2012 · 2h 45m · Quentin Tarantino · Ranked #73 on Wuzzah.com
8 out of 10 · 2 ratings
A German Bounty hunter buys a slave to have him help track down wanted men. Later the bounty hunter helps the slave find the slaves wife...
Guns, gore and ‘a nigger on a horse’ in brilliant Tarantino style.
This is a highly enjoyable well written and executed western movie. I was very entertained and very impressed with it. The plot is predictable but that is of no matter as it is a classic western movie, so that was expected.
What really makes this movie good is all the small parts that we are used to see from the hand of Tarantino. Simple yet brilliant dialogues, perfectly timed scenes and all punctuated by explosion of blood and gore to underline a point. Really well done!
My favorite character (obviously?) is the “dentist”. I really enjoy his take on the whole slave trade and suppression of black people. His puzzlement of why people were looking at them just because Django was riding a horse actually made me laugh out loud in the movie theater.
I have never been a big fan of Jamie Foxx, but he does a good job here and really is capable of playing the main part in such a movie.
Leonardo DiCaprio is also a great actor, but even though he plays a slightly dangerous character I just did not find his part fully believable. In my opinion they should have casted an older (or just older looking) and more gritty actor for this part.
The worst part of this movie is, in my opinion, casting Samuel L Jackson as Stephen (the lead slave?). Normally I love Samuel in movies, but he has such a powerful persona and presence that actually overshined the rest of the cast even though he only played a minor part. That really pulled the movie down in my opinion.
As this is a more or less classic western movie, the effects are reduced to a few dynamite explosions which were more or less proper proportioned. That, however, cannot be said about the blood (and gore) from gunshot wounds. Tarantino must have (bled?) the marked dry for theater blood while making this movie. Every time someone important is shot blood is cascading from the wound, splashing everything and everyone, including the camera, in crimson. It is by far over the top, but it is consistent and more or less a theme from Tarantino. Though it is far from realistic it does not destroy the movie in any way.
