Django Unchained

Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino fully embraces his love of Spaghetti Westerns (with a Southern twist) with his latest film Django Unchained.  The film stars Jamie Foxx as the title character, a slave who is freed and trained by a German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz).  Together they set out to free Django’s wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from twisted plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). I will say that I enjoyed Django Unchained for the most part.  The film features much of the snappy dialogue that Tarantino is known for and I have to say that the banter, particularly that from Waltz and Dicaprio, was quite entertaining.  The film also has quite a bit of bloody gunfighting.  So much so, that Django Unchained is probably Tarantino’s most violent film since Kill Bill (and that’s saying a lot).  I also have to make sure and mention Samuel L. Jackson, who almost steals the film with his biggest Tarantino role since Jackie Brown. However, one major criticism I have to make about Django Unchained is that it is too long.  Now, while Tarantino is no stranger to films that exceed two and a half hours (i.e. both Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds), Django Unchained is really tipping the scales at 2h45m.  With the exception of Kill Bill, which was divided into two films (with a combined length of 4h7m), Django Unchained is hands down Tarantino’s longest film and, in my opinion, it doesn’t have to be.  There is a scene that is very obviously the film’s climax, but Tarantino felt the need to create some additional conflict and continue the film for about another half hour.  It really took me out of the film and I was anxiously waiting for the film to end (which is not really a good thing). Overall, I would say that I still was pretty entertained by Django Unchained. If Tarantino tightened up the story, so it fit within two hours, I might have enjoyed it more.  However, it was still a fun afternoon at the movies.8 | LIKED IT