If you love Quentin Tarentino‘s previous movie, Inglorious Basterds, you will also love his latest movie, Django Unchained:
I am a big fan of Tarentino. He single-handedly lifted the exploitation film genre to art-house status, enjoyed by both mass audience and critics.
Django Unchained is Tarentino’s attempt to rewrite history again, after wiping out Adolf Hitler and his gang of Nazis in Inglorious Basterds.
This time round, racist Southern slave traders and Ku Klux Klan members from the pre-American Civil War period are his target for vilification and revenge.
The movie stars two of my favourite actors, German-Austrian actor Christoph Waltz and American actor, stand-up comedian, singer-songwriter, musician, and talk radio host, Jamie Foxx.
For those who watched Inglorious Basterds, you will remember Waltz as the evil-to-the-bones Nazi SS Colonel Hans Landa – the main antagonist in the movie. Waltz’s performance was rock solid. For his portrayal of Hans Landa, Waltz won the Best Actor Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival; a Gloden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guld Award, an Academy Award and an BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor!
One can never get enough of Waltz and I was delighted to see him playing a supporting role again in Django Unchained. Though Waltz had limited screen time, he commands a strong screen presence which linger on even after his character exit the storyline.
Leonado DiCaprio plays a plantations and slaves owner who enjoys making his slaves fight each other to death for entertainment. It is rare to see pretty boy DiCarpio plays a villainous role. He was downright evil in his portrayal and I am sure any decent human being would want to see him dead by the end of the movie.
Watch out for Tarentino’s own cameo in the movie which came quite surprisingly and ended quickly. Veteran actor, Samuel L. Jackson also appeared in a small role as a evil house slave who turns on his own kind.
The movie runs for over two and a half hour, but the storyline is so full of twists and turns that you will not find it a minute too long.
Witty, powerful and rewriting history in the way it should be in an ideal world, Tarentino unleashed yet another classic exploitation film with art-house standard following Inglorious Basterds.
For those easily offended by graphic material, Django Unchained, true to the genre of exploitation films, would not be easy to stomach with it’s mix of blood, gore, violence and sex scenes.
For those who are sanitised to such stuff like yours truly, the movie comes highly recommended for solid entertainment.
Trailer:
Interview with Tarentino, DiCarpio and Foxx:
Django Unchained opens in Singapore cinemas on 21 Mar 2013 (this Thursday). Go catch it!
Solid review Alvin. This movie really couldn’t have been done by anyone but Tarantino and some people I know thinks he’s a weird director and that his movies are boring and stupid, but I think he’s made plenty of great movies. Thankfully, this is exactly one of those great movies.