Runtime:
165 minutes
Directed
by: Quentin Tarantino
Starring:
Jamie Foxx, Christolph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington,
Samuel L. Jackson
From:
Weinstein/Columbia
Now
that I have seen this (after more than one failed attempt to try and
watch it since it came out last month; I won't even go into those
tails of woe) I can finally do my Top Movies of 2012 post, which will
be posted Friday afternoon. And yes this will be on the list
somewhere. I wasn't sure beforehand; as I've said before, QT's movies
are really hit or miss with me. I know that's not a popular Internet
opinion but that's honestly how I feel. Thankfully this is a hit.
You
probably know the plot already but let me try to be brief: Django
(Foxx) is a slave who gets bought out by Dr. King Schultz (Waltz;
he's a dentist, or rather a former one who is now a bounty hunter) as
Django knows the appearance of a trio of brothers that the good
Doctor is looking to kill. That happens early in the film. After that
they develop a strong partnership and they decide to rescue Django's
lady Broomhilda (Washington) from the evil Calvin Candie (Leo), who
is a plantation owner and the house is run by the house slave Stephen
(Jackson), an old black guy who certainly acts like he's white. The
plan they use to try and free her... rather interesting.
Sure,
the movie is long but for the most part I never felt bored by the
extended length. The performances in large are all quality from the
noteworthy cast (there's also the likes of Don Johnson as Big Daddy,
the original Django himself Franco Nero in a cameo, Walton Goggins,
James Remar, M.C. Gainey, Bruce Dern, etc.), there are some real
tense moments, and when you get violence... oh boy is it rather
violent and blood-soaked. I suppose they got away with an R because
of QT's reputation, because the violence was against racist A-holes,
because it was over the top in a comic fashion at times, or maybe
it's a combo of all those factors.
This
is more than just the spaghetti westerns that the Django name was
taken from; it starts off that way but ends up being a revenge
drama/fantasy sort of thing with strong violence at times. I know
that QT isn't for everyone nor are all of his movies, but this is
definitely the most straightforward and traditional movie that he's
done. No juggling of different storylines, going back and forth in
time, or anything of that sort, aside from some standard flashbacks.
And wow what a sleazy person Stephen is, turning his back on his race
and being racist against them like all the A-hole white people you
see throughout. Yep, the N-word is used often, but of course it is
given the setting; ignore Spike Lee's embarrassing attempts at
getting attention and piggybacking off this movie to do so. What a
clown.
In
short I am glad I finally saw this after the false starts. I'll be
back Thursday night.
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