Pleasantly surprised!

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2013)

I'm not usually a huge Tarantino film. I loved Pulp Fiction, but hated Kill Bill 1 so much I didn't even bother with the second film. I'm not really a fan of 'revenge' as a theme, or senseless, glorified violence. So it was with these apprehensions that I went to see Django... And I am so glad I did!
Tarantino is a genius when it comes to dialogue and characters. Every line in Django is perfectly and precisely executed, and each character completely unique. For me, the stand out performance was Christoph Waltz as Dr Schultz. The juxtaposition between Schultz's gentlemanly demeanour and his violent vocation is brilliant. In fact, the whole film plays on this apparent contradiction between respectability and brutality - for example the horrific sport of 'Mandingo' (basically cock-fighting with slaves instead of hens...) being played in a beautiful, expensive parlour and enjoyed by 'gentlemen'. The constant blending of these ideas meant that I was continually surprised and utterly engrossed.
I won't deny that the the subject matter is uncomfortable, and I'm still not sure how I feel about Tarantino's morality when it comes to slavery, violence and revenge. Overall, however, I did enjoy the film, in the way one might guilty enjoy an extended inappropriate joke...