Movie Two Hundred Ninety Seven
A slave becomes a bounty hunter and seeks to free his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Django Unchained.
A pair of slave traders traveling through Texas with a handful of slaves is stopped by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). Schultz is looking for Django (Jamie Foxx) regarding the identities of the Brittle brothers for a bounty he is after. After a scuffle that leaves one slave trader dead, Django is bought by Schultz, who despises slavery and trains a newly free man, Django, as a fellow bounty hunter. After dealing with the Brittle brothers, Django tells Schultz about his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), and Schultz vows to help Django track her down and free her from slavery. They discover she is working at a plantation owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) but they have a plan to ensure Broomhilda’s freedom.
Quentin Tarantino has made quite a name for himself in the last twenty years and his films are widely praised for good reason. He makes films that are amalgamations of all the best parts of various genre films but instead of feeling cobbled together or copied, they feel fresh and raw. His craft has certainly been refined as of late, and Django Unchained may be his most refined film to date. The production feels immense and maybe even more polished than any of Tarantino’s previous works. That is, if you aren’t afraid of erupting wounds, unflinching violence, and lots of course language, it’s one of his finest films.
Django Unchained is one of the better movies to come out of 2012 and it’s one of my favorites of the year. The only thing that really held it back is its length; at 165 minutes it feels long and it drags a bit near the middle. Had the film been closer to two hours I think it would have been lean and mean, without losing much of its charm. Django Unchained constantly tries to keep things interesting, but it’s tough when a film is approaching three hours. After a while, I just wanted less talking and more shooting.
The length of Django Unchained is really my only complaint against the film. I think Leonardo DiCaprio gives one of his best performances of his career, something I was kind of surprised by. Christoph Waltz is, of course, fantastic, as is Jamie Foxx. Kerry Washington doesn’t really do much for me, but she does a good job as well. Unsurprisingly, Samuel L. Jackson gives a great performance that truly only he could give.
I’m concerned that Tarantino’s visions are getting larger and larger and the Weinstein’s are willing to let him run free. Normally this would be a good thing, but I think Tarantino’s movies are technically getting more refined, but there is also a trend of them getting long. If his next film is even longer than Django Unchained, it’s going to need to be something incredibly special, which it likely will be. Django Unchained has been dubbed a Spaghetti Southern, a riff on the Spaghetti Western genre, and I kind of wish more filmmakers took up and made films for this new genre to match Django Unchained.
I give it 5 Samuel Jacksons out of 5.
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Great review. Glad you loved it as much as I did.
We saw it Christmas night and the theater was packed, like no free seats. Kind of a rowdy crowd but man, that was an awesome experience in its own right.
I’m a sucker for Tarantino’s films I just wish this one was a bit shorter.
And see, I wanted even more lol. I’ve heard the DVD will feature almost 2 hours of extra footage. I CANNOT wait
Yeah, that will be pretty awesome
Wait a second……something ain’t right
I agreed with you on the length, I saw at least another 15 minutes they could have tightened. You heard of it initially going to be released as another 2 part series right? So, he seems to like the soap opera ordeal of it all. Said he might might 2 more films, I doubt 3 but hope. But that he wanted to make another “epic” and split the film in half. Great write up!
See, I’d almost it rather have been made into two “films” like Kill Bill. But there are easily 15 minutes of walking or something inconsequential that could have been left out and put on the blu-ray or something.
But then it would have ended when Leonardo came into the film and that would have been the worst Christmas present and teaser ever! haha I thought I would see more of Tom Savini so that disappointed me a bit. I knew his character was going to be deaf but he was always in the background, oh well.
Haha that’s true, DiCaprio really was amazing.
It would have been nice to have more of Savini
Absolutely loved Django. Best movie of the year in my opinion. Tarantino never disappoints.
He really doesn’t, it’s pretty great. Definitely one of my favorites too.
If I’d seen this nine days ago it would have made my top ten which I expanded to top 12 so now a bakers dozen. This is a remarkable film. Very funny in the fiction and raw in language and intensity of subject matter accurate within the historical timeframe. Very good review.
Haha that’s part of the reason I struggle to come up with “top whatever” lists, they always end up growing! Thanks!
Looking forward to seeing it.
It’s a Tarantino for God’s sake…it’s gotta be good right?
If you like his work you will not be disappointed.
