Movie Review: Django Unchained

Posted February 2, 2013 by shooting in Uncategorized / 7 Comments

Movie: Django Unchained

Review by Lauren

IMDB Summary: With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.

Review: I’m pretty sure the only film I’ve seen by Quentin Tarantino before was Pulp Fiction, and honestly, I wasn’t the biggest fan. However, a friend wanted to see a movie this past weekend and there wasn’t much out I wanted to see (and hadn’t already seen over winter break) so we decided to give Django Unchained a shot. While it’s a bit of a lengthy film (and probably didn’t need to be), we both enjoyed it a lot.

However, for those that haven’t seen the previews, his name is essentially Jango because the D is silent.

Back to the film- this is one of those movies that is pretty hard to describe. It’s kind of a western, but it takes place when slavery is going on. Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave that is freed by Dr. King Schultz (played wonderfully by Christoph Waltz) in order to help him fulfill a bounty. After this, Schultz decides to help Django free his wife  Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from a horrible owner (Leonardo DiCaprio).

One of my favorite aspects of this film was the music. It’s a mix between western and rap/hip hop, giving the movie more of a modern feel during those scenes. There is a lot of violence and blood, so if you get easily sickened by that sort of thing, then I would skip this film. There is also some humor that is almost hard to view as humor, because you’re thinking of how awful these people and slavery were back in the day. However, I think Tarantino was creating something of a satire, and you’re supposed to find most of the white characters ridiculous (even Tarantino, who has a small role near the end) and root for the black characters (particularly Django and Broomhilda) to find happiness…after enacting revenge, of course.

I am excited that I saw this movie before the Oscars though. I feel like I’ve seen most of the main films that were nominated now, and that makes watching the awards a bit more interesting.

7 responses to “Movie Review: Django Unchained

  1. This is a movie that I've really been wanting to watch – we were going to go see it Friday night but we couldn't find a showing that worked so we went to see "Silver Linings Playbook" instead (fyi – really great movie too!). There have been some interesting criticisms of "Django" but I think the controversy just shows that it's especially worth seeing….

  2. Sam

    Most of my friends that have seen this have enjoyed it, and it makes me want to give it a try now. Honestly, I wasn't sure at first if it would be my thing. I'm glad you enjoyed it though. 🙂

  3. I've been curious about seeing this one, but haven't found the time yet. It sounds quite similar to Inglourious Basterds, actually – a satire about a discriminated group getting revenge with a healthy dose of humour and violence. Sounds like my kind of movie, heh! I do quite like all of Tarantino's movies so I'm sure this one will be a winner for me.

  4. If you liked Django, then you'd probably like Tarantino's Kill Bill movies with Uma Thurman. They are also very violent and bloody, but are also about revenge. I never expected to like them, but did. Tarantino does do some cool blending of music and his movies have a certain style. But I do have a hard time stomaching all the gore and often find myself closing my eyes!

    (Side note: I was appalled when I heard that some of my 11 year old students were taken to see Django in theaters by their parents!)

    And I agree that the Oscars are more fun when you've seen most of the nominees!

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