Brutal, funny, unique and brilliant

Rating: 9/10 (22 March 2015)

Quentin Tarantino certainly has an impressive and interesting body of work now. However, there are times when I feel he hasn't been breaking through the way he should. That he hasn't made his "Schindler's List" yet. He's too much in his comfort zone, not stretching himself. A bit like Kevin Smith, they're both too content with the same old male-centric teenage fantasies featuring clever dialogue, violence or sexual crudeness and inter-connecting story lines. They both ignore the rules of film.
Django does have some deeper themes though. And Tarantino manages to give this movie a positive kind of ambiguity. Is it completely tongue-in-cheek or is he trying to make a point here? Which parts are sincere? In any case, Django goes all the way which is the important thing. There is no holding back, no watering down. It's strange but captivating. Completely unbelievable but never distractingly stupid or unrealistic. You could accept that stranger stories have taken place.
There are many similarities to the Kill Bill movies. Both are highly violent, epic tales of revenge. The main character starts off incapacitated, is disadvantaged by either race or gender but finally plans to track down and kill their antagonists. Women and black people can be heroes too, they can be deadly and powerful. The human spirit transcends cultural barriers.
It is also similar to Inglorious Bastards in the way it builds unbearable tension. The way a villain plays with their victims, torturing them with lengthy, partially irrelevant monologues. And of course there is Christoph Waltz. He is very enjoyable as Dr. Schultz which suits his strengths as an actor perfectly. He is quirky, confident, intelligent and spontaneous. The way his character is introduced and then developed is very cool. He is such a polite and eccentric bad-ass.
I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was brilliant in his role. He didn't hold back and he completely summons the audience's attention in every scene he's in. Normally a deranged, racist madman wouldn't make a particularly interesting bad guy. But here the menace is very real and he can't really be avoided in Django's mission. He is so delightfully, colourfully detestable. Many of his scenes are full of suspense, you don't know when he might flip out or just continue to be falsely gentlemanly. Samuel L. Jackson also brought a lot of intensity to the movie, mainly with his eyes but also with his voice and timing.
Tarantino's cameo was hilarious, as was a lot of the movie overall. There is a lot of black humour (no pun intended). In fact, there are few scenes that don't have playful jokes and ideas within them somewhere. A scene about hoods was one of the funniest I think I've ever seen. Other very funny moments included seeing Django learn new words and wearing his personal choice of clothes.
Tarantino seems to like turning genres on their head, playing with audience expectations, going to extremes just to get a reaction. But he does this as a huge fan of all kinds of movies, as an expert on affecting an audience in a certain way. It's not merely a gimmick, it's a powerful tool that very few film-makers know how to (or dare) to employ. And the bottom line is entertainment. Whether the audience is laughing, gasping, thinking, crying or some combination, they're entertained. Django Unchained was crazy, exhilarating, disturbing and highly fun.