Years a Slave

Rating: Null/10 (13 May 2017)

An unlikely friendship develops between a 1850s slave and a German- born bounty hunter who frees him to assist with tracking down three wanted men in this Quentin Tarantino western. The gradual bond between the pair always feels very real, though the plot is more complicated than just that as the partners plan an ambitious quest to rescue the slave's wife from a sadistic plantation owner, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Jumping between serious drama and quirky comedy (ambushers bantering about the bags on their head), it is easy to see why the film might not jive with everyone's sensibilities, but there is a lot to like about the complex characters as well as the way Tarantino generates laughs in a story about one of the ugliest parts of American history. Christoph Waltz is superb as the German bounty hunter, and not just due to delivering excellent comic relief. He is a true outsider in the racist America of the 1850s, and his character's growing disgust with the way slaves are treated really resonates; much like Oskar Schindler's character progression, he may have initially been into killing slave traders for the profits, but by the final hour of the film, there is much more passion to it. Some have been critical of the film's very violent third act, but if nothing else, it comes off well as a response to DiCaprio's questions about submissiveness and the film concludes on a surefire memorable note.