Django Unchanged is homage to the spaghetti western. It is a combination of the good and the bad. There really is no ugly, except maybe for Samuel L. Jackson. It is a simple script. Thebounty hunter frees the slave, the slave becomes a partner of bounty hunter; they go get slave's wife; bang, bang and boom! Go Quintin!
More N bombs were dropped in this movie than at a Chris Rock concert at the Apollo Theater. This was Quintin’s way of letting us know that slave owners were prejudice. They were also brutal. When it came to the horrors of slavery the film was almost a documentary. I am not sure if this was intentional.
Christoph Waltz was fantastic. This guy could read the Queens phone book (if we had one) and make it fascinating. His acting is eloquent and understated, but in a quite Austrian way he can be a cold blooded killer. Jamie Foxx is the Italian cowboy with the fro. His humor is not in what he says but how he looks (spoiler alert-and how he dresses). His character does not have the richness of a “Ray”. Basically he is a former pissed off ex-slave killing as many white southerners as possible. No acting range is needed here. If swagger were an Oscar nomination he would win. He is fun to watch.
Leonardo DiCapprio plays the sadistic dandy plantation owner of Candyland. The best part of the movie is the confrontation between DiCapprio, Waltz and Foxx. This staging gave Tarentino the perfect opportunity for his trademark orgy of blood. Quintin has issues.
Samuel L. Jackson plays the Uncle Tom with the M.F. attitude. Not to give much away, but he is more than what he appears to be. His appearance was totally stereotypical. Howls of racism would be justified for this depiction, but then Jackson would tell the offended to go do something with themselves.
Worth mentioning; there is a hysterical scene on Don Johnson’s plantation of a KKK raid. It is pure Monty Python and very original.
This is not a complicated movie. The film cobbles together stereotypes with old western favorites. The hype is bigger than the movie. If you want to kill two hours forty five minutes go for it.
Joe 1/8/13
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