Best picture of 2012

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2013)

The way Quentin Tarantino begins his little yet very rich essay on Sergio Corbucci (published by Fangoria magazine on its January 2013 edition) could very well be a perfect beginning for a review/essay/article on DJANGO UNCHAINED, Tarantino's fist feature film since INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009). "Reimagining the Western genre for his own ends, Sergio Corbucci used cowboy pictures, and his vast knowledge of them -not to mention his expertise on Japanease samurai pictures- to explore and examine the evils inherent in fascism"; if we change the name Sergio Corbucci for Quentin Tarantino, and the word "fascism" for "slavery", we would have a great resume of what DJANGO UNCHAINED is.
In his essay, Tarantino talks mainly about the great violence and cruelty featured in the work of Corbucci – whether DJANGO UNCHAINED is Tarantino's most violent film or not is a matter of perception (KILL BILL could be my other choice, but there will be people who think that INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is or even RESERVOIR DOGS for its ending and that famous torture scene), but without a doubt this is his most cruel movie.
Forget every other performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, even his brilliant collaborations with Martin Scorsese. This is his very best work so far, and it's a real shame that he's not even nominated for the Oscar. His villain Calvin Candie is the pure representation of that cruelty Tarantino found in Corbucci's world; Candie is a young man who was born and raised in the plantations, who is used to everything related with slavery and therefore bored, so he finds the fun he needs in the Mandingo fighting business: black slaves who fight to the death.
DJANGO UNCHAINED turns to be a brutal slavery movie; if INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (with the exception of one sequence) didn't show the brutality of the Nazis to the Jews (with tons of films about the holocaust it wasn't necessary), here we do see the tortures and all of those slavery issues that apparently are often ignored by American movies. The commentary is certainly strong (Samuel L. Jackson and his great character Stephen is a proof of that), but this being Tarantino in his purest form, the hilarious moments are constantly present.
Tarantino plays with the way white racists are (and with the classic look of the KKK) – in one particular scene, for instance, we see Django (Jamie Foxx) as a free man, riding a horse, and the plantation owner "Big Daddy" (little but brilliant performance by Don Johnson) can't easily explain to one of his female slaves how she has to treat Django (his guest): yes, he ain't no slave but neither is white!
For the second consecutive time, Tarantino took the name of an old Italian film, focused on a genre and on a violent and sad chapter in the history of humanity. In "Basterds" he had the presence (and blessing) of Enzo G. Castellari (director of the original), so it was obvious that Tarantino was going to seek the same with the original Django Franco Nero (Corbucci passed away in 1990). Nero's cameo, if you know the context, is quite memorable; otherwise is probable that, specifically, the scene between him and Tarantino's Django feels a bit out of place. But the presence of Nero is only one of the many elements that indicate the great determination Tarantino had in order to not disappoint his fans and himself with his first official Western.
The director has had Ennio Morricone music in more than one of his films (KILL BILL, DEATH PROOF and "Basterds"), but never before *original music*. With the tune "Ancora Qui", "Unchained" became in yet another Western scored by Morricone – at this point is almost unnecessary to say that Tarantino perfectly knows those details that make a modern movie something glorious for the old fans of the respective genre.
As a pure Western, "Unchained" offers some sort of alternate version of the beginning of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, in which the Good and the Ugly are a bounty hunting team. Here we have Django and the German Dr. King Schultz (played by Christoph Waltz, who once again shines and make the Americans read some subtitles). Jamie Foxx is genius – I never thought Tarantino was going to do again a similar scene to that from KILL BILL in which Bill is by a bonfire telling a story to the Bride. Much less with both Foxx and Waltz; Foxx's Django shows some innocence, and obviously he's too a mythical figure from the Old West (the Deep South really) that won't disappoint anyone seeking for a violent Spaghetti Western.
This is the first Tarantino movie with a straight love story – in KILL BILL love was certainly a constant motivation, but here his protagonist Django is an ex-slave whose one and only goal is to rescue his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), who is a slave of Candie's plantation in Mississippi. Tarantino doesn't show any kind of fear and he is making from a Western, with the slavery thing as background, a fable with a princess that waits for her hero.
As any great film, "Unchained" was much better the second time I watched it an I have no doubt Tarantino has a new MASTERPIECE; with great action, tension, music, brilliant performances, dialogs, sequences and decisions (mixing songs by 2Pac and James Brown for the great climax, for example – this left me a bit confused the first time). Best movie of 2012!
*Watched it on 17 & 18 January, 2013