For me, 2012 has been a year full of let downs for highly anticipated theatrical releases. “The Cabin in the Woods” wasn’t great, “Prometheus” was a jumbled mess and “Skyfall” was a disappointment. But I still had hope for one more hyped-up film: “Django Unchained.”
I enjoyed the movie, but I was a bit startled by the specific problems I had with it.
“Django Unchained” follows newly-freed slave Django (Jamie Foxx) and his bounty hunter-counterpart Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) as they traverse the pre-Civil War South in an attempt to free Django ‘s wife from the cruel slave owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).
The film was well-made with an excellent script that is Tarantino’s signature, and the performances by the supporting cast were engaging throughout. Waltz was fantastic, and brought depth and layers to a character who had moral issues with the world of slavery. He won a deserved Golden Globe Award for his role, and an Oscar isn’t out of reach. Although the Academy chose not to recognize him, DiCaprio was also at his best. His menacing displays of rage were some of the best scenes in the film. Samuel L. Jackson also had a nice performance as DiCaprio’s right-hand man.
Unfortunately, Fox didn’t match the acting of his counterparts on screen. Playing the title role, you would expect a stronger performance than what Fox provided. He was pretty typical as far as revenge-type flicks go, which is disappointing considering you have an actor with the ability of Fox in a well scripted and directed film. Waltz, DiCaprio and the other numerous actors in cameo roles picked up the slack, but it is a definite downside to “Django.”
Another surprising problem with the film was the soundtrack decisions. This is another area that Tarantino usually masters, but most of the music choices felt awkward. The rap selections seemed particularly out of place. It was obvious that Tarantino was trying to channel the feeling of Blaxploitation films by putting those songs in the film, but it seemed too gimmicky. When those songs started playing, I was taken out of the movie-going experience, which is never a good thing. Tarantino surprisingly dropped the ball on this one, considering the great music decisions he made with his other films such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Death Proof.”
There was a bit of controversy with the film after it was released, with director Spike Lee encouraging people to not see the film because it was too degrading towards African Americans (Lee also previously criticized Tarantino for his earlier Blaxploitation homage film “Jackie Brown”). His criticism is fair to an extent though, because it is a very raw and graphic film, not only because of the violence, but also the abusive and offensive language. While it was uncomfortable to watch at times, “Django” felt like a realistic, yet stylized depiction of what the South was like in that period, so I didn’t have an issue with it.
Overall, “Django Unchained” was a good film, so I give it a 7.5/10. I enjoyed “Django,” but it wasn’t Tarantino’s best work. And seeing as how he only makes a movie every three or four years, it was disappointing that the film wasn’t as strong as, say, “Inglorious Bastards.” It will get a few wins at the Oscars to add to the Golden Globes it already won, but it has some unexpected flaws.
