MOVIE WEEKEND: DJANGO UNCHAINED

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

Today I present for your consideration Django Unchained (2012, Rated R, Available on DVD).

German dentist turned bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) buys a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) who can help him find some men he wants to kill for the bounty on their heads. Schultz teaches Django to work with him, and eventually their goal becomes the rescue of Django's wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), a slave to evil Mississippi plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is aided and abetted by his long-term slave, Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson).

I love this movie. Yes, it's violent, and yes, it's filled with repeated use of the n-word and many other profanities. However, it's a Quentin Tarantino film. You get what writer/director Quentin Tarantino always brings to the table. Tarantino won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for this movie. He deserved it.

The acting is excellent. Christoph Waltz won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (it was his second Best Supporting Actor win; the first was for Inglorious Basterds, also a Tarantino film that I like very much).

Jamie Foxx makes an excellent Django. I read on the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) that Tarantino wrote the role for Will Smith, who turned it down. I'm glad he did. I don't picture Smith having the gravitas and the cojones that Foxx brings to the part.

DiCaprio is so evil that now I can't stand him, and Samuel L. Jackson is just plain sickening.

This movie most definitely is not for children. You might watch it with older teens who are interested in history and important filmmakers.

The thing is, I think you're a Tarantino person, or you aren't. Tarantino films are not for the squeamish or faint of heart. I am a Tarantino lover. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are outstanding, and I rank Django Unchained as highly as those two. I have yet to see a Tarantino movie I didn't think was brilliant.

I was not going to see Django because I read some reviews that said it's racist. I mentioned this to Rita at SoulComfort's Corner, who watched it on DVD and liked it. She said, Of course it's racist. They're in the south during slavery.

I knew that if Rita liked it, then I probably would like it, too. Rita was right.

Favorite Young Man also think Django is great. We talked about the way Tarantino aestheticizes violence. The man has a style that's all his own.

I also love the trademark Tarantino comic relief. In one scene, a group of Regulators (forerunners to the KKK) are out in the dark, wearing white hoods with slits cut in them for their eyes. A number of them complain that they can't see properly while wearing the hoods. The Regulator whose wife made the hoods whines, Gripe, gripe, gripe. He's upset because the other men don't appreciate his wife's work.

Django Unchained has The Janie Junebug Highest Seal of Approval.

Happy Movie Viewing! I'm still editing.

Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug