Known for his own brand
of unapologetic grotesque and witty action thrillers, Quentin
Tarantino returns with the much awaited Django Unchained. For
his fans, the film has everything that they expected from it and a
little more. With his signature on every single character, event,
dialogue and gunshot in the film, it is perhaps the most refined
Tarantino masterpiece. The film's tagline reads, 'They took his
freedom, he is taking everything', and from an Indian point of view,
it simply translates as Tarantino's cinematic version of 'Keh Ke
Loonga'.
Django, a slave with a
brutal history of torture is sought by bounty hunter Dr King Schultz
for an assignment to kill the Brittle brothers. However, they develop
an understanding and decide to become partners in crime, as it were,
to make some more money. But, Django is focused on one ultimate goal
- to find and rescue his wife Broomhilda. Tarantino combines the
western genre and puts in a very stylised sophisticated manner in
this extravagant tale of violent retribution.
Violence and retaliation
are recurring themes in most of his films; nevertheless, there is an
element in Django that supersedes vengeance. In a scene where Django
asks Schultz why he is going out of his way to help him, Schultz
replies, "I have never given anybody their freedom before.
And now that I have, I feel responsible for you." That
element of emotion and personal interaction are what take the film to
a new level. We are used to seeing characters in Tarantino's films
who are almost comic book-like with one cardinal trait, but here, you
see these albeit quirky characters as people too.
Music plays a very
important role in providing many memorable moments in the director's
previous works - be it Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang in the
opening credits of Kill Bill Vol 1 or Girl, you'll be a
woman soon at John Travolta and Uma Thurman's unconventional date
in Pulp Fiction. In Django Unchained, the soundtrack
adds to the pre-existent charm. Country music dominates the first
half of the film and before you know it; modern hip-hop takes over as
the characters wreak havoc with all guns blazing in the climax.
Playing a character with
a similar poise as General Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds,
Christoph Waltz's Dr King Schultz is the most adorable character in
the movie. Django, played by Jamie Foxx, is also impressive; but if
visual yearning serves right, that was a role tailor-made for a young
Samuel L Jackson. Jackson is seen in this film in a negative role of
Stephen, a loyal and conservative slave at the house of Monsieur
Calvin Candie.
Candie, played by
Leonardo Di Caprio is the powerful slave trader who owns Broomhilda
(Kerry Washington). His growth from being a naive, torturous rich man
to a no-nonsense ego maniac is commendable. Tarantino himself plays
yet another cameo in a semi-vital scene towards the climax.
Looking at his
filmography, it would be unfair to call Django Unchained as
Tarantino's best work, because that would undermine his other best
works. Having carved a niche and created a cult that follows his kind
of cinema which is not at all suited for the faint-hearted, his film
underlines one fact about the world - it is bloody, brutal and
violent; so you might as well enjoy its grotesqueness.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on March 23, 2013
Rating: 4 out of 5
Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on March 23, 2013
