Django Unchained

Studio: The Weinstein Company
Quentin Tarantino

Dec 24, 2012 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

Few filmmakers could get away with filming feature-length mash notes to their favorite film genres; Quentin Tarantino has built much of his career on them. It feels as if his Spaghetti Western-with-a-dash-of-blaxploitation, Django Unchained, has been in the works forever; the writer/director has been talking about the film for half a decade. Obscurely referential, extremely indulgent, and deliriously over-the-top, Django is-in other words-everything you’d expect from a Tarantino joint, and well worth the wait.

A German bounty hunter (Inglorious Basterds’ Christoph Waltz) enlists a freed slave (Jamie Foxx) by the name of Django-the ‘d’ is silent-to help him hunt down a trio of fugitive scumbags. It’s only a matter of time before the pair is cutting a bloody trail through slavers, Klansmen, and outlaws, as they journey to reunite Django with his wife (Kerry Washington). As you’d expect, the dialogue is sharp, the violence-and oh, there is so much violence-is hyper-stylized to the point of irresistible cartoonishness. The casting, as well, is superb; Leonardo DiCaprio is beyond excellent playing against his type as a smarmy plantation owner, and Samuel L. Jackson turns in one of his best performances in years as a shifty servant. If there’s a major fault, it’s that the film, at 165 minutes, is probably 25 too long. Still, Django should be immensely satisfying for Tarantino fans, and please connoisseurs of the Spaghetti Western; fans of Leone, Corbucci, and Franco Nero will relish in the jarring zooms, awkward close-ups, and the lush widescreen landscapes. For the rest of us, the director’s trademark wit and visual flair will be more than enough to keep us along for the ride.

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