Django Unchained - The New American Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2013)

I saw this with a friend who was equally psyched up to see this. We were the last to leave the cinema, as we paid proper respect and sat until the very final credits finished - we were rewarded for same ( unlike those other people with ants in their pants, who had to check their phones & depart immediately the film proper ended - more fool them, but hey it was nearly midnight on a rainy night in Katoomba). When we eventually left our seats and stood outside, my mate said "I think we've just seen 5 movies". My reply was "...it's probably more like 10". I began to list the various narratives: the Seigfried saga; the Spaghetti Western; the Deadwoodish muddy, bloody realism; the essay on sadism & cruelty - with artefacts ( not just the usual ankle chains but the hideous devices placed around people's necks - this I might add is the common or garden, public display of how the bodies of slaves were paraded & transported, what lurks in the dark corners of private property is even more disturbing); the power politics of small town snapshots; the comedy; the horror movie; the ode to the American landscape; the performing horse movie; the Downton Abbeyesque gaze on the Candyland dining room; the buddy movie - I could go on and ever on.
What I had witnessed was a movie so carefully crafted by a writer/director at the top of his game, that it's left me with indelible marks on my soul and I like that in a movie. It's one of the ones that stays with you, the images that haunt, the lines that make you laugh out loud, the horror that makes you put your hands over your eyes and put fingers to keyboard in praise. I note that other reviewers have found it messy, long, unfocused etc. Maybe they just don't get it. Perhaps they have no knowledge of Gilgamesh, Homer or Virgil, but that's life you can't read everything, see everything, know about everything. When I was a kid, movies were often 3 hours long - with intermissions, especially the epics. If you want a 90 minute action movie - go watch T Cruise, but will remember a word he says? Maybe, the cinema is a broad church and everyone has their own devotions & ideas about entertainment or art or both.
The film is so rich in stories and characters that it's practically impossible to select a favourite - it's like reading Dickens, there's a whole body of other work that supports what we've been offered to think about. Django is undoubtedly the coolest hero but he's got his buddy Doctor S to inspire him. It's a chicken and egg thing. Has Leonardo ever displayed more villainous instincts? Did I ever think I'd see Franco Nero on screen again? How 'bout Don J as Big Daddy? These are just fragments of delight. The real gems are Kerry Washington's face when she knows that Samuel L Jackson's Evil Stephen is on to her (the tension is unbearable) or when Jamie Foxx gets to pick out his own clothes for the first time - that electric blue outfit is still slaying me, or those fools with the bags on their heads - a beautiful portrait of white supremacists at their idiotic best.
Christoph Waltz stole so many scenes, it's impossible not to love every minute of his performance and for his character's ultimate sacrifice - it made me feel complete. The German doctor decided on a fitting departure because he couldn't resist. I must congratulate Quentin on his Oz accent - I was worried for a moment that he was going to slide down the Seth Efrican side of things but happily he'd chosen John Jarratt to play against, which lifted his game considerably, classic screwball comedy - downunder style! A hoot. All the other categories of the film: art direction; casting; costumes; cinematography; editing; sound; writing and directing are sublime. It's my BEST PICTURE of the year - so who gives a fat rat's what the Academy decides?