packed movie than the others, which diverted some of the attention away from the tense wordplay that has become associated with Tarantino's work. And frankly, I just didn't like the ending. Sue me.

Django Unchained is a fantastic movie. It's not perfect, but it's pretty close, and anyone who isn't easily offended by gore or language needs to make seeing this movie a priority. I give it 9 and a half learning-how-to-be-a-better-shot montages out of 10.