In one of the best movies of all time, Raging Bull, the old Jake LaMotta recalls his boxing life. He says, about his standup gig, "That's entertainment." The scene flashes back as he repeats "That's entertainment.", and you (the audience) see the young Jake in a boxing match.
What does this have to do with Tarantino's Django Unchained? Halfway through the movie, we (the audience, again) meet Calvin Candie, a despicable plantation owner who finds brutal and always fatal 'mandango fighting' as 'entertaining'. A similar mindset to the young Jake LaMotta. "THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!"
Before we meet Candie, we meet silver screen brilliance. The film starts with an old '60's Columbia logo. An old song with the word 'Django' plays over opening credits that look like they came from the '60's. It starts strong and continues strong. The slave Django encounters the odd dentist King Schultz, who frees Django from brutal slave owners. Django is to help Schultz in doing his actual profession- bounty hunting. Schultz needs Django because Django knows the faces of Schultz's next bounty, the Brittle brothers.
Christoph Waltz, the charming and smarmy Nazi officer from Inglourious Basterds, is another charming and smarmy man, but this time a good-hearted bounty hunter. As expected, Waltz is very good and steals the first act very easily. Jamie Foxx is a soft-spoken man in the first act. He's good in his role, but he doesn't stand out, and that's because Tarantino understands character development.
By the end of the first act, Foxx is interested in saving his wife that he got separated from. Schultz chooses to help Django because Django is his friend... and Django's wife Broomhilda is familiar with the German language.
Unfortunately, Django Unchained's second act is a scrambled egg. The pacing is imperfect, and a leaner cut could've been made. I will not spoil anything for you, the audience, so I will leave you with this: Django Unchained, as imperfect as it is, is the year's most bloody entertaining picture, will not only have your curiousity, but your attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment