Django Unchained (2012) Review

 

Django Unchained (2012)

Django follows Django Freeman and King Shultz, two bounty hunters who travel to the Candieland plantation to free Django’s wife from slavery.

Whew buddy! When speaking about the filmography of Quentin Tarantino, obvious films come up—Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, etc. But Django is certainly the most underrated and is possibly one of his best. It is a thrilling revenge tale that sees former slave Django saved by bounty hunter, King Shultz to enter the hunting business in exchange for his freedom. Their quest has them taking on one of the most ruthless slavers in the south in what is an intensely accurate (while also somewhat sensationalized), often uncomfortable, look at the antebellum south pre-Civil War. It’s beautifully stylistic in it’s story and cinematography, with Robert Richardson returning to oversee photography. It is honestly way too fun for a movie depicting slavery and racism in the darkest possible light, but somehow it works in deepening the atrocious nature of it all and the people who profited from it, while building up our two head hunting protagonists who have to endure the pain of overlooking it.

The cast here is unbelievably fantastic too, featuring Christoph Waltz, Walter Goggins, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and the bonafide superstar Jamie Foxx, who is marvelous as the revenge driven and legendary black gunslinger. He is genuinely revolutionary here, bringing a level of cool and power to such a mystical character who accomplishes what any former slave would’ve liked to have done back then, in burning down the system of the people who enslaved him. DiCaprio also puts forth possibly his best performance ever, as the genuinely scary and charismatic villain Calvin Candie, who is rightfully terrifying here.

The 8th film by Tarantino, Django is not just a story of hellbent revenge for Django, but for an entire race of people. It’s a racial power struggle with the thrills of a spaghetti western where he is the shining beacon of hope in this hip-hopified look at an African American gunslinger who tears it all down in the most badass, entertaining, and violently bloody way imaginable.

10/10