Django Unchained

If Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah had a baby, they would have named it Quentin Tarantino. Django Unchained is Tarantino's latest film that pays homage to the western genre with copious amounts of blood and humor that would even make John Wayne shiver in his grave. After being rescued by a gun-wielding dentist/bounty hunter named Dr. King (Christoph Waltz), Django (Jamie Foxx) seeks vengeance against the sadistic plantation owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who bought his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) by searching high and low over the Confederate South. Along the way, Django and King go from plantation to plantation building up their bounty and the body count of sheet-wearing horsemen who step in their way.

After a succession of hit and miss films, such as the Kill Bill movies and Death Proof, Tarantino closed out the last decade with the successful Inglourious Basterds and has now raised the blood-soaked bar with Django Unchained. The gun-toting action amidst the sprawling landscape mirror that of the red shades of Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western films of the Sixties. Tarantino's wide-eyed look at the Pre-Confederate South is complimented with Robert Richardson's lighting showing that he is no stranger to the wild work of Tarantino and Oliver Stone.

Jamie Foxx is amazing as Django by undergoing the transformation from a slave to a redeemer with a six-shooter. Christoph Waltz is unforgettable as the flamboyantly verbose Dr. King as he takes Django under his wing and grooms him into "the finest shot in the south." Leonardo DiCaprio is wickedly charming and sadistic as Candie giving a villainous performance that would make his mentor, Martin Scorsese, grin like a Cheshire cat. Samuel L. Jackson rounds off the stellar cast as Candie's house slave, Steven, whose baritone voice and utterance of every f-word is like Olivier reciting Shakespeare.  

As the year winds down, Django Unchained stands as one of the best films of the year, if not one of Tarantino's finest achievements as a filmmaker. Despite the controversy he has been getting by the peanut gallery, it is overshadowed by bringing the western genre to a new generation of film-goers mixed with an eclectic soundtrack ranging from Ennio Morricone, Jim Croce, and Rick Ross. It may not be as groundbreaking as Pulp Fiction, but it's no matter as Django Unchained rings in the new year with a bang.            

Four out of Four Stars