Django Unchained is Tarantino's attempt at a spaghetti western

Rating: 6/10 (4 January 2013)

"Quentin Tarantino's attempt at a spaghetti western is mixed using usual Tarantino comedy in some situations but with one to many endings to the story the film does feel slow going through the whole film" In 2009 when Inglorious Basterds was released I was such a big fan and was excited to see what his follow up role would be. This film tells the story of a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) and when he met Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) who took him to be a bounty hunter to help find some brothers in reward for Django's freedom. After the two succeed in their mission Schultz decides to help Django find his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) who happens to be on Candieland owned by the very cruel slave owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).
The film does not feel edited like any other Tarantino film because the edit does not feel as tight and that is sad because unfortunately Tarantino's long running editor died, the film still was a good edit but with the absence of Sally it just not feel as tamed as his past works. The film is long as we see Django and Schultz travel over many distances to different lands meeting many strange characters. The film does have the usual Tarantino fare through the spoken dialogue especially displayed by the character of Dr. King. The film does contain the surprise of the character Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) who we first see as a slave but it is later revealed what he truly means to the character of Calvin and how he is the true evil character in the film. Some scenes seemed out of place and the fact the film had two shootouts was too much for me to watch because it felt like Tarantino was trying to shock with the buckets of blood used. The film does show the violence of slavery very rough when many slaves are punished.
Jamie Foxx plays Django and the character of Django is not as flashy as the supporting characters but Foxx is fine in the role I believe just being a murder machine throughout the film. Christoph Waltz plays Dr. King Schultz and once again playing a German for Tarantino, Waltz has mastered this language making almost all of his lines hilarious. In this film Waltz is not the villain but a hero of sorts and Waltz performance is maybe not as good as Basterds but still a great performance. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the villain Calvin Candie and while he plays the character well I had some problems when his character showed his rage and DiCaprio's screaming voice just does not work and that is why his performance was not as amazing as the character I red could have been. Samuel L. Jackson plays Stephen and from the moment her appears till his explosive departure he steals the film from every other character in the film. Jackson plays the character so well and once we find out the secret of the character that interesting turn was played so well and shows Stephen was the true evil of the whole piece. Kerry Washington plays Broomhilda and for the first time in a Tarantino film he does not have a strong women and Washington's performance suffers from being underwritten not really doing much but be the damsel in distress. The rest of the cast is used much less but every other character has at least one funny moment and some standouts of the smaller roles are Don Johnson and Walton Goggins.
The film is not the mess I thought it would be compared to other films in Tarantino's past the story is not as strong and while the production values of the film are great not much scenes in the film seem as memorable as scenes that have been in some of his past films. It's still great to see some of these actors do great work and seeing Jackson and Waltz together in a Tarantino film is perfect as they are the best actors he has ever worked with.
MOVIE GRADE: B (MVP: Samuel L. Jackson)