Django Unchained Review

      “Adult supervision is required”, quotes Calvin Candie in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, this year’s baddest ass movie and one of 2012’s best. 

     Being a huge Tarantino fan, I was stoked to see how he would work his lyrical and violent genius into a spaghetti western. He did not disappoint.

      The story, in brief, is about a bounty hunter Dr. King Schulz, who is going after his biggest bounty, but needs a slave to identify the men.  That slave is Django.  He frees Django and they find these men, The Brittle Brothers, and kill them.  But rather than letting Django go, Schulz feels he is responsible and should help Django find his wife.  So he and Django go through the country finding the bounties until they find Django’s wife at a plantation in Mississippi called Candie Land. She is there, but the question is, can they get her out with keeping themselves alive?  I won’t give away any details, but it goes about in epic Tarantino fashion: shooting, dialogue, and some pretty rad music.

      Django is a hell of ride, the first half of the movie being absolutely hilarious.  One scene, with a bunch of hooded rabble rousers,  is one of the funniest scenes I have seen in years. 

     The acting on all aspects is solid. Waltz and Mr. Samuel J. deliver funny quip line after line, stealing the show almost every time in frame.  Foxx gives some solid work as well as DiCaprio being the racist, egotistical, incestuous villain (a role I didn't think he could pull off). 

     Tarantino, as in Inglorious Bastards,  gives the big finger to history and writes his own.  I love history, but can you imagine if Tarantino wrote it?

     The dialogue as you would expect is phenomenal. Most lines are like a gem every time they are delivered, leading you to gobble up the next one.  Along with this, Tarantino spares us nothing with language or violence.  The N word being delivered at least 100 times, it paints the gratuitous wretch that is slavery and attitude towards the black man in pre-Civil War times.  You would think it would detract from the film and be a distraction.  It does at first, but you become accustomed to it and it becomes the language and essence of the film. 

    The violence is absolutely ridiculous and over the top, but it works because it doesn’t take away from the story, it just enhances it a little bit. Ok,  maybe a lot.   Blood and guts everywhere,  and even a  woman yanked backwards 30 feet after a gun shot.  Also, some graphic death scenes of slaves made me quease. If we really did that to people, wow. Wow.  It’s insanium in the cranium. 

    Tarantino makes it work as he did in Inglorious Bastards and Pulp Fiction.  Why does he do it? He’s Quentin Tarantino and you’re not, that’s why.

     If I had one thing negative to say, it was that the movie was a wee bit too long.  There was one point, where I was like, this is gonna be a sweet ending, but then it kept going.  The ending was still awesome, but I felt it was a little stretched.

     And as always, Tarantino brings in music from multiple different genres to give his movie that different feel, such as rap, classical, and oldies. 

     All in all, Tarantino delivers a bloody, gruesome take on American history that will be talked about for a long time.  Sweet story, fantastic dialogue, great acting, and some kick ass violence makes Django Unchained one of the best rides of the year.