Django Unchained - A Classic Western Evolved

There are a few reasons I watched this movie. One was the large amount of controversy revolving around the heavy use of an interesting word, which the movie handles very well. Another reason is the big names in the cast; Jamie Foxx, Christoph Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson among others. The third big reason was the fact that Django Unchained is a ‘Tarantino Movie’, which means there are high expectations for this movie. These expectations are definitely delivered on.

If you choose to isolate yourself from the various information outlets of the world, here is a quick rundown on the movie: 
Django Unchained is an American film released on the 25th of December, 2012. The story follows Django, a former black slave played by Jamie Foxx, and the German bounty hunter who frees and recruits him, Dr. King Schultz, played by Christoph Waltz. The two companions embark on an epic quest to free Django’s wife from an infamous plantation known as ‘Candieland’, run by Leonardo DiCaprio’s equally infamous character Calvin Candie.

The movie is styled after the classic Western genre, but throws it into the deep fryer to give it a crunchy new layer of goodness that I’ve never seen before. Unlike most -if not all- other westerns, the protagonists in the movie are a black former-slave and a German bounty hunter. In fact, Django is very similar to Uma Thurman’s character in Kill Bill: an unlikely hero transforming from helpless something to bad-guy-killing badass.

Despite the old-western setting, Django Unchained has a few scenes with very modern music, which is an interesting choice. On the one hand, it further modernizes the film, and differentiates it from the classic Westerns it draws from. At the same time it kind of breaks the immersion, reminding the viewer that they’re watching a movie, rather than experiencing a story.

One really interesting cinematographic technique that Tarantino makes use of throughout the movie is to zoom in on a main characters face whenever they are introduced,  as if shouting to the viewier:  “Hey, remember this guy! You should, he’s famous!” The best example of this is the introduction of Mr. Candy, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, where the camera zooms through the room onto DiCaprio’s face as he turns around. Another example is Tarantino's cameo, featuring an amusingly bad Australian accent.
 
The acting in Django Unchained is mostly good, but for some reason Leonardo DiCaprio just feels weird in this movie. It feels more like he’s acting as himself acting in the movie. The exception to this is towards the end of the movie. I won’t spoil what happens, but Leo does a very good job of eliciting a couple different emotions from me as the viewer, and he does an excellent job of making you hate him as an antagonist. On the awesome side of things, Christoph Waltz’s portrayal of a bounty hunter is exceptional. Also, a special mention must go out to Tarantino’s hilariously bad Australian accent.

There are a couple points in the movie where the story takes off its thick winter jacket of manly seriousness, and throws on the metaphorical equivalent of a humorous t-shirt. One such scene featuring a cameo of Jonah Hill is designed to act as a form of comic relief. While the scene isn’t specifically un-funny, it feels out of place, and drags on a bit too long. This is unfortunate, because the point it tries to make is still somewhat valid. Rather than the usual portrayal of the white Americans as racist savages, this humorous scene reveals them to be racist morons, most of which still lead generic family lives back at home. It seems to suggest that the real antagonist is racism itself, rather than the men who embody it. To contrast this, there is a scene featuring some rather amusing Australians. This scene does exactly what it needed to: adds some comic relief, moves the plot, and does so in a compact amount of time. 

The total running time is 2 hours and 45 minutes, and it certainly feels that long. By that I mean a lot of things happen. A lot of in-story time goes by, a lot of events occur, and the movie could even be split into several sub-stories featuring the same characters. In fact, I wonder how the film would look in some sort of mini-series format. 
I have a friend who disagrees with me on this point, but in my opinion Django Unchained is reasonably well paced, despite being almost 3 hours. Having seen Inglourious Basterds, I was able to recognize how long scenes with little action were a precursor to a huge burst of energy.
Speaking of which, Tarantino’s signature blood effects are as gory and hilariously over the top as expected. Every time a bullet shoots through a limb it brings forth a huge gush of almost fluorescent blood, which flies through the air like paint, and comes complete with a satisfying sloshing sound. It’s like the foley sound artist was given a huge bucket of goop and was told to ‘have fun with it’. There might be some that say these scenes glorify violence, but the visuals and sound are so far-removed from reality.

If my opinion is somehow the deciding factor on whether or not Django Unchained’s silent D is worth almost 3 hours of your time, my final score should be the quick answer.

Final Score: 9 sloshy blood explosions out of 10