The Review: Django Unchained

What’s the cost of a human life? For bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz it can run between $200 to $7,500 depending on the person, but for a slave named Django, the number is decidedly different.

This is the story that Quentin Tarantino told in his latest flick Django Unchained. The previews would have you believe that the acclaimed director only interested in making a total of 10 movies throughout his career (he’s at seven in case you’re keeping count) has made a slave-turned-bounty-hunter flick into a new-aged blaxploitation.

And it can be, at parts (silly, period-jumping dialogue tends to do that).

In short, Tarantino is a masterfully skilled artist, placing shots in certain positions so as to paint multiple pictures within one scene.

As a writer here, he falters.

Django follows lead character played by Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx, intent on rescuing his wife, Broomhilda, from her overzealous slave owner who pins his servants against others like a c-ck-fight, and doesn’t blink at the blood shed. Broomhilda’s owner, Calvin Candie (played by Leonard DiCaprio) is a classic psychopath. The kind that loses his cool, and sweats out the gel in his hair, all before calmly getting back on track and trying to kill someone. This has all been done before, and even though there are times where sections of the film feel like a parody of a bad Western, the undeniable commitment of the cast members is palpable.

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Photos: Columbia Pictures

Kerry Washington, who plays Foxx’s German-speaking slave wife Broomhilda, does the brunt of her acting with her face— but she’s masterful. When she’s happy you feel it, the emotion permeates through the screen. When she’s scared you cringe, on the edge of your seat hoping she won’t get caught, after yet another failed escape plan.  And when she is in pain, it’s perhaps the hardest scenes to watch. The pain is so thick at times the emotion of it all might just take your breath away. Washington envelopes this character in a way that only she can, reiterating the reason why she able to go from being a high-powered “professional fixer” on ABC’s Scandal to a slave, and make both equally as believable.

Christolph Waltz, helming the role of Dr. Schultz, is also like you’re average killer. He’s jovial and personable, but remarkably heartless (when he’s working). He murders usually in broad daylight, and doesn’t blink an eye at a criminal being shot in front of his own child. A devout dentist-turned-bounty-hunter living comfortably in the “flesh for cash” world, Schultz commissions the help of Django to assist him in knocking off everyone on his list and collecting the bounties along the way.

At the start it seems that Foxx as Django is giving his interpretation of how he thinks a slave acts, but once he gets his footing, he soars. Although moments of historical contrast add and take away from its allure (i.e. Django walking around with sunglasses and a freshly tapered haircut,  a slave girl addressing her master as “big daddy,” Samuel L. Jackson deciding to change his voice from sounding like the elderly character he’s supposed to be playing to just plain old Samuel L. Jackson), but in between the humps are chapters of an engaging story.

Then there are the gut-wrenching sections of the movie that remind the viewer that yes, even though Rick Ross is playing in the background—this is as much about slavery, as it is about love, and even bounty hunting.

Broomhilda being punished nearly to the point of no return, the sense of empowerment between the “field n***er” vs. the “house n***er,” and the shots of slaves wearing metal rods over their heads like dogs back from the vet, reminds us of the pivotal character in this film. This is slavery, and there’s nothing funny about it. Even when Johan Hill and Don Johnson joke about wearing white sheets over their heads as Klansman, but can’t see out of the cut-outs for their eyes;  this is  still slavery. When Dr. Shultz offers a short but important commentary on  the sheet wearing men, “Look at ’em run. Cowards tend to do that,” you go back to the pink elephant in the room: slavery.

Slavery is the backdrop of this film, the curtain hiding some of the most heinous sections of American history, the catalyst by which many Black people came into this country. This is slavery, and how do you make it laughable, without going too far, without offending too many? In his own way, Tarantino pulled it off because he doesn’t run from it. He faces it head on and in part, things like seeing a human being torn from limb to limb works to keep the viewer alert in between the wise-cracks.

So even though Django Unchained lacks on all cylinders, in the moments when its scores, they’re slam dunks.