Django Unchained (2012) Review

 Django Unchained (2012) 8.5/10

Hello everybody. I’m back with another movie review. Today I’ll be going over the hit movie Django Unchained. Django Unchained was released on December 25, 2012 and stars Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Christoph Waltz, with the movie being directed by Quentin Tarantino. As some of you know, I hate westerns. I think the genre has been run into the ground and I find 90% of the genre to be very boring, annoying, and a couple of films/shows to be straight up racist. With that said, this movie is the complete opposite of that observation. Django Unchained helped me understand and appreciate the genre more and I’m more willing to give the genre a couple of more watches. This is also my first Quentin Tarantino movie. Let’s jump into the review.

This is the story of Django, a slave that was rescued by a bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz in order to aid him in finding his target. After their first bounty together, Django continues to stick by Schultz in the bounty hunter business. Django is also on a mission to rescue his wife Broomhilda from a conniving slave owner.

I love this story. It has emotion, grit, adventure, comedy, and a lot of fucked up racism. Seeing Django’s story from shackled in chains to a freeman pretending to be a slave owner was awesome. I do feel like the movie stalled a couple of moments, but the overall film had good pacing.

I love all of the main characters. Django is a straight up badass with the resolve to do what he needs to free his wife. Schultz is a very charismatic character and a great mentor for Django. Calvin Candie was an awesome villain. Again another charismatic villain, but you can’t help but hate him because he’s a slave owner. I love how all the characters aren’t just good guy #1, good guy #2, an evil villain that must be killed. Each character has dimensions to them and I don’t see this very often in western movies. Anyway, I love all the characters, with one of my favorites being Samuel L Jackson’s character Stephen.

The writing for the film is amazing too. All the dialogue felt natural, especially for the time period (1858). In the movie, all of the characters say n****r A LOT. It’s a horrible word obviously, but it felt natural for the movie and the fact that the actors can say it without hesitation helps show their acting capabilities.There’s this one scene I would love to talk about. So after Django and Schultz kill the three brothers, the plantation owner gathers up a small army to retaliate. These guys are KKK members. Right before they raid them, the leader starts up a speech. This then leads to this funny ass skit about their shitty masks and how they can’t see out of them. Shit had me dying. Another scene I want to talk about is near the end of the film. After Candie discovers Django and Schultz's little scheme, he has this speech prepared with a human skull. This whole scene was written and acted out phenomenally. Easily one of the best scenes in the movie.

All the actors did a phenomenal job here. Not one character was bad/felt out of place. Best performance goes to Jamie Foxx for Django, but let’s not knock everyone else. Cristoph Waltz was amazing as Schultz, Leonardo DiCaprio was great as Monsieur Candie, Kerry Washington was good as Broomhilda, and Samuel L Jackson was amazing as Stephen. Again, not one bad performance here.

The cinematography was great here too. The camera work felt fresh, interesting, and helped bring this movie to life. The set pieces were great too. Clothing, guns, houses, and everything else looks great. I love the costume design for Django and Schultz too.

The music was actually amazing here. Original songs were written for the movie, both lyrical and orchestral. I like how it keeps with the traditional spaghetti western sound while throwing in a modern taste.

I couldn’t really find any problems with the film, except maybe Schultz. I feel like the film could’ve developed him a little bit more. Also develop Broomhilda more as well. I mean, she’s the whole reason why Django went through all of this, why not make her more interesting instead of a slave that knows German and she’s Django’s wife. 

Overall, this is an amazing film, but I can’t recommend it to everyone because not everyone is comfortable with hearing the n-word every other sentence. If you can get beyond that, that’s great. I would love to have everyone watch this cause it's a great movie. If someone like me who’s not into westerns can enjoy the film, I’m certain you can too. Anyway, I’ll leave it at this.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.