Django Unchained

Mixing spaghetti western with American Western, director and writer Quentin Tarantino has created his latest stylized epic, Django Unchained. As with his other works, this film is certainly not for all tastes.

Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave separated from his loving wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). He is liberated by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), once a dentist but now a bounty hunter. Schultz offers to make Django his associate, promising to help Django find Broomhilda if he does. Of course, Django takes up the offer and thus they go bounty hunting.

It takes them a while, but they find her in the plantation of Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Candie, despite appearing to be a Southern Gentleman, isn't willing to give up Broomhilda that easily. Or even at all.

Essentially, this is part Blazing Saddles, part Mortal Kombat. While it is a bloody romp through history, this is also a live-action cartoon. Its violence, and some of its characters' bigotry, is so exaggerated that they provide the film its best laughs. Its best, bloodless scene, is when a night raid by wannabee Klansmen almost goes awry because their hoods make it impossible for them to see!

But when Candie, and his slave henchman Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) appear, two problems emerge. While the two make formidable villains, their entrance begins the point when the film becomes un-cartoonish. Even worse, it's also the point when its 165 minute runtime becomes glaringly obvious. What appears to be the film's final shootout turns out not to be and the wait for its real ending is just so long. When it does get to the real ending, though, the payoff is spectacular.

For those who can withstand historical bloodbaths, this film will certainly satisfy them. It will also satisfy its savviest of film-goers with its throwbacks to the Spaghetti Westerns of old. But if you can't stand ultra-violence, then something like Les Miserables will certainly be more satisfying.