Fatally overlong but completely explosive

Rating: 6/10 (21 April 2015)

Quentin Tarantino, like Orson Welles, is a director people need to stop going on about as if he deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as Steven Spielberg or Alfred Hitchcock. While a brilliant writer and talented visual stylist, his films (that I've seen) are indulgent and style over substance. While Reservoir Dogs was fantastic, Pulp Fiction went on and on, and this goes on even longer. This has been critically acclaimed even though it's style over substance, which is what critics moan about in a very tiresome manner. Django Unchained follows a German bounty hunter and a freed slave hunting for the slave's captured wife to free her and taking out various other villains along the way. Explosive, daring and typically subversive, DU bleeds ultra kinetic, hyper violent style from the very beginning and even through the many slow talking scenes there's always plenty of energy crackling beneath the surface. The cast does a great job overall. Samuel L Jackson, although not particularly recognisable, steals the show, with Leonardo DiCaprio giving a wonderful hateful performance and Christoph Waltz providing plenty of charisma and emotion in another fine performance, although perhaps not quite Oscar deserving, but still excellent. Jamie Foxx isn't particularly interesting or memorable as his character is less well developed but he works well with what he's given.
The script is typically strong. There aren't any movies to reference as it's set in the 1800s, so the script isn't quite as much fun but it has a lot of swagger. Visually, it's a good film and Tarantino is still a fine visual stylist. The problem is DU's overlength. It's just too darn long! 2 hours and 40 minutes. That's how much Tarantino is in love with his dialogue, so much of it is filled with endless talking. Um Tarantino this isn't a talk show. This is a movie where you tell a story. Unfortunately, the story isn't told quickly enough and I eventually started to lose interest. The final fight scenes are extraordinary and stylish, but at the 2 hour mark Waltz randomly shoots DiCaprio and the film becomes an excuse to kill everyone. While this bit is still good, it does somewhat lose the ability to have its slavery themes taken seriously. DU is an indulgent, sometimes empty movie with plenty of positives and many good bits, but often the film dips between them. The second half of the movie just loses momentum, and when the over the top violence comes along it's almost a relief as something else is finally happening. Don't get me wrong though, it's a good film. Still, it needs a trim.
6/10