I like the way you die boy

Rating: 10/10 (7 February 2013)

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most celebrated writer/director around and a great example of someone not needing to go film school to be a successful filmmaker. His long awaited remake of Django, Django Unchained, was a high anticipated film and it will satisfy his large fan based.
Set in 1858 in the South, Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave who ends up being freed by a German dentist turned bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz who needs Django to identity three brothers for a bounty. If Django agrees Schultz promises to help the former slave his freedom and find his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) . Schultz's trains Django and finds that Broomhilda was brought was a vain and sadistic plantation owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo Di Caprio) and have to come up with an ambitious heist to free her.
Like Inglourious Basterds Django Unchained is a very loose remake of the film it is based on. It is also pure historical fiction and a fantasy in its look and approach. But does provide everything you would want and expect from Tarantino film: there is his trademark witty dialogue and menacing monologues, extreme violence and bloody action and plenty of humour. It supplies on a number of fronts and tonally and approach wises it was very much like Inglourious and both Kill Bill films.
Tarantino knows how to write engaging characters and cast great actors to fit the roles. Whilst Foxx is the title character Waltz was the real star of the film. Schultz was intelligence man with witty lines and dominated scenes he was in. A great touch in the characters of Django and Schultz is that it is Schultz that is most shocked by the cruelty of slavery because he is not used to it. Django starts of a very unsure character who is not educated and grows over the cause of the film into a Clint Eastwood esque character.
Di Caprio famously rejected the role of Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds which he regarded. He took the role of Calvin Candie to make up for the mistake and he delivers a good performance of a character who wants to be civilized and sophisticated yet really a barbarian as he enjoys watching men fight to the death. He made for a charismatic and has a great relationship with the head house slave, Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), someone who he treads with distain, but Stephen is deadly loyal to his master.
Django Unchained is genuinely funny with great jokes and physical lines throughout. My personal favourite moment was the satire of the Ku Klux Klan as they end up having a massive argument. But Tarantino also know how to keep the tension and drama up as well and whilst the action may not be on the same level of Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds, it is solid fun and feeds a bloody lust.
Like with many Tarantino films there are film references. There are some moments that are parcelled to Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds (particularly Calvin Candie compared to Hans Landa) and there is a distinct B-Movie feel and look to it. Tarantino wanted to make a Spaghetti Western and there is clear references to the genre because of the art direction, costumes, the violence and the camera moments. Two other references I picked up on were to Birth of a Nation and to a scene in Full Metal Jacket (but played for laughs). I am sure there are more which I would see on future viewings.
The biggest complain I have is the length and it felt that it needed tightening up. It was the final act where Tarantino let the film drag: he need a producer to tell him that he could have merged the final sequences together.
On the whole Django Unchained is a highly enjoyable film that was well written and directed for the most part and has great characters. It will pleases fans and only the most harden Tarantino critic would dislike the film. It's not Tarantino's very best, but even his weaker films are still worth watching.