My 2-Cents

Rating: 4/10 (17 July 2013)

With any Quentin Tarantino directed movie you know that you are going to be watching a motion picture that has it's share of twists, spin and reverse spin. "Pulp Fiction" was brilliantly filmed with various perspectives from the mix of characters. And "Inglorious Bastards" was equally imaginative with presenting an alternative ending to WWII. Plus, it introduced a superb actor Christoph Waltz to American audiences.
I have seen my share of Western movies in my lifetime. I always thought that John Wayne and Clint Eastwood were the perennial bad asses and the gold standard of Western actors. Basic plots were fine, even the more bizarre Western stories such as "The Wild Wild West" with Robert Conrad were OK in my book. And then, enter Quentin Tarantino's take on a Western....
"Django Unchained" featured an amazing cast including headliners: Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Don Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Christoph Waltz. Great actors with a horrible script. The movie directed and (choke) written by Quentin Tarantino. It could not have been much worse, and even those terrific aforementioned actors could not save this.
"Django Unchained" story line is not overly complicated, and might have made a decent western IF it just maintained some flow. The setting is pre-Civil War,in the South. Bounty hunter, Dr. King Shultz, (Christoph Waltz) frees Django (Jamie Foxx) early in the movie and they team up to make money from collecting bounties, and free his wife Broomhilda Von Shaft (Kerry Washington.)
The movie becomes full of violence to the point where it is nearly silly. You see slaves abused with whippings, beatings, locked into steel boxes in the sun, eaten by dogs, with "nigguh" being spoken so often, you would think that you were at a 'lil Jon or Ice Cube concert. It is completely desensitizing.
As the story develops further, with most of the outlaws dead, Django and Dr. Shultz ride to free Broomhilda from slavery at a plantation called "Candyland" owned by Calvin Candie (Dicaprio.) Candyland is part plantation, and part whorehouse. As it turns out, Calvin also has a passion for watching slaves from the Mandingo tribe fight to the death. In fact, a fight takes place in the main house directly in front of him with the fighters never moving more than 4-feet in any direction as though they were fighting in a phone booth. Of course, one of the fighters ends the fight with eye-gouging, and punches to get a submission from the other...only put out of his misery with a hammer. Beyond gross. The real reason that Dr. Shultz and Django are there is uncovered by the slave overseer, "Stephen" (Samuel L. Jackson.) Moving right along, with the rouse exposed, the killing spree starts. I have no idea how the house even contained that many cowboys and henchmen of Calvin Candy. The scene reminded me of the "Crazy 88's" gang in "Kill Bill 2" being slaughtered by Uma Thurman. There is a tremendous amount of blood splattered onto the walls with bodies piling up everywhere. Most everyone in the main cast is killed, and eventually Django is captured and sold to a mining company to be worked to death.
Quentin Tarantino makes a brief appearance as an Australian cowboy that is in the process of delivering slaves to the mining company. (By now, you will have been looking at your watch wondering when this film might ever end.)
In the final scene, Django tricks his captures and kills the other two with him. Of course, he returns to Candyland to take revenge on all the remaining survivors of the previous night's gunfight. Django gets his wife and ride off with Candyland blown all to bits.
"Django Unchained" is a ridiculous movie that becomes unintentionally funny. Picture "Blazing Saddles meets "Kill Bill 2" in a western setting and you are almost there. I hated the movie, but thought that the acting was terrific.