[Movie Review] Django Unchained: Good old Spaghetti Western!

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo Dicaprio
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Genre: Western, Drama
Movie Reviewed at: PVR Cinemas, Udaipur

You muse endlessly to have a faith in this world, where ‘being bad’ is the only route to rise against the evil. You come close to it and sniff the staple nature of violence and vengeance. This is one big bad world, a world of suppression and blood, in which you either are a demigod or a fiendish devil. You settle down to the tone of it, to the saccharine goriness of the miniscule idiosyncrasies spilled across the barren landscape and then you gapes open mouthed as the shockwaves of awe run all over you after witnessing this fiery masterwork of Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained.

The undercurrent themes of Blaxploitation, dominance of whites and slavery lies heavily besides the baritones of wit and wry humor that Django Unchained offers. The result is an immensely satisfying outing from the veteran director who just doesn’t know how to miss the bull’s eye.

Django (Jamie Foxx), with a silent ‘D’, is a rowdy black sword who mostly stays silent and when he speaks, inflammable boldness flies from his lips. When being rescued by a bounty hunter who gets paid for knocking people and selling their corpses, Dr. King Shultz (Christoph Waltz), his life takes an upswing and he finds himself along with the eccentric hunter in pursuit of the man who took his wife as a slave in the badlands of 1800’s. The man, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who turns out to be a plantation owner having an unusual craze for Mandingo Fighting and a flair for being a wicked businessman, is to be fooled by the duo and so the captive wife is to be rescued by the hands of Django. Sounds simple? Wait till you watch.


Right from the bombastic beginning to a resonating climax, Quentin Tarantino reiterates what he does best; spinning magic all over the screen. Oh yes, definitely it takes an ample amount of time to put his case in the court, a massive two hours and 45 minutes at that, but who cares if the results are so astonishingly raw and brutally hilarious at the same time. The depth of the ferocity of Quentin Tarantino is not to be questioned. He himself is a movie geek and pays his homage to the western of 60’s. And with what style he accomplishes it is a tale to be told to all!

When all the praises will die down and the pulpiness of the affair will be sedated, one will realize that it had a messy narrative.  Nobody doubts over its screenplay for it is surreal in its detailing and wildly creative; but it is the social commentary that somehow loses its worth owing to the self-indulgent nature of the director and the blind faith he had on his style statements. 

Ensemble casting can’t get better than this. When the screen space is shared by such dynamic personas, you tend to hoot every time someone throws a witty line out of the window. Christoph Waltz steals the show with his crackling moustache and a hefty beard while Jamie Foxx is the silent sufferer who unchains himself in the latter half of the movie. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a baddy and looms in the prospects of sheer brutality by his show-stopping sharp one-liners.

Quentin Tarantino plays the big dad and reinvents Western genre. Revenge has not been served colder in recent memories. Call the sheriffs and call the marshals because this Django has truly been unchained! Hat tip to Tarantino!





(first published in www.udaipurtimes.com)