Django Unchained
*"I like the way you die, boy."
*
(Sorry I haven’t been active when I SAID I would— but now the World Cup's over 🥰**)
**
I feel like I should (once again) clarify that I am not a member of the Quentin Tarantino fan club when it comes to the man himself. Yet every now and then, one of his films reminds me why his name remains impossible to ignore.
Django Unchained is that film for me.
What still impresses me is how confidently the movie walks a tightrope between horrific history and outright absurdity. Slavery is never to be treated lightly, yet Tarantino injects so much dark humor, irony, and theatricality into the story that it becomes something paradoxical; at one point you're laughing like you're watching Lucky Luke, and ten minutes later you're getting emotional damage worthy of 12 Years a Slave, there is quite litterally no in-between. The movie simply grabs you by the collar and throws you from one extreme to the other.
Beneath the gunfights and the explosions of violence lies the story of a man who refuses to accept that the woman he loves is lost to him. Django's quest to retrieve her never feels secondary because he is the one reminding us, why he's doing what he's doing in the first place.
The cast is operating on levels that honestly feel unfair. Jamie Foxx gives Django not just style, but determination, Christoph Waltz is so effortlessly charming that I could probably listen to him speak german for hours, Leonardo DiCaprio is having the time of his life being absolutely despicable, and Samuel L. Jackson delivers one of the most irritating characters I've ever had the pleasure of watching.
If I had one criticism though, it would be the ending stretch. The first two hours disappear before you even notice them; but then the final act suddenly feels aware of its own length. Not enough to ruin the experience, but enough for me to notice it on a second watch.
Still, what a ride. In Django Unchained, history has rarely looked this cruel, and revenge has rarely been this bloody satisfying.