Tarantino At His Finest

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2012)

Going into a Tarantino film I expected a lot of blood and gore with a lot of action. I also expected an extremely unusual soundtrack. I didn't really have high hopes for a story line but Django Unchained didn't meet all of those expectations. What lacked in action, for the first 70% at least, thrived in rich characters and an amazing story. This movie completely blew me away.
Django is a slave who was set free by a bounty hunter so he could get help on a bounty. The deal was for Django to help with the bounty in exchange for freedom. Now, I thought that was going to be the entire movie with one act dedicated to hunting down one brother. Instead the three brothers are all taken down at once and then I'm wondering where they go from there. Django then tells a story of how he was married and he and his wife were separated. The bounty hunter, Dr. Schultz is German and Django's wife was also German so they set on a quest to go save her. That is the real story. Find the wife and gain the freedom.
Jamie Foxx kills it as Django. It was so much fun to watch his character develop from a shaky slave into a cold blooded killer. He is driven by revenge at first and then by love. He wants to find his wife. He and Dr. Schultz naturally get along and connect. Their relationship drives the movie for the first half. Christoph Waltz shows an Oscar caliber performance as Django's mentor. He teaches Django how to kill and be a bounty hunter. In essence, he really saved his life. He treats Django like a man and not a slave. He lets him ride a horse, take the kill, even dress how he wants. From the beginning he makes his appearance in this movie known and sets the tone for the entire movie. Django's wife is owned by one of the biggest slave owners in the South, Calvin Candie, who is played by Leo DiCaprio. Leo steals the show. He plays the villain and you can tell he enjoyed it and had so much fun with the role. The first scene he is in he is watching a brawl between slaves. It is a fight to the death and he is cheering on his slave. One problem with the movie I do have is that it can be very disturbing at times. Seeing blood everywhere from being beaten to a pulp is hard to watch. I think he ripped an eye out as well. Then he finished him off with a hammer to the skull. The blood and death isn't the problem, it's the idea of why he is killing him. It is for pure amusement and money of Candie. That was his first scene and the audience knows he means business and he is an evil man. I don't really know if anybody expected this movie to be as funny as it was but it was hilarious. From the first scene to the ending credits I was laughing constantly. Schultz provides a lot of the comic relief but a cameo by Jonah Hill made me lose it. Jonah hill was part of a gang that I think was supposed to be the KKK and the entire scene was just fun to watch. I saw him and my first thought was, Oh no, why is he going to ruin this movie. Thankfully it was just a cameo and it fit perfectly. The rest of the movie had its laughs and its moments that I won't soon forget. When you see a Tarintino film you can expect a strange soundtrack. Kill Bill had a great soundtrack that had a lot to do with culture and the scenes provided. The opening credits had a strange western song with the lyrics saying Django over and over again. I was pleased to see I was going to get what I wanted. I say it time and time again, music makes the movie and in Django Unchained, the music makes this a better movie. During the action sequences there was one or two times that rap music was playing and it kind of fit but I didn't like it. It took me out of the moment. I was so into this movie and I felt like I was really there but there was no rap music in the 1800s so it almost ruined the moment. People can find this movie really offensive. I really don't know why but I decided to count how many times they said the N word. I counted 101. Websites say 100+ or 110, but I counted 101 and I'm sticking to it. People are mad at Tarintino for doing this but it is the time period. It was how America was at the time. It isn't offensive, it's accurate. People also thought this movie was too long. Its 165 minutes, almost three hours, but in my opinion there is no such thing as too long a movie. I could have sat in that theatre for three more hours if t let me enjoy the masterpiece I was watching. I understand it s uncomfortable sitting n a movie theatre seat for a really long time but when I'm in the comfort of my own home I never want a movie to end. Overall, Django Unchained was a movie I'm not going to forget anytime soon. The action was scattered thorough out the movie but really exploded in the final act. The dialog was comical and clever. The music was mostly fantastic. The acting was Oscar worthy and it was highly entertaining. Go see this movie because it gets the WillyT Seal of Approval.