"Once you loved her, whoa-ohNow you've lost her whoa-oh-oh-ohBut you've lost her for-ever django."

Rating: 8/10 (25 January 2013)

Being left breathless after watching writer/director Quentin Tarantino's brilliant narrative twisting movie Pulp Fiction for the first time in early 2003,I began to greatly anticipate seeing Tarantino unleash his martial arts epic Kill Bill.
once I had seen both parts back to back on Video,I was disappointed to discover that instead of following the route he had started with Pulp Fiction in creating distinctive characters,Tarantino seemed to be more interested in going "Hey guys!,look at how many movie references I can put in one film" and leaving all of the characters as two dimensional shells.
With having become a fan of the Spaghetti-Western sub-genre since seeing Antonio Margaritti's sadly overlooked Supernatural Western And God Said To Cain,I began to hope that his attempt to bring the "Django" character back to the screen,would lead to Tarantino rediscovering his old charms at high noon.
The plot:
Freeing a group of slaves after shooting one of the slaves owners, (Ace and Dicky Speck) dentist Dr.King Schultz decides to let the now freed group of former slaves decide on how the surviving Speck brother should be dealt with,as he starts to take a particular interest in one member of the group called Django Freeman.
Reveling to Django that instead of being a dentist,he is in fact an undercover bounty hunter,King tells Freeman that he needs his help to locate the vicious Brittle brothers,due to Django having had some "trouble" with the brothers in the past,with one of the most ruthless things that the Brittle's did being to separate Freeman from his enslaved wife.
Agreeing to assist Schultz,if he keeps to his side of the deal,that along with searching for the Brittle brothers,King will also help him to find his wife.As Django and King start to travel around the south of the US collecting bounties,both of them start to fear that locating the Brittle brothers and Django's wife will be harder to find than a needle in a haystack.
View on the film:
Leaving behind the "missing" reels,chapter breaks and intentionally gorier cuts for "international" audiences,writer/director (and cameo acting) Quentin Tarantino brilliantly uses the movie as a way to take a back to basics approach,and go from making movies that "Characters from my past films would go and see" to instead create a new film which is filled with distinctive characters who can proudly stand out from any of his past works shadow.
Kicking things off straight away with Django and King meeting within the first 10 minutes,Tarantino uses the near 3 hour running time to slowly build up the friendship between the two bounty hunters whilst also making sure that the goals which the two leads want to reach (for Django:finding his wife,for King:finding the Brittle brothers) always remains at the front of the film,as a smart device to keep the story strongly on track.
Setting most of the last hour in one location,Tarantino allows his new characters to do the talking,with Calvin Candle and Stephen (played by Leonardo Dicaprio and Samuel L.Jackson) both being tremendous villains who are just kept on the right side of crazy,whilst their counterparts Django and King are both eccentric's in their own way,whose weirdness help Tarantino finally rediscover the cracking,knife sharp dialogue which has been missing for some time.
Along with showing a new eye for elegant wide shots that fully show the breathtaking locations which look to have come straight from a 60's/70's Spaghetti Westerns,Tarantino also sprays stylised blood across the films tense shoot outs,which along with a great soundtrack that combines sweeping classical with tough Hip-Hop drums,turns each of the action set pieces into adrenalin pumping moments as the redness of the blood intensity's as Django unleashes shot after shot.
Taking on the famous Spaghetti Western character who got his start in 1966 with Franco Nero (who has a very funny cameo in the movie) in Sergio Corbucci original,Jamie Foxx gives a good performance that has real swagger from the very opening of the movie.
Disapointingly,whilst Foxx does bring the swagger and charm,he sadly lacks any fire or passion in his eyes which this iconic character deserves,with Foxx mostly delivering his lines in a laid back style,which almost make it sound as if he is not in a particular rush to find his wife!,and also leads to the other characters pushing him to the sidelines,that ends up making Django looking like a supporting character in his own film.
Sizzaling from the first moment he appears on screen,Christoph Waltz quickly turns King into the star of the film,thanks to perfectly delivering the dialogue with a relishing wit,and also giving a sly thoughtful side,as King's interest in helping his new friend,and also getting revenge on the people who have used slaves increases.
Kept off screen until the final hour,the three main villains show that Tarantino has been saving the best for last.Making the most of his small screen time,Walton Goggins (who gave an astonishing performance in the TV series The Shield) gives a good,gritty performance as Billy Crash,who sees slaves as nothing more than things which should be hunted & killed.
Teaming up with Samuel L. Jackson's amazing performance as Stephen (who despite being a 70-80 year old character,is given crisp dialogue which smoothly allows Jackson to give Stephen the cool and loud charismatic element that only Samuel "Snakes on a Plane" L. Jackson can give) Leonardo Dicaprio takes on a role that easily could have become a cartoon villain,but is saved by Dicaprio giving Calvin J.Candie a real mean streak,with a scene involving Candie breaking a skull being the best scene in the movie,as Django reaches the end of his patience,and starts to become unchained.