Django Unchained: My Honest Thoughts

If you've seen Tarantino's controversial "Spaghetti Southern," the much-loved and much-maligned "Django Unchained," or were around in 2012 when the buzz about this film and the controversies around it were at fever pitch, especially in regards to famed filmmaker Spike Lee's refusal to see it on the grounds that it disrespected his ancestors, you probably already know that I'm approaching this particular article with a little bit of a sense of apprehension. It's kind of like talking about "The Last Jedi." No matter what I say here, someone is going to be mad. Except here, we're dealing with a film that touches on what is still, to this day, a painful wound for many: slavery in America. So, it's kind of a bigger deal. Sorry, but Star Wars fanboys being angry that a movie didn't go the way they wanted it to is not on par with slavery. This movie had a lot of bad habits and understandably rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. And so, in a lot of ways, I wish that "Django Unchained" weren't so dang fun to watch and so uproariously funny, and I wish that the performances in this movie weren't top-notch because, if you've seen it, you know just as well as I do that this movie is awesome. Kind of. Now, from a critical standpoint, it's pretty solid. From an aesthetic standpoint, it's stellar. From a characterization standpoint, it's hard to beat. But from a moral standpoint? Yeah, we're standing on some shaky ground there. So today, I just want to unpack the good, the bad, the ugly, and the startlingly funny in this article dedicated to Tarantino's controversial, groundbreaking slavery yarn.

To put out the obligatory synopsis that I (usually) remember to put at the start of all my posts, "Django Unchained," set in 1850's America, follows a slave, Django, who has recently been freed by the kind Dr. King Schultz, as he learns the trade of bounty hunting in the hopes that he can one day go rescue his wife, Broomhilda, from slavery. And just a heads-up: if you haven't seen this movie, the nature of this article is going to necessitate some pretty heavy spoilers, so proceed at your own risk and understand that this movie is also over ten years old, so it's not like I'm spoiling something that's still in theaters. Just saying.

So, let's start with the things that this movie does well. First, I want to point out that, from a purely and cynically critical point of view, "Django Unchained" is, by and large, an excellent movie. Let's start with the plot of the film. Minus the last 20 minutes of the film, which I will discuss later, this movie is very strong in terms of conveying the story it's trying to tell. There aren't many hiccups in terms of plot missteps. "Django Unchained" knows where it wants to go - to Candyland Plantation to rescue Broomhilda, and it is intent on getting there. It doesn't swerve to the left or the right; it just follows the story as it unfolds, one thing to the next. It's nothing fancy, but it's pretty dang effective. "Django Unchained" lives by the adage that sometimes, a simple story is the best kind of story, and I admire it for sticking to its guns, of which there are many (get it? Because there are a lot of characters who use....oh just forget it).

Speaking of characters, the performances in this movie are nothing short of incredible, and I mean incredible. Be thankful every day that Jamie Foxx got cast as Django instead of Will Smith because I can't imagine this movie without him. He's intense and dangerous, and watching him learn new English words and then put those words to effective, often hilarious use never gets old ("...I'm positive he dead.") His transformative arc from a desperate, submissive slave to an effective, dangerous bounty hunter is sleek, well-paced, and well-executed. Christoph Waltz absolutely steals the show as Dr. King Schultz, a man who hates slavery and has committed himself to fighting a one-man war against it if no one else will. Waltz masterfully delivers the witty dialogue written for him in a stylish, gentlemanly, and hilariously self-aware manner, and Dr. Schultz is probably my favorite character in the movie. In fact, he would be if it weren't for competition from Leonardo Dicaprio's show-stopping performance as the absolutely detestable and endlessly stylish Calvin J. Candie. One minute, Candie acts the charismatic gentleman, and then the next, he flies off the handle in a fit of terrifying rage. In short, he's a character that you hate to love because he's literally just a horrible person, but you can't help but like him: Dicaprio just brings such charisma to the part, crafting one of my favorite movie villains this side of the 21st century. Did I mention that the dialogue in this movie is brilliant? "In other words, Marshall....you owe me two hundred dollars" never gets old. The aforementioned dialogue is witty, hard-hitting, and, when it isn't bludgeoning you to death with the N-word (and we WILL talk about that later), very fun to listen to.

This movie is also fun to look at. The cinematography, while not quite on par with, say, a Deakins or Hoytema project, is excellently done by Robert Richardson, and the production design of this film is absolutely outstanding. I don't believe this film used any computer-generated imagery (I could be wrong - someone fact-check me on that), and it is absolutely stunning to look at, using natural scenery to stun at just about every turn. From the snow-covered mountain peaks of the High Sierra mountains (yes, I know they were actually the Grand Tetons in real life. Don't massacre me) to the weeping willows of the Bennet Major plantation, the available natural landscapes are well-utilized and stunning. The indoor scenes are excellently and extravagantly decorated to seemingly the finest details. The budget of "Django Unchained" was not small, clocking in at a cool $100 million, but it's still only approximately half of what a lot of other big-studio productions are given, and yet it manages to look twice as good and a heck of a lot more convincing.

