Entertaining and witty movie...85%

Rating: 8/10 (6 February 2013)

Like director Quentin Tarantino's earlier movie, "Inglourious basterds", this one is about the return of the repressed. In the earlier movie, that was the Jew, with the added twist that this time he was taking the fight up to Hitler! This time, it's the negro slave just before the American civil war which outlawed slavery. Not sure if Tarantino has mined all the wronged ethnic groups...Jews and black Africans...that's it, surely? Stay tuned. In any case, like "Inglourious basterds" this is a highly entertaining day dream of the "What if...?" variety. A revenge fantasy in other words.
The story involves a secret bounty hunter (Dr. King Schultz, played by Christoph Waltz) who poses as a travelling dentist, in order to find his latest targets, three brothers wanted for murder and robbery. He needs somebody who can identify the brothers for him, so needs a slave to buy who knows them by site. That turns out to be Django (played by Jamie Foxx). Schultz is a German and has an 'innocent abroad' way to him, as far as America's slave system goes. He marvels at people's reactions to what Django does when he is with him. It is curious to me why Tarantino chose a German to be in this role. Having recently watched the interesting documentary series "Civilisation: Is the West history?", I know that Adolf Hitler's views on race were shaped by a German 'scientist' in colonial Africa...in the late 19th century. This link came to me in a scene involving a skull in this movie...there is a very horrific story in the documentary series concerning this German 'scientist' and an African woman, also concerning the creation of a skull.
Anyway, despite Schultz being no advocate of slavery, he realises he needs this cover for his bounty hunting activities (his main cover is that of being a dentist)...Django will play the role of his servant. For this reason, Schultz helps turn Django into an effective bounty hunter...a skill that will become useful to him as Django seeks to reunite with his wife, Broomhilda von Schaft (! played by Kerry Washington), who is a slave on a notorious plantation.
In Hollywood movies or TV series of decades ago, you would often see African Americans in roles...as slaves or as house servants in modern set stories. For the latter, particularly, it's not clear to me exactly what the meaning of this is...that African Americans have 'improved' their lot in America? That they are now treated better by white Americans? There is no such mystery in "Django unchained". Django is the unconventional hero with a quest...where he gets to kill white people. Unthinkable decades ago in US pop culture...that would ordinarily make the character a villain.
Things I liked in this movie:
* A collage of visual styles, taking their cues from genre movies or movies from other countries.
* The visual aesthetic of place...e.g. the boggy Main St. in some tiny town...it really made the place look like a dung hill...which is unusual for Westerns.
* Leonardo DiCaprio's gaze of searching intensity on Django (DiCaprio plays Calvin Candie, a notorious slave owner who Django must deal with in order to get his wife returned to him safely).
* An interesting question asked by Candie to his dinner guests, where he uses a human skull as a prop. Be interesting to know if the answer he proffers was the 'intellectual' explanation of the day. It's this scene which brought to mind the scene in the documentary series "Civilisation" and the question of why Tarantino had a German play the role of the bounty hunter. Irony?
* I especially liked the scene where Big Daddy (who I didn't realise was played by Don Johnson...hey, I never watched "Miami vice"!) discusses with one of his female slaves how she should treat Django...it's witty and shows real human character and psychology at play. Good screen writing that.
* There is also humour in Django's early fashion sense, once he becomes part of Schultz' quest to claim the bounty on three brothers.
* Speaking of actors I did not recognise...I had heard that Samuel L. (for "Ladies love..."?) Jackson was good in a disturbing role in this movie. I was enjoying the humour of a certain character in this movie and then...it dawned on me that that was Mr. Jackson hisself! Most amusing was his character's paraphrasing of William Shakespeare's Richard III (who, by the by, has recently been discovered under car park in England!).
Other points of interest:
* I was browsing a newsagent magazine rack and noticed a feature on this movie...there was a particularly horrific picture from the movie...it might have been on the cover of this magazine, which was a horror magazine. Glad to say that this scene is not in the movie...even though the movie is bloody and violent, this particular shot (which I assume to be in the slave fight scene in Candie's mansion) was just too gruesome, in an over the top manner. Which begs the question: has the Australian release of this movie been censored? If not, is that scene to be included in some 'director's cut' of the film for DVD?
* Quentin Tarantino plays an Australian in this movie...for some reason. Australian John Jarratt also is in scenes with him, playing an Australian. This just seems really random. Jarratt piles his 'Australianness' on thick and Tarantino's accent is good in parts. Well, good in part, singular. Still, Robin Williams could no doubt learn something about Australian accents from Tarantino. Which isn't really saying much! All this stuff is anachronistic, but fits in with some of the caricatures of Americana found in this movie.
* Story wise, I did find it odd how Schultz' and Candie's final interaction with each other played out, considering what was at stake...beforehand, it was Schultz always advocating Django to be judicious.