DJANGO REINVENTS THE WESTERN

Redemption never tasted as sweet as it does in Quentin Tarantino’s latest masterpiece Django Unchained. Jamie Foxx plays Django, a slave who is given a chance to assist a German bounty hunter, played by Christophe Waltz, who, in exchange for his help, will help Django in finding his wife, played by Kerry Washington.

The film’s grotesquely unflinching portrayal of slavery and the duo’s oversimplified tactics to catch their bounties place this film amongst the most comic westerns ever made, a guns blazing roller coaster ride through the old south that packs enough dynamite to reignite the genre.

Tarantino is no beginner when it comes tackling the western genre. Much of Kill Bill: Vol. 2 was set in the west and paid homage to the classic westerns that shaped the creation of his films’ gun slinging characters. This is Tarantino’s 8th film, and astutely shows off his evolution as a director. Like his previous effort Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino is again taking a much-maligned piece of history and attaching to it his pop sensibilities, wild panache, and calculated dialogue to exaggerate the experience for the viewer and create a memorable example of revisionist filmmaking.

Fans of Tarantino’s previous works will find his latest incarnation unique and original, yet familiar. Alongside Leonardo DiCaprio’s powerful and sinister performance as plantation owner Calvin Candie is frequent Tarantino collaborator Samuel L. Jackson, back in yet another foul-mouthed role as the head house slave of Candie’s plantation, a crotchety man whose evil stems from his lifelong slavery, vindictive towards not just any one race, but towards mankind itself.

Of course, the film’s frequently obscene vulgarities are coupled with an equal dose of sharp humor, a reminder that we’re watching this film not to cry or feel remorse, but to witness the absurdity of an institution and cheer for one lucky slave who got his way.

*** 1/2

In theaters December 25th, watch the trailer