Django Unchained: NR #35

Now I, like most people, love Tarantino. "Pulp Fiction" is a classic and will still be talked about 100 years from now. In the past decade though. he's been slipping. "Kill Bill' was fine, "Death Proof" I felt was meh, and "Inglorious Basterds" was also fine, but not of Tarantino quality. We've been waiting for the return of Tarantino, and this film was looking like just that. Is it though? Let's find out in my review of...

PLOT
Two years before the start of the Civil War, Django Freeman is a slave who is rescued by Dr. King Schultz, a German dentist turned bounty hunter. Schultz frees Django to help him find a bounty, but takes him under his wing in order to find his wife, who is also a slave. Django and Schultz begin a revenge path after they find her at Monsieur Candy's plantation.





PROS
Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio really bring it here. Waltz is suburb as Schultz and is the shinning star in every scene he's in. DiCaprio is just as good, with a villain who's not only charismatic but also threatening.

The film has a lot of those Tarantino niches that always make his films great. It's full of snappy dialogue and long, tense scenes that leave you on edge just thinking about them.

Say what you will, but Tarantino knows how to direct action. While not a whole lot of it, when there is action it's impressive and awesome. It's also gleefully gory at points.



CONS
Do you like the N-word? If not, you're going to hate this movie. The word is used almost gleefully, like Tarantino is pointing at you face, laughing that he's the only white guy who can use the word. You could argue that's how people talked back then, but I have two problems with that argument. One, there are other words for black people that I'm sure were used back in the day besides that word. Second, you can't make the historic accuracy point about a movie that's not trying to be historically accurate.

The film feels very uneven, it doesn't know if it wants to be a disturbing realistic portrayal of American slavery, or if it wants to be a fun silly blacksploitation revenge film. This results in scenes that would be great in their respective tones, but feel out of place in this mess of feelings. My sister Evan, who saw the movie with me, made the argument that this is what Tarantino does, but I feel that the tones the film is portraying are too different and make some scenes just feel jarring.


CONCLUSION
Django is a movie I'm torn about. Half of me loves it with its gory violence, witty dialogue, great acting, and other Tarantino staples. The other half feels it's a confused, uncomfortable mess. It could have worked, maybe have been up there with "Pulp Fiction", if it had chosen a tone and stuck to it. Overall, I feel it's a good movie that's dragged down by it's by-polar direction.


RATING
RENTABLE