Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson
Number 59 on the IMDB Top 250
After watching the abomination that is Plump Fiction for last month’s Movie 50/50 feature, and having recently watched and reviewed The Hateful Eight, I was definitely in the mood for some more Tarantino; even better, a Tarantino film that I hadn’t seen before! I’m a big fan of Tarantino’s, but for some reason I hadn’t seen 2012’s Django Unchained before, so I was looking forward to this. With a great cast including two of my favourites (Waltz and DiCaprio), I was expecting good things.
Fortunately I wasn’t disappointed! It isn’t quite as good as the masterpieces that are Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, but it’s a lot of fun, and ticks all the Tarantino boxes I was expecting. There’s stylistic violence, blood (and plenty of it!), great dialogue, and of course liberal use of the “N” word (which seems to feature heavily in his recent films).
Tarantino’s most recent film, The Hateful Eight, continues the western feel that he started in Django Unchained, but in my opinion, Django does it better. I loved the classic western opening, the music and the use of western movie tropes such as the whip pans and slow motion. You wouldn’t think this would work with Tarantino’s trademark blood-splattered style, but it really does!
Where The Hateful Eight relies heavily on the dialogue due to it’s mostly singular setting, Django is a bit more sprawling and breaks up the dialogue with some great action, but that is not to say the dialogue isn’t great. The exchanges, particularly those that involve Christoph Waltz, are expertly crafted and wonderful to watch. Waltz is a total scene stealer, and was really the highlight of the movie for me.
The climax is absolutely brutal and definitely not for the faint-hearted, but it is typically over the top, and plays for laughs a lot of the time, despite its brutality.
Overall, I really enjoyed this film; of his more recent films, Inglorious Basterds is still my favourite, but this comes a very close second, mainly due to the fantastic cast. If you’re a fan of Tarantino, then you’ll love this, but if you haven’t seen many of his films, this might be quite a good place to start!
What do you think of Django Unchained? Would love to read your thoughts in the comments below.
The coin has been flipped, the number generated and next month I will be watching cult classic The Room, number 246 on the IMDB bottom 250. Actually, I’m excited about this one! Don’t forget you can get involved and watch as well, using the hashtag #Movie5050. There are new posts most Mondays and Wednesdays, and Movie 50/50 will be back on the 7th March!
Sarah Saw a Movie 
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