Thursday, January 24, 2013

Django Unchained (2013) Movie Review

Watch Django Unchained Online, Quentin Tarantino’s follow-up to the widely successful and critically acclaimed Nazi-killing business flick, Inglourious Basterds, once again sees the fan-favorite filmmaker take-on a controversial historical subject: this time American slavery.

Instead of tackling the sensitive topic as a reverent and grounded drama, the director (in typical Tarantino fashion) positioned his pre-abolition revenge flick as stylized genre fare – specifically a spaghetti western. Tarantino drew inspiration from Italian filmmaker Sergio Corbucci, especially his exceedingly violent 1966 film Django (about a man hunting his wife’s killer), in an effort to present the horrors of slavery with entertaining revenge fantasy irreverence. Does Tarantino successfully balance the intended historical insight with his usual stylistic influence and embellishment?

In spite of some exceptionally indulgent moments, Django Unchained is another sharp and enjoyable Tarantino effort. Fans of the filmmaker, as well as casual viewers who were drawn-in by Inglourious Basterds, will find plenty of the director’s trademark witty dialogue, quirky characters, as well as blood-splattering violence. Several thematic points are a little on-the-nose, even for a not-so-subtle writer like Tarantino, and a few unrestrained filmmaking choices distract from an otherwise immersive revenge tale. Still, while some moviegoers might be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of story material in the 165-minute tale, or roll their eyes at an especially intrusive onscreen appearance by the director himself, Django Unchained contains enough captivating performances, smart setpieces, and humorous/brutal social commentary to be an agreeable (and stylized) nod to the spaghetti western genre.

Loosely inspired by the tale of lost love and revenge in Corbucci’s Django film (actor Franco Nero even has an Unchained cameo), Tarantino’s latest movie follows recently freed slave, Django (Jamie Foxx), who joins with German bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), in the business of killing bad people for money. Schultz recruits Django to help collect the bounty on the vicious (and especially hard-to-find) Brittle Brothers - promising to assist the former slave in a quest to rescue his wife Broomhilda Von Shaft (Kerry Washington) from one of the wealthiest and most dangerous plantation owners in the deep south, Francophile Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Like many Tarantino films, Watch Django Unchained Online Free wallows in the joy of vengeance (especially in a blood-soaked third act). The story plays to the director’s strengths, mixing savage and violent altercations with moments of light-hearted humor and sharp conversations between multilayered characters – framed with striking imagery. The early interactions between Schultz and Django, where the Doctor helps the former slave adjust to life as a free man, keep things light until the audience is fully immersed in the horrors of the time period – most notably Candie’s enjoyment of Mandingo-like slave-on-slave fighting.

On their own, these small hiccups don’t undercut the overall quality of Django Unchained; however, now that the director is tackling larger (and more contentious) subject matter, it may be time for him to show increased restraint when it comes to implementing trademark cameos and his music sensibilities (among other recurring Tarantino mainstays). This round, some long-standing Tarantino filmmaking staples actually lesson the impact of a few important story beats – putting the director in the spotlight, not the onscreen drama.

Watch Django Unchained Movie Online is an intriguing mix of mass-market appeal that Tarantino enjoyed with Inglourious Basterds and playful/unrestrained storytelling that, with Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction, first made him a fan-favorite filmmaker. As a result, there’s a disconnect in Tarantino’s latest offering that sometimes weakens the overall strength of the story. That said, any minor missteps aren’t enough to entirely distract from the unique Django Unchained experience – which successfully pays homage to its spaghetti western inspiration and disturbing source material with sharp performances, entertaining characters, as well as poignant violence.

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