Blazing Saddles of Django

Rating: Null/10 (13 January 2013)

Mel Brooks comedy classic "Blazing Saddles" was the first thing that came to mind while watching "Django Unchained".
And I'm obviously not alone in that.
I read the screenplay beforehand, and aside from a couple of scenes, the comedic touch wasn't that evident. Thankfully Tarantino cut out a number of very vile rape-scenes, whose omission do nothing to soften the grueling and abhorrent behavior that shows man's cruelty towards man in all its gory-glory.
The movie is too long for my taste. The last third could've been cut shorter, and some earlier scenes run on a bit too long. But aside from that, the script is tight, the art- and camera-work superb and the performances are spellbinding. There is not one loose chink in the ensemble chain. Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx have an unusual chemistry together, which is most evident in a very brief sequence where Django throws back the morals of his bounty hunting liberator Dr. King Schultz, and we make a first big step towards ambivalence.
The other pairing is that of Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio. The former playing a black servant with the demeanor of a pure blooded white racist, and the latter presents himself as the most educated, tasteful and wealthy form of fascist ideologue with a scientific predilection. Tarantino does have a profound sympathy for the devil.
Equally strong and mostly omitted in the reviews is the couple in distress. Foxx and the beautiful Kerry Washington fashion a whole romance out of very little cloth, and are seen only briefly together. Yet, their marriage and the reasons for Djangos journey are obvious and never simply implied. These two truly love each other.
Nothing is as serious as comedy, and nothing as funny as dying. What "Django Unchained" does, next to inciting a long awaited discussion on the slavery past of the United States, freed from political correctness, is entertain and shock in equal measures. And it makes you actually wish for a straightforward comedy written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Now that would be a truly blazing saddle.