“Django Unchained” isn’t for the faint-hearted because between all the funny scenes there is plenty of blood and gore1. I loved Christoph Waltz’ sterling performance already within the first few minutes, but Jamie Foxx was also brilliant in his role. It was great to see Michael Parks again, one of my favorite actors from Tarantino movies ever since “From Dusk Till Dawn”2. The role was a little smaller than I hoped for, however. And of course Tarantino himself had an appearance … with, shall we say, a sudden and somewhat comical “disappearance” 😉
All in all you get the fun you expect from a Tarantino flick, but also the blood and gore, paired with revealing the hypocrites such as “Monsieur Candie” and showing some of the uglier aspects of the US before 1860.
The most intriguing character – second to Waltz’ doctor Schultz – was Samuel L. Jackson’s character of Candie’s house slave Stephen. He was the hypocrite par excellence in the film.
There are plenty of winks and nods at other movies and literature, including – I believe – a nod at Waltz’ previous movie “Water for Elephants”. Not sure about it, but the reference seemed too fitting to be coincidental.
Anyway, it was fun to watch and I may even go watch it again in the cinema but definitely will get myself the DVD and/or BluRay once they become available.
// Oliver