Django Unchained

Django Unchained caught the cinematic world by surprised with it’s numerous nominations at the biggest award shows. Truthfully, that is when I first thought about seeing Django Unchained. This weekend I went to see what the hype was about. Django started off strong, but quickly lost its luster. Quentin Tarantino returned to the big screen to release his idealistic dream of an American slave extracting his revenge. In Tarantino fashion the film has extreme gore, more than logically possible for the human body.

Django is about a German bounty hunter, Dr. Schultz, who buys a slave, Django, to help him track down slave owners. Django works with Dr. Schultz to buy his freedom and rescue his wife from some vicious slave owners. While this is the simple plot of Django Unchained, the film goes much further than this. Django dragged on through three acts. There is something to be said about leaving things to the imagination, which Tarantino ignores. There are three places I would have ended the movie, but Tarantino disregards the basic rule of screenwriting to add plot points. Django was an epic, much like Kill Bill, but released as one film.

While I thought the film went on for far to long, I did love the cast. Django was phenomenally acted with great chemistry, though I do not believe it was award worthy from any of the actors. Christoph Waltz (Dr. Schultz) already won the Golden Globe for actor in a supporting role. He played the same character he did in Inglourious Basterds, though this time he was likable. Jamie Foxx played the title role of Django. Leonardo DiCaprio actually surprised me with his portrayal of Calvin Candie. He stood out to me the most in this film. His bi-polar attitude came across believable. KerryWashington and Samuel L. Jackson rounded out the cast as slaves on Candie’s farm. I don’t think any of the acting was particularly award-worthy, I do think it was one of the best ensemble casts this year. They were very strong on playing off of each other.

My favorite part of Django Unchained was the original sound track. The original songs were a combination of mo-town with a western feel. Throughout the film, the score contained western music, unfitting for it’s southern setting. Tarantino wanted to convey the western feel while on the southern plantations. This was the most creative part of the movie. It certainly changed the overall feel of the film.

Overall, I would not suggest seeing Django Unchained. While it does have its strong points, it is not worth seeing in theaters. I recommend renting Django Unchained.