Unchained, Uncensored and Unashamed

Rating: 5/10 (7 January 2013)

Don't get me wrong, I love Quentin Tarantino. I believe he's a very gifted screenwriter and director who comes up with great material back to back to back. Ever since I saw Pulp Fiction I thought that he is the greatest thing to happen to movies and inadvertently forced every movie since to be better and better as people tried to match his genius and quick wit. So when I went to see Django Unchained, his latest opus set in the wild, wild west, I immediately jumped at the chance to see it. I know I had to prepare myself for the gore and the violence that have dominated his movies. Also, I had to prepare to sit through almost 3 long hours (in Unchained's case, 165 minutes) of film. Nowadays, every single movie I see seems to get longer and longer and it's getting harder and harder to sit through them whether it's because the theater seats are uncomfortable, or the audience is restless, or the previews and commercials take about 20 to 30 minutes in addition to having to wait 30 minutes in line to get into the theater so by the time the movie opens my expectations are pretty damn high. Sometimes I have to remind myself what is it that I came to watch in the first place. Now, Django Unchained starts pretty strong actually. And I mean that in a good way. The premise is set early by a group of slaves, chained together, transported through rocky mountains and beautiful, harsh landscapes and guided by two cowboys riding on horseback. We see them walk long days and endless nights for miles on end. Among them is Jamie Foxx as Django, a quiet and beaten down slave who bears the marks of a brutal slashing on his back. Right there, without saying a single word, Quentin has managed to set the mood early on and indicated clearly who is the protagonist of the story. Without a single word, we learn that he's got a hard past, a past that will undoubtedly be revealed later in the film, a past that we are ever so curious to find out. His mission has been accomplished, he's got our attention. Then we're introduced to Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and Quentin's script comes to life. It's a real treat as an aspiring writer and screenwriter to hear such great scripts and Unchained doesn't disappoint in that department. Christoph Waltz, who's been in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, plays his character with gusto and gives another unforgettable performance. He plays a bounty hunter that talks with such eloquence that you would never believe what he does for a living. Both Django and Dr. Schultz form an unlikely team, he teaches Django to what extend he can stretch his rights as a bounty hunter and a former slave. Django, now a free man thanks to him, has one purpose and one purpose only: to get his wife back. She has been sold to a plantation owner named Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). So far, so good, I'm all ears. The problem begins when Django and Dr. Schultz meet Calvin Candie. Mind you, Leonardo DiCaprio does an excellent job at portraying a man whose ambition and mischievousness can be seen in his eyes. He has finally abandoned his cute boy looks and trade them for those of a man with an evil purpose that can be seen and felt in his performance. However, the problem that I have with the script at this point was the excessive use of the N word. Now I understand that was part the lingo to refer to an African American slave at the time, however it comes a point when the word is heard so many times that it becomes tedious, heavy, almost uncomfortable to hear. In my personal opinion is a matter of taste more than accuracy. There is a difference between being accurate to being offensive, which was Quentin's intention here. Not only is this word uttered countless times in the script by white folk but we also have to hear this from Samuel L. Jackson's character, too. His character, Stephen, far from being compassionate towards Django's wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), is really an ill-tempered curmudgeon that will stop at nothing to see her tortured for trying to escape the plantation that he runs for Calvin. That's not what bothered me about the character as much as his constant use of the N word. Coming from an African American, the word takes on a different meaning and maybe Quentin wrote this purposely to make a point. I could see many in the audience trying not to laugh whenever the word was said on screen, even if it meant to be funny. It made me wonder whether his intention was to entertain an audience or to make them uncomfortable. I believe that the latter was accomplished with Django Unchained.