Django Unchained
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Written by Quentin Tarantino
with Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio
2012
I always have to watch Tarantino films at least twice before I can be sure of what I think of them; they tend to be a bit dazzling first time round, so full of twisting conversations and weird, geeky quirks that it’s hard to tell whether you’ve been properly satisfied by the experience or if it was just good for a bit of fun. Inglourious Basterds was hugely enjoyable in the cinema, but subsequent rewatches have revealed it as a sequence of brilliantly staged scenes – and some not so brilliant – with little to keep it going once everything’s familiar. (There are plenty who’d say this about all of his work, of course.) This means that in some ways this review is premature, because I might watch Django Unchained again and completely change my opinion. But, right now, I’m pretty set on this being a massive artistic success.
Emphatically set a few years before the American Civil War breaks out, the film opens with a group of slaves being transported from market to their new workplace, when a mysterious German man (Christoph Waltz), claiming to be a dentist, approaches the party from the night. This is Dr King Schultz, who is in fact a bounty hunter on the trail of three brothers, and he needs one of the slaves, Django (Jamie Foxx), to identify them. Once he has bought Django, he surprises him by proposing an agreement instead of merely taking him into service, and they set off to find the fugitives. It turns out Django recognises the men for painful reasons, and ends up impressing Dr Schultz by taking charge once they find them. The German’s fascination grows upon hearing the story of how Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), has been sold on separately to his new companion, who is now determined to track her down. Dr Schultz tells Django the story of his wife’s namesake, Brünnhilde, a character in the Völsunga Saga, the German folktale where the hero rescues a princess from a mountain top. He makes a further deal with Django: train as his bounty hunting assistant, and he will aid him in his search and rescue.
Despite the mythical reference, the story is pure Western pulp, full of shoot outs, vendettas and showdowns. It’s the kind of thing that’s never original but also never fails to be satisfying, as long as it’s done with wit and verve, and Tarantino not only has that but also a thing for unexpectedly killing people off, and a knack for twisting a cliché, so that you’re still never entirely sure where things are going to go. More notably, this is his first effort as writer-director that isn’t split into chapters or non-chronological sequence, the trademark that he pulled off so spectacularly with Pulp Fiction, got away with in the Kill Bill diptych, largely because of its odd computer-game structure, and which stops Inglourious Basterds being as good as it could have been. (Death Proof is, I guess, itself a chapter in a bigger project, so it doesn’t really count.) Django Unchained has a linear structure, the classic three acts, and to be honest it’s a relief to see the man can actually make a “normal” film. And while it’s obviously full of the usual cultural references and anachronistic music, there’s something far more controlled and relevant about them. In short, it feels like Tarantino has actually made an original piece of work, rather than a mad concoction of stuff he likes. Not only is Django Unchainedhis most consistent and satisfying film for ages, but, Elmore Leonard adaptation Jackie Brown aside, it might even be the one where he finally emerges from the shadow cast by Pulp Fiction.
Tom
Tom
