Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo diCapio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L Jackson.
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Running time: 165 minutes
Released by: Sony Pictures Releasing
Out:18th January
Django (Foxx) is a shackled slave freed by wandering dentist-turned-bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Waltz) in return for the slave helping him track his latest quarry. Django is one of the few people who has seen the sadistic brothers that Waltz is seeking and lived to tell the tale. An agreement is made that in return for his help, Schultz will help Django track down his wife, Hildy (Washington) who has been sold separately. It turns out she is now in the grip of a despotic plantation pwner Calvin Candie (diCaprio) and the duo form a plan to free her by playing on Candie's vain nature. But naturally, things never go that smoothly and before Schultz and Django can even get to Hildy, they'll have to endure seeing and experiencing the brutal racism and sadism that the era's wealthy often imposed on their slaves...
There is little chance that you're ever going to head to the local cinema to see a Disney cartoon helmed by Quentin Tarantino. Though he often deals in grotesques, exaggerations and caricatures, his playground is of the more 'R/18' rated variety. See his name above the title and you know that you're most likely to have profanity, blood, gunfire and death... yes, they are their own particular brand of fairy-tales, but it's rare that anyone gets to live happy ever after.
Django Unchained flexes all the familiar Tarantino muscles as he moves deftly from the chop-socky of Kill Bill and the sauerkraut of Inglourious Basterds to the spaghetti westerns of old, here complete with meatballs and a slight toasting of cheese. Copious amounts of blood, so many uses of the 'n' word that you could create a plantation of profanity out of it and enough quickfire snark to rival the bullets. You know what to expect and on that level there's little doubt it delivers.
The problem with the film is that is moves from genuinely insightful and funny (HILARIOUSLY slapstick in certain cases - a fashion faux-pas Klu Klux Klan ride-out would fit into a Me Brooks Hollywood comedy), to merely inciting and sadistic, ultimately enjoying the recklessness and depravity it began by rallying against, a little too much. Revenge is a dish best served cold, but brutality is much more effective if sprinkled more sparingly and this is a lesson that Tarantino refuses to embrace. Instead the more tightly-paced first half starts to loosen its shackles and chomp at the bit... and the director is in no mood to rein it in.
Foxx is good in the title role, delivering a character that is simmering to deliver revenge, but remaining coiled like a snake for most of the proceedings, forced by various cultural and pragmatic deceptions to bide his time and be ready to enact it - instead learning his new craft on Schultz's other targets. But it's Christoph Waltz that perhaps steals the show - giving us a smart and calculating character who has no compunction about delivering death to his targets, but who is just at home in playing with words to get his way.
Leonardo diCaprio's decadent Calvin Candie makes an excellent moustache-twirling bad guy (for whom you ache to see his comeuppance) and Samuel L Jackson also makes a powerful impression as Stephen, Candie's opinionated and duplictous 'house-negro'. The supporting cast - and Tarantino surely knows how to deliver an ensemble - are all excellent. The likes of James Remar (in two different roles if you watch carefully enough), Walton Goggins (everywhere at the moment and consistently good therein) and Dennis Christoper all make the most of their screen-time, though there's a feeling that Kerry Washington's Hildy has little more to do than quiver her lips and look distraught (a shame as she's excellent on a weekly basis in Scandal).
But while excellent in many regards, Django Unchained runs far too long and would benefit from losing at least thirty minutes of its running time. The brutality could be toned down in quantity and still be as effective smaller doses and Tarantino's apparent love-affair with the n-word shows no sign of abating, used here far too often as casual shorthand rather than social commentary on casual racism.
Definitely worth seeing and likely to be appreciated by Tarantino's existing fan-base, the film is already looking to be the director's biggest hit to date. It's merely a shame that the talented Tarantino tends to lean towards being a slave to his own impulses rather than the true master of his craft..
8/10
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