Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave who is purchased at auction in Greenville - his wife was also put up for auction but sold to someone else. As he is being marched to his destination, he encounters Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). Schultz is a bounty hunter who needs to find and kill the Brittle Brothers to claim his next bounty. Unfortunately, he doesn't know what they look like, but Django, their former slave, does. The men who bought Django refuse to sell him, so Schultz calmly shoots them and frees Django and his fellow slaves. Originally from Germany, Schultz finds the whole idea of slavery morally repellent, but he does need Django's help. He offers a trade - if Django will help him get the Brittle Brothers, he'll give him his freedom. After they accomplish that task, Schultz asks Django to become his bounty hunting partner over the winter, after which he will help him find his wife.
Django's wife, Broomhilda (so named because her owners were German), was bought by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), a wealthy plantation owner who won't give up his slaves easily. Django and Schultz come up with a plan, and after much maneuvering, find themselves at his plantation, CandieLand. There, they encounter Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), a slave whose family has served the Candies for generations. He loathes the idea of a free black man just as much as most white Southerners. As a result, our two heroes face two villains - the white slave owner, and surprisingly, his black slave.
This is a brilliant story, told with trademark Tarantino panache. It is wildly creative and bombastic, taking the very real horrors of slavery and turning them into a fantastical farce. Tarantino excels at turning horrific moments into comic masterpieces: one such scene involves a KKK raid, which is no laughing matter but will still have you giggling hysterically. Christoph Waltz is playing the polar opposite of the sadistic Nazi he played in Tarantino's last movie, Inglourious Basterds, and he easily steals every scene he's in. The man was born to deliver Tarantino's dialogue with a poetic flourish and if he didn't have an Oscar already, I'd give him another one for sheer charm and joie de vivre. Jamie Foxx is equally impeccable as Django, a role that requires him to be quiet and repressed due to his slave origins. He has little dialogue (what little he has is still delivered magnificently), yet his eyes are smoldering and his rage is palpable until Django finally explodes and gets his vengeance in epic Tarantino fashion. Kerry Washington doesn't have much to do as Broomhilda, but she and Foxx really sell their characters' love story and make them a couple worth killing for. Leonardo DiCaprio is an insane delight as the evil Calvin Candie, full of the Southern hospitality and cruelty of most slave owners. And Samuel L. Jackson is chilling as Stephen, a character who seems to be comic relief but turns into something far more sinister.
Django Unchained is Tarantino's attempt at a spaghetti western; it features an original song composed by Ennio Morricone (of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly fame) and landscapes and cinematography that hearken back to that genre. But this movie transcends all genres and simply becomes a Tarantino flick. It is nearly three hours long but each chapter of Django's story is as inventive and entertaining as the last. This is Tarantino's first movie after the death of his longtime collaborator Sally Menke, and the editing does feel a little less crisp in places. But new editor Fred Raskin has done justice to Tarantino's vision and delivered the cinematic spectacle we've come to know and admire.
In the midst of awards season, faced with earnest meditations on life and the other self-serious and important subjects that Academy voters love to reward, Django Unchained is a welcome reminder of what the movies are all about. Together with Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino has shown that he is a man who can turn difficult and horrific periods of human history into glorious, riotous cinematic occasions that showcase the triumph of the human spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment