Fim Review: Django Unchained

Django Unchained. Rated MA 15+ (strong bloody violence and themes). 165 minutes. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Verdict: A brilliant cast brings Tarantino’s provocative southern adventure to life in high style.

This latest film in Tarantino’s career-long study of the grand theme of revenge is an extraordinarily complicated beast that can be appreciated on a number of levels. Beautifully shot by Tarantino’s (and Oliver Stone’s) frequent collaborator, cinematographer Robert Richardson, Tarantino’s finely-wrought screenplay combines wit, humour, passion, chance and the thrill of the tasks at hand perfectly.

Django Unchained can just as easily be dismissed as a gruesome pantomime from a bygone era that requires us to ignore just how much has changed about the way African Americans are portrayed in contemporary cinema. Either way, there is little doubt that Tarantino is an exceptional provocateur – but if Django Unchained is remembered for anything in years to come, it will be for the fearless performances from his exceptionally committed cast.

When the slave Django Freeman (Jamie Foxx) is purchased by bounty hunter Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), the pair agree that if Django can help Schultz track down the evil Brittle brothers, he will help Django find and rescue his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) who is a slave to the ruthless plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). As the tense negotiations for Broomhilda’s freedom reach a mutually-agreeable conclusion, Candie’s loyal slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) realises that Django and Broomhilda mean more to each other than either have let on, and the price for her freedom becomes almost insurmountable.

Built on impossibly high stakes and played in a perfectly-matched style, Tarantino’s vision has been well-served by his brilliant cast who are all at the very top of their games. DiCaprio and Jackson both shed whatever previous association we may have had with them as actors like skin and escort their characters to extreme levels of perversity – with Jackson’s scenes with a shackled, strung upside-down Foxx among the film’s most challenging. Waltz (in a companion piece to his memorable performance in Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds) is mesmerising as Schultz – whose fascinating journey through the film is the one that captures our imagination and refuses to let us go unmoved.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.