Django Unchained

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington

Writer/Director: Quentin Tarantino

Running Time: 165 Minutes

Two years before the Civil War, charlatan dentist King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) frees Django (Jamie Foxx) from two slave runners on the condition that he helps him kill the Brittle Brothers, who are wanted men on whom Schultz hopes to collect a bounty. Schultz also promises that after the brothers are killed he’ll help Django rescue his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from a plantation.

 Django Unchained is packed with all manner of the usual excess stuff that hampers all this director's films. Any remote opportunity for ridiculous excess is relished by Tarantino’s movie-anorak sensibilities - even more blood than necessary, more costumes, more montages. It also suffers from occasional tonal inconsistencies. Some scenes it’s Blazing Saddles, others it’s a bloodier Unforgiven.

At times it’s quite gutsy and entertaining, but there are several moments when you will have to cover your eyes. Brutality and gratuitous naffness infiltrate this guy’s material, and the time has now surely come for the sycophantic ‘emperor’s new clothes’ approach to his films to be seriously questioned. However, that said – there are some quite fantastic performances on show here.

Jamie Foxx, freed from the overrated prestige pictures like Ray and The Soloist, gets to use all of his trademark swagger in a role that takes him from timid slave to stylish hitman to vengeful husband. Christoph Waltz, preferring wit over weapon, again plays a character who acts like the smartest guy around, until he isn’t. Leonardo DiCaprio is supreme in this – and is simply terrifying as Calvin Candie, who owns Broomhilda and keeps her on a plantation he calls Candyland, where the slaves fight to the death and the women are used and abused. Samuel L. Jackson plays the head slave at Candyland, who served Calvin’s father and his father before him. It’s great to see Jackson in a role he can actually sink his teeth into. This is the best performance from him in a long, long time.

 Django Unchained, like the spaghetti westerns Tarantino clearly idolises, is a bloated revenge fantasy, but his overblown use of irrational music choices as he continues his ongoing urge to keep ahead of the cool pack is ludicrous here, mixing Morricone with John Legend and Rick Ross for example. He has talent, but he so needs a skilled, assertive creative partner to keep his obsessive excesses in check.