"Django Unchained" - Film Review

Revisionist Westerns have had a good go of it in recent film history. The two most notable examples are Clint Eastwood’s 1992 Oscar winning masterpiece Unforgiven and HBO’s groundbreaking tv series Deadwood. Unforgiven was astounding for its time; it amped up the moral greyness that the Western was capable of, and Eastwood used his well-known persona and iconic stature within the genre to ask questions about the mythos of the films that had come before it. The protagonist William Munny is a reformed outlaw, still well-remembered and infamous for his violence and many murders of innocent people. He’s now settled down, and the woman, his wife, who made him give up his old ways, has passed on; his only remaining interests are his two children. It’s not the most likely of heroes, and Eastwood throws the whole question of the notion of the hero and romance of the Old West into scrutinizing inspection. Deadwood adopts the moral murkiness of Unforgiven but goes one step further: it dirties up everything. The streets of the camp town of Deadwood are filled with mud and muck. And everyone is more foulmouthed than the next, and the F-word is dropped regularly.

Django Unchained is a different breed of Western revisionism. There’s still a clear good versus evil struggle at the heart of it, which aligns it more with older Westerns, but it’s the way the story is told and unfolds that causes it to stand out (I mean, have you ever heard a rap song in a Western?). Django (Jamie Foxx) is freed by German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), who is seeking out criminals that only Django knows the face of. Django, happy to be free, helps Schultz track down the Brittle brothers (vicious slave overseers wanted for murder). Grown to like Django, Schultz agrees to help him save his wife from the clutches of the evil plantation owner Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Quentin Tarantino has established a brand for himself: “The Tarantino Film”. No one quite makes a film with the auteur-like grandeur of Tarantino. His films contain pastiche, homage, genre bending, unique dialogue, and slow builds that boil over into immense violence. Many have attempted to re-create this delicious blend that has made him so popular, iconic, and successful, and many and more have failed. Django is another display of how capable and assured the director is, and with the success he’s achieved how willing he is to try ambitious, interesting things that other people shy away from. Django is stylish and cool, but never without substance. It’s excessively violent, but never lacking intelligence. Whether you’re a fan of his films or not, it’s impossible not to stop and take notice of his films. They’re so unlike anything else on the market that they stand out by comparison. While recent works of his such as Ingrlourious Basterds and Grindhouse (and even Django) never reach the dizzying heights of brilliance that made Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction put him on the map, they’re still some of the best films of recent years.     

Foxx ‘s stoic, quiet rage and Waltz’s untapped enthusiasm and liveliness, along with an unexpected but memorable turn by DiCaprio as skeethy slaveowner Candie breathe vibrancy and life into an already entertaining film. Django Unchained is a bloody good time and well-worth seeing.

Grade: A-