On a more obvious note, this film is also uproariously and unbelievably funny, in typical Quentin Tarantino style. I tell you, only Tarantino could turn a bunch of KKK-wannabes trying (and failing) to find and lynch somebody into a hilarious, sitcom-esque scenario. OK, now that I've typed that last part out, I know how it sounds, but seeing is believing, and if you haven't seen the movie, go watch it and tell me that this wasn't the funniest part of the whole film. From Django picking out his own clothes to Stephen getting in a petty fight with Django over not asking for his name personally to Mr. Bennet turning from a mean-spirited plantation owner to a courteous southern gentleman on a dime at Dr. Schultz's manners (and many, many more examples), this movie is absolutely hilarious. There's really just no way to put it other than this - if you can make an audience laugh, and especially laugh nervously, at a movie focusing on American slavery, then the comedy in that movie is working really well.

Now, all that said, I wanted to jot out my honest thoughts on this film for this blog post, and with those honest thoughts, of course, come some viewpoints that are going to cast some shade on this film. This movie rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and frankly, it's really easy to see why. However, before I get into some more obvious shortcomings with this film, I want to address my #1 complaint with this movie from a critical point of view, and that would be the last 20 minutes and the false defeat of Django. I get that this movie wanted audiences to wonder what was going to happen at the end of the film with some sense of apprehension, but this approach didn't really work for two reasons: reason number one - it's a Tarantino film, and a Tarantino film about revenge, especially a film that leads up to said revenge, is going to end with the protagonist successfully getting their revenge, no question about it. Reason number two - this false defeat created a small pocket with some big pacing issues, causing the movie to take a 180-degree turn from the direction it was heading and head off on a new tangent, only to have Django shoot his way out of this particular conundrum and take another 180-degree turn that doesn't even head in a new direction. In essence, what was supposed to be a twist in the plot just felt like an unnecessary detour and deviation. The first time I watched the movie, I found myself really annoyed by this slip-up in what was otherwise some pretty stellar pacing. It stuck out like a sore thumb to end all sore thumbs, and the high quality of the rest of the storytelling, while overall bolstering the movie, just made this slip-up all the more obvious.

The next thing I didn't like about "Django Unchained" seems to be the crux of what caused the storm of controversy around it: this movie has a lot of content excesses. First off, it is incredibly violent. The only Tarantino film that is more violent is probably "Kill Bill: Volume 1." And to preserve the slapstick feel of the movie, this violence never felt justified. I genuinely felt bad about laughing at watching a few people get gunned down, even if these particular deaths were obviously being played for laughs. Granted, there was one scene in the film, namely the whipping flashback, that was unusually sober for a Tarantino flick, and I appreciated this departure from the otherwise comedic tone of the film, but otherwise, I think that this aspect of the film is something that people, especially kids (who probably shouldn't be watching this film at all) and teens should learn to approach with a healthy level of nuance, understanding why Tarantino made the artistic decisions he did, and yet learning to take them with a grain of salt. And now, to address the more talked-about controversy in this film, it's 110 uses of the infamous "N-word." I get that this movie is set in the Antebellum South, but I found myself getting more than a little weary of hearing it. On top of the overall comedic tone of the film, I can absolutely see why a lot of people would be offended by this movie. Topping it off with a few instances of full-frontal nudity, "Django Unchained" is not for those lacking a sensible head on their shoulders.

And, despite being willing to deal with slavery honestly for even a few minutes, this one whipping scene I mentioned did leave me with a lot of tonal whiplash, especially when we then immediately proceeded to a scene of Django gunning slavers down and dropping the admittedly hilarious "I'm positive he dead" one-liner. I'm a big fan of consistent tone, the idea of being willing to establish one mood and run with it, and this just wasn't it for me. But hey, the lens filter they used for this particular scene looked great. I guess if I had to, by and large, distill the bad things about "Django Unchained" into one statement, it would be that this movie lacks a filter. And, while this can lead to some hilarious moments, it also leaves somewhat of a bad taste in your mouth, and it also caused the writers to kind of write themselves into a corner towards the end of the film. I'm all for Tarantino directing things the way he wants to direct them, as it has given us some excellent and wildly entertaining movies. I just don't know if American slavery, which is still a very sensitive topic here in the States, was the right subject for him to tackle. Ultimately, I don't think "Django Unchained" is a film I can recommend to really anyone in good conscience. Is it a movie I'd watch again? In a heartbeat. But the reason I can't recommend it is simply that if this blog gets famous for some reason, I don't want angry parents knocking my door down at night because their child was scarred by this film. It's a rip-roaring good time, but it's also a very adult-oriented and, dare I say it, often inappropriate, one that doesn't make you think as much as it should.

Bye, Miss Laura.

Django Unchained - 8/10

Philippians 4:8