Django Unchained Review

A Little Less Than Silent

Austen Goslin

If there is a place for subtlety, Quentin Tarantino has never been there. Which is exactly the way it should be; and if Django Unchained is any indication, he won't be going any time soon.

Borrowing its name from Franco Nero's classic spaghetti western; Django follows the journey of an ex-slave as he and his German bounty hunting partner search for Django's Black-German wife at Candieland. The plot is grand, ridiculous, and most importantly, distinctly Tarantino at every turn.

Waiting for them there is plantation owner Calvin Candie, one of the most hilariously haunting villains since Col. Hans Landa from Tarantino's previous film, Inglourious Basterds. For someone whose spent most of their life playing sweet and innocent, it is refreshing to see Leonardo DiCaprio’s brilliant turn as a crazed southern plantation owner. Candie is a villain who ignores knowledge in favor of pure power and evil, this combination adds devilishly to Candie's already horrifying brand of charm.

Candie is met famously by his foil, Doctor King Shultz, a German bounty hunter whose moral compass is essentially absent, except on the subject of slavery. In his second time working with Tarantino, Christoph Waltz gives a performance no less mesmerizing than the first (the previously mentioned Col. Hans Landa). Each actor's best time on screen is their time spent opposite Waltz. Waltz seems to possess a special quality, in this film especially, that forces his fellow actors to rise to his level of talent when on screen near him.

As fantastic as the performances are, it is the Tarantino script that stands on point in Django Unchained. His clever dialog masquerades as crude as it advances the plot under the careful guise of irreverence. Django Unchained represents one of Tarantino's more carefully measured efforts as he methodically establishes a focused cast of well developed characters, rather than assault the audience with a barrage of character after colorful character.

This more careful approach is, in some ways, a detriment as you lose the charm of Tarantino's enumerable side characters. However, this measurement also leads to a more engaging story whose more careful focus helps establish a more solid connection to the films characters.

In similarly Tarantino fashion, this film is violent. It is a violence that exists on a level similar to that of Kill Bill as Django dispatches enemies with nary a glance in their direction. Despite this, it is also one of the few Tarantino films to question the intention of violence, this notion is however quickly dispatched with little thought explained away as the nature of a character's world. This is one of the few missed opportunities to be found in Django, although it would almost feel out of place for anything more than a passing nod to the ethical dilemmas raised by film violence.

That being said, Tarantino does allow for a significant amount of the films run time to be spent pondering the nature of the slavery present in Pre-Civil War America. On this subject, he seems almost worryingly pragmatic in his presentation of the three views. The first presented is that of Doctor King Shultz who, feels that slavery is of the utmost evil, beyond even killing. Next we have the view of Calvin Candie who, sees slavery as a means to an end, as well as the natural order of a lesser species of human submitting to their superiors. Finally we are given Django's view, a realistic portrait of slavery as a necessary evil of the time, one unfit for those we love, but not entirely unneeded. While this view instills a slightly uncomfortable feeling in the viewer, it also fits the film perfectly, as few things are meant with condemnation, but rather acceptable as things that may have happened.

If there is one fault to be found in Django Unchained, it is in the details. While it may seem a problem of irrelevant significance, one scene stands out as a less among the predominately fantastic film. It is a scene intended to set up the third act and establish motivation for the remainder of the film. Unfortunately, it is instead a boring scene as we watch one character come to a rather obvious realization over the course of a ten minute dinner. This scene lies two thirds of the way through the second act and breaks the films other wise immaculately measured pacing.

Conclussion:

Despite this incredibly minor flaw, Django Unchained is one of the most entertaining and well crafted movies to be released this year. Django Unchained is one of the most steady and unflinching looks at a mortifying time in our nation's history; Tarantino provides us this look with a hint of realism, mixed perfectly with his trademark absurdity at its absolute best.