There are always three things to expect when viewing a Quentin Tarantino film — debatable humor, violence and most of all, revenge. When lined up against Tarantino’s other notable successes such as “Pulp Fiction”, “Kill Bill” or “Inglourious Basterds,” “Django Unchained,” does not disappoint. The film dominated the holidays despite surrounding racial controversy and showed once again that Tarantino is perhaps one of the few directors that can blur the lines between an “absurd” film and a “must see.”
“Django Unchained” follows a slave by the name of Django, played by Jamie Foxx, who is rescued from the slave trade by a bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). Schultz, a sympathetic and understanding man, needs Django’s help finding and capturing the Brittle brothers. Thus begins the somewhat comical telling of Django’s newly found freedom and bounty hunter escapades.
As the adventure comes to a close, Django sets off to find his enslaved wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) with Dr. Schultz. They invent a dangerous scheme, pretending to be slave-fighting experts in order to win the trust and hospitality of Broomhilda’s new owner, the infamous Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). But once they enter Candie’s plantation in deep Mississippi, the self-proclaimed “Candyland,” things don’t go as smoothly as originally planned.
Tarantino is known for his use of outdated film techniques and “Django Unchained” is no exception. The movie begins with credits rolling and classic Western music set to a Deep South atmosphere. The score continues throughout the film with a few heavy rap exceptions, somehow creating a delightful mix of old-fashioned and modern.
There are no complaints about the actor choices either, as they all performed brilliantly. Foxx is utterly believable as the revenge-driven former slave. Waltz relinquishes his villainous personas (“Inglourious Basterds,” “Water for Elephants”) in favor of a much more likeable character with commendable morals. And, despite this being one of the few films where DiCaprio is not the top billing actor, he almost steals the show by exuding a positively heinous, yet conceivable, lifestyle of an evil plantation owner during the pre-Civil War era. All of these factors combined create a top-notch film that will have you immersed until the very last second.
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