Spaghetti Southern

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2013)

Tarantino takes an old spaghetti western franchise and reworks it into the context of the Antebellum-era American South. This time, the protagonist is a freed slave, out to take back his love and enact a bloody revenge on those who shackled and savaged the pair of them. Jamie Foxx puts in a more-than-serviceable performance as the intense, hard-bitten Django, but he finds himself somewhat overshadowed by Christopher Waltz as his smart-tongued, soft-hearted, bounty-hunting liberator and compadre, Dr King Schultz. Samuel L. Jackson puts in a hilarious and horrifying turn as the servile-yet-sharp house slave Stephen, serving as formidable backup for Leo Di Caprio at his bastardly best as plantation-owner Calvin Candie.
Despite the close-to-three-hour running time, Tarantino avoids burdening the film with the tangential self-indulgence that marred his previous outing, Inglourious Basterds. Instead, we get a decent blend of characterisation, cameos, comedy, and carnage which come together to form a memorable slab of spaghetti southern blaxploitation. Some of Tarantino's soundtrack choices prove kinda jarring (Hip-hop...in this setting!?), and he could do with proofreading his historical accuracy at certain points, but overall, I think he got more right than wrong with this one. Give it a shot, or six.