Django Unchained

“I like the way you die boy.”

When you have a range of films such as “Pulp Fiction”, “Reservoir Dogs”, “Jackie Brown” and “Inglorious Bastards” (to name a few) to your name, the bar for a Tarantino film is pretty high. Well I can safely say that “Django Unchained” defiantly delivers!

Set in 1858, Dentist turned bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), buys the freedom of a slave Django (Jamie Foxx). Schultz is looking for the Brittle brothers to collect a bounty that’s been put on their heads and Django is the only person who can identify the brothers, so In return he must help find and identify them.

During their journey to find and kill the Brittle brothers, Schultz learns that Django was actually in love and married to Broomhilda (Kerry Washington).  Broomhilda was the servant of a German mistress who taught her German so that she would have someone to talk to. She was then sold to her U.S owner where she met Django and fell in love. Their owner didn’t approve of the marriage so they decided to escape but they were caught and punished by the Brittle brothers who tortured them and branded their faces with the mark of a runaway. After being tortured and branded they are sold to different owners.

After the job is done and Django now has his freedom he plans to go and find his wife and buy her freedom, Schultz who is impressed by Django’s “natural” marksmanship proposes a deal, together they will go around collecting bounties throughout the winter and after that Schultz will help Django get his wife’s freedom. Django agrees to the proposal and as promised after a winter of collecting various bounties Schultz and Django begin their journey to “Candy Land” to buy Broomhilda’s freedom from Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), however it will include an elaborate scheme and this is where things get interesting.

As always with a Tarantino film you can expect violence, a brilliant narrative, in-depth character development and of course witty dialog which makes the 2 hours and 45 minutes fly by, keeping the audience engrossed in the film. Everyone was brilliant in the movie and I personally love Samuel Jackson’s character Stephen who when first is introduced will have you laughing your ass off.

The setting of the film as well as its title was inspired by the 1966 film Django which featured Franco Nero as Django. Django Unchained is not a remake or a sequel it was just inspired. There was also a brilliant little cameo which can be seen at the end of the trailer where Jaime Foxx spells out his name and then says “the D is silent” to which Franco Nero replies “I know”.

Django Unchained is like “Marmite”, your either going to love it (like I did) or hate it.

By Fiaz Ali