"The "D" is silent, hillbilly."
This films reputation and history definitely precedes it, not only for its subject matter the Ill touched upon topic of slavery in America, but also for the film’s director and writer Quentin Tarantino’s style and presentation. I think Tarantino is the kind of director you either love or hate, very few people feel impartial about his movies, Django is very typical of his style and presentation and storytelling, so fan’s of his will love it for this, while the unconverted will not appreciate it. So as someone who loves his films, I loved this movie, but I’d like to state that it doesn’t just get a free pass because it’s a Tarantino movie; it genuinely earned my respect and admiration.
Most people will know the basic plot so I will outline that
here and try to keep it spoiler free. The basic premise is that Django Freeman
(Jamie Foxx) a slave is bought and freed by Christoph Waltz character (Dr. King
Schultz) a bounty hunter, who then help Django free his slave wife Broomhilda
von Shaft (Kerry Washington) from Leonardo DiCaprio’s character’s (Calvin J.
Candie) plantation “Candyland”. Ok that’s pretty much what you see in the
trailer, no spoilers. The film despite being two hours forty five minutes long,
never once felt like it was dragging and really flew by in my opinion, which is
a testament to how good a director Tarantino is. The thing that surprised me
most about this film was how genuinely funny it was at time and had everyone in
the cinema where I saw it in hysterics and then the very next scene had you wincing
or look away from the violence (a few scenes are very graphic, mostly though
the violence is in that Tarantino nearly cartoony style).
The characters and story are flawless and just beautiful. It’s
very hard for me to pick out an actor, who wasn’t great in the role they played;
each of them gave it their all. I couldn’t write this without mentioning how beautifully
everything was shot, Tarantino did an outstanding job in selling the time
period the film took place in and also made the film feel like it could have
been an old western movie. And while I can’t say for certain how accurate the portrayal
of slaves in America at the time, I can say it felt very real and while it might
have been stylised it’s based in a real place.
I would highly recommend this film to anyone who loved Tarantino, this movies for you. If you’re not a fan I don’t think this film will do anything to change your mind, but you should still be able to appreciate how great the film looks and the story. If I was to describe how this film, I’d say it like Kill Bill crossed with Inglorious Bastards, but set in a western universe, if that makes sense. For me personally I’d give this film a 10/10, it’s a great movie and I had a great time watching it.
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