Movie Review: Django Unchained

Django Unchained is Quentin Tarantino’s latest epic, a western (or rather ‘Southern’) genre action movie revolving around the titular Django, a freed slave played by Jamie Foxx. With the help of a German bounty hunter, Django becomes an experienced bounty hunter himself, with the eventual goal of rescuing his wife from a Mississippi plantation.

This is an amazing piece of cinema. Nothing less than expected from Tarantino, who has proven he is a master in this field time and time again. Django Unchained starts off as western as it can be, with old-school type starting credits and the original Django-soundtrack of the 1960’s inspiration. Fast zooms and extreme close-ups are used throughout the movie to keep that style of the western present throughout, but Tarantino wouldn’t be Tarantino if he didn’t inject his own style into the mix.

There is some great action here, all brutal and gruesome. Although not as over-the-top as can be seen in some of Tarantino’s earlier works, the blood does flow rather freely. The story does not depend on the action however, but rather revolves around the great characters. There is some incredible writing here, with good and proper flawed characters, and amazing actors to portray them. Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and especially Leonardo DiCaprio depict their respective roles splendidly. They get plenty of time to do so too, with over 2,5 hours the movie is a longer than standard film. It never felt like a long sit or boring to me, but I did feel like the story had somewhat of a problem with pacing at times. The character of Django transforms throughout the story, and this had to be shown with some key moments in time, but I felt like this could have been done cleaner and more efficiently. A minor point of critique in an otherwise great script however.

There is a heap of hilarity in the movie as well, which I am sure some misguided people will take as an insult to the serious nature of the slavery issues shown in the movie. Even though there is plenty of laughs to be had, I feel certain none of them could be considered racist, although it is obviously not my prerogative to judge on this. The theme of slavery is a serious one, but if anything the cruel and brutal way in which it is portrayed in this film only underlines this fact, rather than make light of it.

Django Unchained is an excellent flick, on a multitude of dimensions. The acting, directing, the action and production value are all stellar. This is certainly a movie to be experienced on the big screen.