A messy movie

Rating: 6/10 (24 April 2014)

You would be surprised if Quentin Tarantino ever made a truly bad movie. But he has made a few which, though not bad, are somewhat disappointing. Django Unchained is one of those. Honestly, this movie is a bit of a mess. An intriguing mess, at times a very entertaining mess. But still a mess. The movie gets away from Tarantino somewhat. His grand vision for what he wanted the movie to be ultimately lets him down. He couldn't let go of any of that vision, couldn't restrain himself. He put it all up there on the screen. And it proved to be just a little bit too much.
The movie takes place in the pre-Civil War South. It is a story about slavery and Tarantino spares nothing in portraying the awfulness and brutality associated with that particular Southern institution. The hero of the piece is freed slave Django, unchained as the film's title would suggest and free to seek vengeance. But for Django more important than seeking vengeance is finding, and freeing, his wife who remains a slave. He is aided by the rather odd German dentist Schultz who does not actually make his money in dentistry. Schultz has a rather different occupation, a rather bloody one. And he is very good at his job so the bodies pile up in a hurry. Schultz, the man responsible for freeing Django, takes the former slave under his wing. Django helps Schultz do his bloody work and eventually Schultz will help Django find his wife.
From its very intriguing beginning in which we meet the very mysterious Schultz the movie grabs your attention and certainly piques your interest. You desperately want to know who this mysterious man is, what he's up to. However once those questions are answered the movie begins to lose some momentum. It often feels as if the movie is just biding its time until it gets to the real story, the plot to free Django's wife. In the meantime things drag. There are a number of scenes which seem completely unnecessary. A little more focus would have done wonders for this movie. As it is things don't really perk up again until we finally, after much meandering, meet the despicable plantation owner Calvin Candie. This loathsome individual is the man who owns Django's wife. How do Django and Schultz plan to free her? It's quite the elaborate plan which, for the movie, is a bit unfortunate as it takes so much time to set the plan up. We now have the new character of Candie to interest us, and hating him is quite good fun, but again the movie struggles with pace. The big moments in this movie are big indeed. But there is too much dead space in between those big moments. At 165 minutes long this is a movie that is much too long for its own good. The crackling energy you expect to be running throughout a Tarantino film is missing. The director lost his way a bit.
So there is a twinge of disappointment with this movie. But that does not mean it is a bad movie. It clearly could have been better but as is it is certainly worth seeing. After seeing it once you may not want to see it again though, it is a somewhat distasteful movie. Tarantino is never one to shy away from violence and the gore in this one is off the charts, it's a real bloodbath. It's just too much, way over the top. In and around the spasms of violence there is a lot here to recommend the movie though. It's a good revenge story, you've got heroes worth rooting for and bad guys who are as bad as bad can be. The movie is generally very well acted. Jamie Foxx as Django and Christoph Waltz as Schultz make for a very good team. Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't entirely convince as the villainous Candie. It is as if DiCaprio is trying a little too hard to be evil, it comes off as being a bit forced. But in the moments when Candie is charming, and yes even this monster has his charms, DiCaprio seems much more comfortable. Notably fine work is turned in by Samuel L. Jackson playing Candie's loyal house slave Stephen. In his own way Stephen is perhaps more reprehensible than Candie and Jackson does a fine job of making that character his own. Tarantino fills out his cast well, supporting parts and little cameo roles all handled capably by a multitude of performers. All in all this is a movie with a lot of good pieces but there is the sense the pieces don't all fit together properly. Tarantino didn't make a bad movie. But he didn't make a great movie either.