Django Unchained (2012) * *

Directed by:  Quentin Tarantino

Starring:  Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington


Once again, Quentin Tarantino applies revenge fantasy to a sickening time in history only this time the results aren't nearly as effective.    In Inglourious Basterds, a group of Jewish soldiers get to kill Adolf Hitler and the rest of the Nazi hierarchy.    Here, the scale is smaller, involving a freed slave who gets to rescue his wife from the clutches of a slaveowner and take out dozens of his henchmen.    Imagine John Wayne appearing in Gone With The Wind and you'll have a good idea of how Django Unchained turns out.

Everything in the film is done to excess, including the killings, how people are killed, the dialogue, and the running time.    The film is 2 hours, 45 minutes long and upon reflection, barely had enough plot to carry a short film.     The characters could've saved themselves a lot of time and energy ( and us too) if they followed things to a more logical end.    Tarantino is not interested much in logic.   He wants to put his style on full display and that's not always a good thing.   

I'll describe the goings-on here as succinctly as possible without ruining plot points.    Foxx plays Django, who in the beginning of the film is a slave chained together to other slaves walking through a cold, dark forest.   Along comes Dr. King Schultz, a bounty hunter who rides with a stagecoach in tow.   This is no run-of-the-mill stagecoach, but one with a cardboard molar hanging atop its roof.    Why this?  Well, it appears Dr. King Schultz used to be a dentist.   What relevance does this have to anything?  I guess it's an excuse to put that strange tooth on the stagecoach roof.    Dr. Schultz's past as a dentist has no bearing on the plot whatsoever.

He discovers that Django would be able to recognize the quarry he is tracking and frees him along with the other slaves.   Dr. Schultz shoots the captors and plenty of blood squirts out.   This is a recurring theme with the killings in this film.   Lots of blood erupting from whatever body part is shot.   Why is this necessary?   It's over-the-top. 

Django assists Dr. Schultz in tracking his quarries.   In return, Dr. Schultz will assist Django in locating his wife, who was sold to a wealthy plantation owner specializing in mandingos.   His name is Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio as a smooth, mannered businessman with over-the-top panache who likes to see returns on his investments.   So what exactly is the scheme to get Django close to his wife and rescue her?   He and Schultz pose as potential buyers of a mandingo.    They offer an absurd amount of money to get Candie's attention and on to his plantation, which is overseen by shifty Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), who is allowed a certain latitude in his dealings with his boss.

The plot is discovered by Candie and Stephen and instead of killing Django and Schultz, they insist that the money originally suggested for the mandingo be paid to free Django's wife instead.    Why didn't they just approach Candie saying something like, "You have a slave there and we want to buy her freedom.   How does $12,000 sound?"  (Or even, say, $2,000).   Simply because Tarantino wants to contrive the situation and allow for Django to kill dozens of her captors.

Before the ruse is discovered and Django starts killing folks, the film is already absurdly long.    Django and his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) are one-dimensional.    I found myself not caring much about their dilemma and when their long, long-awaited reunion happens, it lacks emotional impact.    The only unusual thing about Broomhilda is her ability to speak German, which comes in handy in a later scene with Schultz in which they speak German to avoid detection.   This was used to much better effect in Basterds, in which Waltz's Landa spoke English to a farm owner to avoid detection by Jews hiding under the floor.

Waltz is terrific here.   He has the ability to be disarmingly polite while hiding more devious intentions, which makes him fascinating to watch.   Yet, he is also basically a good man who wants to help Django.   DiCaprio is fine here, but his character only allows him to do so much.    Samuel L. Jackson is evil, loyal, and knowing, all the while hiding under an Uncle Tom facade.

The most disappointing thing about Django Unchained is that it is style run amok.   Sometimes less is more, but Tarantino seems to be too in love with his creation to dial down.    It's a mistake he made in Kill Bill Volume 1 and Reservoir Dogs.    Much has been made about Tarantino's overuse of the "n" word here.   I agree that it is used far too much.    Like everything else in this film, it is excessive and overdone.