4.5 out of 5 stars
Family appropriateness rating: 2.3 out of 5 stars
Rated R
-Graphic bloody violence, often unrealistic, but not as comedic as the "Kill Bill" films.
-Quite a few uses of the n-word, and a moderate amount of other strong profanity including the f-word.
-Brief female nudity. It is only shown for a second and is not intended to be pornographic in any way.
Most films about slavery deal with how helpless black people were during that era. While there is a sense of this in "Django Unchained," the film flips the issue on its head by introducing a slave hero who successfully fights back.
Former dentist, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), is an officer of the law who kills wanted men and takes the bounty placed on them. He is searching for three brothers who used to be slave drivers in the Carrucan plantation. With no idea what they look like, he buys a slave who knew them named Django (Jamie Foxx).
Schultz is German and very different from most Americans living in the Southern United States in 1858. He is a progressive who believes slavery is wrong and that Django is a human being. The two make a deal that if Django helps Schultz find the former slave drivers, the doctor will set the slave free.
Django agrees to this, and they form a friendship. Schultz finds out Django has a wife named Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), who is enslaved somewhere in Mississippi. They have been separated for years, and Django misses her. After finding the men Schultz was looking for, the doctor promises to help Django find his wife if he helps catch more bounty for the winter, to which Django agrees.
Upon arriving in Mississippi, they find out that Broomhilda is in an enormous plantation run by the charming, yet downright racist Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). The two come up with scheme to get into the plantation and free Broomhilda so her and Django can live happily ever after.
One of the criticisms I have heard about this film is the story is very simple. It is straightforward. There are some twists, but how it all ends is predictable. This is all true, but everything is done well in the hands of a writer/director who knows what he is doing.
Even though it is a very simple concept, Tarantino knows how to write strong characters. They are all distinct individuals who are interesting to watch. The Django character has an arc that is pulled off very well by Jamie Foxx. In the beginning, he is a submissive slave. He has lived in the world for a long time and knows the consequences of insubordination. Even though Schultz is nice to him in the beginning, he still seems suspicious that the doctor will treat him like every other white person does. As the film progresses, he gets more and more used to the freedom he is given. He speaks up for himself and demands respect. This comes off as unexpected and surprising to a lot of white people he comes in contact with.
There is a strong antagonist in this film. To white Southerners living during that time, Calvin Candie is a very charming person. He is hospitable especially to people who can further his interests. He seems to think of himself as a good guy who deserves all the success he gets. However, his attitude towards black people is that they are a completely different species. In his opinion, they deserve to be forced into submission by white people. In an interview on "Meet the Press," Leonardo DiCaprio said that the reason Candie has this ideology is a way to justify in his mind that what he is doing is okay.
As in a lot of other Tarantino films, Samuel L. Jackson plays an important role. He plays an older house slave working for Candie named Stephen. Whenever his master is away, it is Stephen's responsibility to oversee the plantation and make sure it is running. He is feared by all the other slaves, and it appears that he has forgotten that he himself is black. In a way, he is just as racist as his master.
This is not Tarantino's best film, but it is still a very good movie. For the most part, it maintains the same quality of writing and creativity that one can expect from the director. He still uses interesting dialogue to establish his characters, but there is not as much of it and it is not as thought provoking as "Pulp Fiction" or "Kill Bill: Vol. 2."
Like his other films, there are also very interesting camera shots. A couple of them involve someone being killed while riding a horse. Rather than simply showing some blood come out of a man getting shot, Tarantino finds another creative means of presenting it.
The main aspect that should have been better is the Broomhilda character. Tarantino is good at writing strong, female characters, but he misses the mark with this one. She is simply there to be saved and is not given very much characterization aside from being a slave. It would have been nice to see her fleshed out a little more.
Though it is not his best film, it is among his most important. It follows the classic fairy tale formula in which a hero saves a damsel in distress. There is a twist to it in that the hero is a black man living in the pre-Civil War South. He fights against the tyranny of those who oppress others to save the woman he loves. It is empowering to watch considering the fact that even in modern-day cinema, slaves are powerless.
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Quentin Tarantino Month:
Introduction
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Kill Bill: Vol. 2
Pulp Fiction
Inglourious Basterds
Jackie Brown
Reservoir Dogs
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