REVIEW - Django Unchained

      Year: 2012        Writer/Director: Quentin Tarantino          Producers: Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone

      Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardi diCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, Don Johnston.


Django Unchained tells the story of a pair of bounty hunters who undertake a personal mission of rescue and revenge in Mississippi during the 1850s. The gun-slinging anti-heroes are Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), an Austrian and former dentist, and the black man he freed, Django (Jamie Foxx).

Despite killing wanted men and their nuisance affiliates for bounties, Dr Schultz oozes charm and conducts all affairs like a reasonable businessman. When he recruits Django to help identify his latest bounty targets, Dr Schultz learns of the former slave’s torturous separation from his wife, Brunhilda, and furthermore witnesses the man’s ruthless bounty hunter potential. Over the course of a winter contract with Schultz, Django learns elocution, redefines his wardrobe, and becomes a deadly hunter in his own right. He is ready to rescue his wife. Only wherever they go, Django’s clothes, horse-riding and projection of superiority (over white and black folk alike) elicit tension and physical threat from the many fanatical racists they encounter.

Following a skit (it would appear) and fiery ambush involving the KKK, Django and Schultz meet the wealthy plantation owner who most recently bought Brunhilda. The superficial millionaire, Calvin Candie (Leonardo diCaprio), entertains the men who pose as new hobbyists of “Mandingo” – a fictional sport and consuming passion of Candie’s that pits black slaves against each other in a wrestle to the death.

Candie enters a long bargain with Schultz that sees them all staying at the millionaire’s estate. Under the hospitality and suspicious eye of a loyal footman (played by Samuel L. Jackson), Dr Schultz and Django are so close to rescuing Brunhilda and simultaneously being  found out by a house and barnyard full of embittered, bloodthirsty racists.

Meeting high anticipation, Django Unchained delivers cool, crafty and roundabout dialogue. This colours outrageous situations that make you smirk, jaw-drop and bite your fingers off in suspense. Moreover, the film unfolds very well, and although lengthy, it doesn’t feel clunky or wane our interest as an audience. Amongst these favourable elements, I would like to raise a qualm regarding the film’s dubious depiction of racism. However masterful a storyteller Tarantino is, and ambitious a director, this mishandling shouldn’t escape discussion or disapproval just because of Tarantino’s reputation to push the envelope and garner instant acclaim for it. 

Tarantino has defended his movie against fellow filmmaker Spike Lee’s claims of being “disrespectful” to black ancestry. Presumably, Lee is denoting the 100+ times n***** is uttered, unrelenting discrimination of African Americans, and exploitative nature of Mandingo wrestling. I don’t believe Tarantino feels any malice or intended any harm toward black ancestors – more so, he likes to test his characters, imagine badass muthaf****ry and shock his audience – but I agree that examples of racism in this movie are boldly and needlessly gratuitous.

Arguably, there is some form of commentary on racial prejudice within early-days America, and correlations may be drawn with attitudes, ongoing struggles and landmark victories of today. However, this sensitive subject is not the study of this film. Revenge is the story and the means of “happy” resolution and racial prejudice is the conflict. Whilst the movie holds our attention all 180 minutes –even as we close our eyes and open our ears to Candie’s vulgar championing of a depraved sport and the bone-crunch that hopefully signals the end of the close-up, rapidly-cut graphic violence – one leaves the cinema and sifts through the smart quips, eccentric characters and explosive action in search of an actual message. Racism is horrible and was disgracefully permissible over a hundred years ago, and Tarantino hammers this point into every second of the film as if each and every last scene using hateful slurs and depicting racial oppression hadn’t stayed with us. However, the movie makes no substantial offer of morals or lessons, which all stories of value should – primary to any thrill-capacity or artistic merit.

Whilst one can enjoy the movie, you are also forced to experience parts of it on an extreme level that I don’t believe the MA15+ classification prepares one for. Even as a mature, open-minded and extensive viewer of film, I didn’t expect to feel so uncomfortable watching this in the cinema. I was surprised this didn’t receive an R18+ rating, and am relatively concerned that people as young as fifteen can access content with as much potential to disturb.

Django Unchained is worth seeing if you have a strong heart and stomach – for the banter, performances, Spaghetti Western kitsch and ambitious action-rescue mission, if not the worthy discussions on racism, desensitisation and film classification.

7 / 10