Django Unchained-An Honest Review

Django Unchained, the 2012 Spaghetti Western set two years before the American Civil War, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, is the story of Django ( Jamie Foxx ), a black slave bought by Dr. King Schultz ( Christoph Waltz ), after tracking down Django’s former slave owners, the two venture to Mississippi to free Django’s wife, Broomhilda, from plantation owner Calvin Candie ( Leonardo DiCaprio )

As usual, Tarantino made an exciting, star studded, action packed story with multi-layered characters, beautiful dialogue and a little bit of dark humor.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD:

PLOT:

After freeing Django, the brilliant German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz, who speaks better English then most native speakers. Takes Django and the two embark East in search of Django’s former owners, The Brittle Brothers. This leads the two to a plantation in Tennessee, whose owner ( Don Johnson ) bears a strange resemblance to Kernal Sanders. Dr. King also specifically tells the plantation folk not to treat Django like a slave, but as a free man, which takes a bit of persuasion.

Django and Dr. King hunt down the wanted Brittle Brothers and are banned from the property for shooting them on site. The following night, the plantation owner and a group of dozens of KKK members plot to assasinate Dr. King and Django. Before they can do that comes the funniest scene of the movie. A KKK member’s wife didn’t cut the eyeholes large enough. Leading for the entire group to argue for several minutes until deciding to just go through with it, while barely being able to see much of anything.

Django and Dr. King predicted an attack and snipe explosives lodged under the chariot, killing most of them. There are a few stragglers of course, so Dr. King gives Django a chance to show off his shooting skills, he effortlessly shoots one, a natural.

Afterwards, Django tells Dr. King about his lost wife, also a slave ( just not free like he is ), and that he has no idea where she is. Dr. King offers Django help, the two travel to Mississippi and find a plantation named “Candyland” owned by Calvin Candie.

Candie’s introduction is him yelling, cheering on his fight club for slaves. In the introduction, Candie looks like a wild maniac, who just happens to be filthy rich, the other side of him, a calm, collected, intellectual, who knows what he’s doing. Also in the scene, is Franco Nero’s cameo, who played the original Django in the 60s. He asks Django his name. Django impyling the silent ‘D’ in his name.

Stating, their in search of the, in more polite terms “right kind of slave” they are willing to pay a whopping 12.000$. Candie shows them around the plantation. The slaves are expectidly treated like filth, not only are they unpaid workers without rights, they are lashed, beaten and mentally abused, one slave, who couldn’t pay Candie back his money for refusing to continue participating in his fight club, is vicously eaten by dogs, mostly offscreen.

Django first finds his wife, Broomhilda ( Kerry Washington ), after she’s taken out of a torture room and taken into the big house, much to Django’s dispise. Candie hosts a dinner, with Dr. King and Django. Overlooking the operation is Stephen ( Samuel L. Jackson ), Candie’s slave and possible friend, he always shows an exagerated amount who from the very start is beyond suspicous of the two. He sees how Broomhilda ( who is one of the waitresses ) and Django are looking at each other and reports them to Candie.

After convincing Candie that Broomhilda knows Django, Candie brings out a skull of a slave that used to work here, he then gives his “Three little dimples” monologue and actually cuts his hand on some glass ( that wasn’t makeup, just accident ). Candie forces Dr. King to sign a contract, purchasing Broomhilda, or else he kills her, her being his property. Dr. King accepts, until the unexpected happens, Dr. King pulls a Taxi Driver and shoots Candie in the chest, and is gunned down by Candie’s goons. Django also goes on a shooting spree, killing a few dozen of Candie’s goons, across the entire house, until running out of ammo. He surrenders, sacrificing himself for Broomhilda’s safety.

Django is sent away to slavery. After manipulating his slavers, he frees himself and makes his way back to Candyland. Long story short, he gets the girl and blows up the plantation in of the most bad#ss moments in film history.

CONCLUSSION

Django Unchained shows a side of American History that often gets overshadowed, slavery. As Tarantino himself said, when the subject comes up, people just wish to not talk about it. That’s exactly what this film goes against, it annihilates the entire ideaology of slavery. By having a slave destroy an entire plantation of slaves, so not only is Django Unchained a great movie with amazing dialogue and acting, it also exposes an outdated way of thinking and empowers black people, particularly black men, showing Django as more of a superhero then an opressed, tortured slave one might expect.

Overall, I’d give this film a 9/10 for it’s great story, directing, characters and dialogue.

-The Screenwriter