I’m going to have to see this soon. I’m a big Tarantino fan and am glad to hear it doesn’t disappoint.
It really doesn’t. For most of the movie I thought he was trying to scale back some of the violence and what have you, but then the finale is just all out. It’s great.
I was so glad I saw this on Christmas day. When my brother and I walked out the theater, there were about 100 or more people in line to see Django or Les Mis, I’m so happy my theater was only filled to half.
Tarantino does make long films, that’s a fact. Pulp Fiction rolls out at 168 minutes and Inglorious Bastards at 153. Only the two Kill Bill’s came in at 112 and 138 respectively. He has always tended to be a bit self serving in area of film length. But, he does make interesting and fascinating films. We can only hope that he eventually realises that his films do not need to be over 2 hours long to entertain. Great post! 🙂
I don’t think that Pulp Fiction feels that long at all, though. Inglorious Basterds, maybe…Kill Bill obviously doesn’t unless watched as one whole film. I think he could stand to get back to his roots a bit and make a raw, lean film like Reservoir dogs again.
I agree. He definitely has fallen into a sort of self-serving trap. A little raw Tarantino could go a long way! 🙂
Glad you finally caught this one, It’s likely going to be my favorite movie of the year depending on how I like Zero Dark Thrity this weekend
I’m hoping to get to see ZDT this weekend too, see how it stacks up.
Hey! I posted my review of this today too!
Interesting to read this review, I really wasn’t sure of it when I saw the trailer at the cinema the other night. We were going to see ‘Safety Not Guaranteed’. Really enjoyed it. 🙂
Yeah, that movie rocked too. Django is better than the trailers make it seem, or at least the trailers I’d seen.
Great point about the Weinsteins giving Tarantino too much freedom. I do think he is in need of some creative editing.
Either tug on his reins or just let him go at it and make hugely epic films, but Django is kind of in between.
I did notice that this movie was a tad long. I think during the huge gun fight scene, all I could think about was…”Oh, here comes the ending.” I said that line three times in the movie. HAHA
It was still a great movie despite the length. I liked that QT had a cameo in the movie. Everybody was great in this movie. Although Leonardo DiCaprio did great, I really loved Christopher Waltz’s performance.
Haha, I did the same thing, I kept thinking the credits were going to roll at least two or three times.
Christoph Waltz just seems like a good guy.
Nice review – I really need to see this one.
Good review. I saw this one with my friend and his girlfriend. She got disgusted and left during the bloody shootout near the end. Not sure what she was expecting haha.
Yeah, seriously…haha
It’s actually becoming physically painful that we haven’t got this yet. Only a couple more weeks now! Great review Andy, you’ve successfully upped my excitement, which was already at dangerous levels.
I hope it fulfills your hopes, I hate having a film not meet my expectations. I think it’ll be well worth the wait, though.
Andy this is certainly in my top three films of the year. One of a handful of films that managed to reach my lofty expectations. Also the most realistic look at slavery in a Looooong time.
agrees with Sanclementhedi re the depiction of slavery. Brutal. Brutally honest.
I would say it’s just out of my top 3, but definitely in my top 5. It’s definitely a refreshing take on slavery, if nothing else
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I saw this film in West Philadelphia with a mostly black audience and we were all loving it. The most laughs came during the scene where Samuel L. Jackson first reacts to seeing Jamie Foxx riding in to Candieland on a horse.
Haha, yeah our theater was about 1/2 black and that part got a pretty amazing reaction too.
Looking forward to seeing Django – but will probably wait till it’s a rental.
I’ve only just seen Inglorious Bastards, last week. Enjoyed it.
Yeah, it’s probably worth a rental if you’re fine with waiting. It’s probably not like anything will get spoiled, plot-wise, I’m sure you can predict how much of it will turn out.
I think Inglorious Basterds needs to be given another watch, I’ve seen it twice, pretty much back-to-back and I loved it but I’ve forgotten some of the finer details. The intro scene with Christoph Waltz visiting that farm house is still vivid, though.
Nice review. DYING to see this. Only 6 more days!
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Just found this in my inbox Andy. Sorry I’m so late man. Busy as a mutha these days. Anyway, glad to hear you liked it. It was overlong and could have been tighter but still fantastic fun.
I can’t blame anyone, I’ve fallen way too far behind in my blog reading to ever catch up. I’ve also fallen way behind in movie watching/posting to the site. Hope to remedy both soon.