The D is Silent: A Review of Django Unchained

Late 2011 when I heard that a Quentin Tarantino “remake” of Django was in the works I was not too happy. Why was I sceptical? Simply put I was afraid Tarantino would taint the iconic character that Django was to me. I had the pleasure of watching the two original Sergio Corbucci Django films starring Franco Nero as a kid – Django (1966), Django Strikes Back (1987), cult classics like so many other spaghetti westerns. What would Tarantino do I wondered? His rehash of Enzo Castellari’s Inglorious Bastards (1978) to Inglourious Basterds (2009) was fresh in my mind and while the latter was a fabulous remake of the original I just could not get my head around the fact that the movie revolved around a black slave! C’mon! Tarantino that is taking things too far! I screamed in my mind. But reading the screenplay and watching the film changed it all.

Tarantino’s Django Unchained tells its own story although he borrows the name “Django” and the revenge plot of the earlier films. So in other words Django Unchained is very much its own film. However, Tarantino turns a genre on its head where he features the avenging cavalier as a black ex-slave who goes about legally killing white folks who have done him wrong! I guess this is the kind of effrontery that has made Tarantino the director that he is.

Jamie Foxx shows up in the way only he can as he brings this remixed Django to the big screen. He plays his role quite effectively without any over the top acting. Initially he portrays a black slave just going along with the plans of his new master - a crazy white dentist-turned-bounty-hunter who is obviously “not from around these parts”. But as he becomes an equal partner he grows into his own man, a man who having removed the shackles of slavery wants his wife back and will kill as many men (white or black) in order to achieve his aim. Or is this all an act? Perhaps he only played the characters of angry, former slave/bounty hunter/One-eyed Charlie a little too well? You slowly realize that a black man born into slavery and only recently set free would have to put on a different persona from the one he is used to in order to survive his new found freedom and to fulfill his quest.

Dr. King Schultz played by Christoph Waltz was at his insidious best. The irony that a German doctor gives a black slave his freedom and helps him on his mission to rescue his lost slave wife in 19^th century America is not lost. Waltz portrays the foreign-dentist-turned-bounty-hunter with aplomb almost equal to but yet a  mirror image of his performance in Inglourious Basterds. He is once again sublime in his delivery and acting.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin J. Candie gave a good performance as is with DiCaprio’s acting. Kerry Washington effectively played the damsel in distress. 

Now, Samuel L. Jackson’s Stephen was vintage Samuel L. Jackson! He played the part to a T so much so that a colleague remarked that he should not have gotten paid for the role!! I quite agree. Stephen’s loud talking, foul-mouthed, condescending Uncle Tom was just right. Seeing Jonah Hill had me in stitches his appearance was hilarious for some reason but he played his part well.

It was a great pleasure to see the original Django, Franco Nero in a cameo. The scene which was not in the original screenplay where he talks to Jamie’s Django asking if he could spell his name brought tears to my eyes. In that instant I forgave Quentin.

The film’s score and music was mad!!!! Right from the opening credits we are greeted with frequent Tarantino collaborator, prolific film scorer including numerous spaghetti westerns, and Academy Award winner Luis Bacalov’s “Django” which takes one back to when spaghetti westerns ruled the screens. The humorous “His Name Was King” reminds us that this is all just entertainment but Rick Ross’ anachronistic “100 Black Coffins” and the dialogue by Django and Billy Crash (Walton Goggins) leading to it was definitely one of the high points of Django Unchained; to say it was apt would be an understatement.

Filled with quite a few controversial themes and discussion points that could take days to discuss, in the end Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is almost a hyperbole. Despite the usual generous helping of blood and guts we have come to associate with Tarantino's films, Django Unchained applies just the right amount of fantasy.  Indeed, all the characters are acting, some living a fantasy, some striving for one: from wanted outlaw Willard Peck who takes on the role of Sheriff Bill Sharp, to Django a slave who plays a free man, and to the house n***er Stephen who kowtows before his master when in character and then sits in his master's chair, sips his brandy and talks to him as an equal when out of character, Django Unchained (apologies to Spike Lee) is simply just a fantasy – what every damn good film should be.