Film review - Django Unchained

So lets get the boring details out the way: It is an 18 - expect bloody violence, but then it is directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is roughly about three hours long and stars Jamie Foxx as Django, Christoph Waltz as Dr Schultz, Leonardo Di Caprio as Calvin Candie, Samuel L Jackson as Stephen and Kerry Washington as Broomhilda von Schaft.

I suppose in essence it is a western with a little bit of a Southern slavery feel to it as well.

Django, a slave, is freed when bounty hunter Dr Schultz buys him to help him track down some brothers who he is after. However, rather than going their separate ways after the bounty is paid Django enlists the help of Dr Schultz to try and get his wife Broomhilda back after she was sold to plantation owner Calvin Candie.

This film is simply brilliant. If you love the humour of Tarantino will love it. It is one of those films that you think as it is about slavery it will be a bit heavy but the comic moments are fantastic. One in particular has Don Johnson, of Miami Vice fame, and Jonah Hill as members of a hooded gang who are having trouble with their cut out eye holes. Really funny!

Now many people who haven't seen the film say it is overly violent and that it causes people to be violent. This does get to me I studied this quite a lot at uni but that is for another post I think.

I suppose you could say the film is violent, people get shot, but the way it is portrayed it quite different. When someone is shot it explodes out of them, the blood is a very bright, and an unrealistic shade of red. The people continue to moan when in reality they would have died long ago. It is bloody but not graphic, if that makes sense.

There is one scene, however, that I did turn away as it was quite graphic a slave is ripped apart by dogs. Not very nice to watch but then this probably happened a lot during the slavery period.

Performance wise they all shine. Christoph Waltz deserved his BAFTA, and hopefully will get the Oscar on the weekend. He is just brilliant and full of humanity and comic genius. Leo DiCaprio is so unhinged but perfectly fantastic. I am of the generation that still sees him as a teen idol in Romeo and Juliet so to see him in another role so far removed from this is great. Samuel L Jackson is almost unrecognisable as Candie's man servant Samuel but is very sinister and underhand, you do wonder if it him that is in control of Candie rather than the other way around. Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington to are brilliant.

I simply cannot fault this film it is amazing and although long doesn't feel like it. If you have never seen a Tarantino film, firstly why not?! but maybe try this see how you get on and then if not try Pulp Fiction.

The legend that is Tarantino strikes again.