Django Unchained

2012

R (and a very hard R)

Director:  Quentin Tarantino

Stars:  Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington


In Django Unchained, Django (Foxx) is freed by Dr. King Schultz (Waltz), a dentist turned bounty hunter.  Django and Schultz join forces as bounty hunters and then scheme to free Django's wife Broomhilde from Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

While I very much enjoyed the performances by Waltz, Foxx, and DiCaprio, I found Django Unchained to be a long and brutally violent slog.  Waltz is excellent as Schultz, a slick talker and schemer who can find his way out of just about anything.  I enjoyed the interaction between Schultz and Django, especially how Schultz stuns everyone by treating Django as an equal.  Schultz gets Django involved in a tough world, but one that Django will bear in order to have a chance to set his wife free.  Eventually, they cross paths with Candie, and the battle of wits between Schultz and Candie is extremely entertaining.

Beyond the performances, though, I wasn't thrilled with Django Unchained.  It's an extremely violent film, with blood spilled and organs exploding throughout.  Perhaps Tarantino just isn't my cup of tea, but I just didn't see the point of all the blood being spilled everywhere.  There's no question that the world of the 1850s and 1860s was full of brutal and inhumane behavior towards slaves, and some of that is portrayed here (including some very disturbing slave-fighting), but I just didn't think the amount of blood and gore needed to be shown to get that point across. 

Django had some moments that also just seemed unfocused, such as a scene in which KKK members have trouble keeping their masks on, so they debate whether to keep their masks on and raid Django and Schultz.  It seemed like a cutaway on Family Guy. 

Overall, Django for me was an example of how performances can only carry a film so far.  I can't recommend this film, especially to the squeamish.