DJANGO UNCHAINED - FILM REVIEW

DJANGO UNCHAINED

Release Date: 18 January 2013 (UK)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Running Time: 180 Minutes

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L Jackson

Screening Reviewed: UK Press Screening

Reviewed by Henry Kelly

Over the past ten or so years, Quentin Tarantino has diligently been working through his favourite genres, like a collector sifting through old records. Tarantino’s desire to find different and more interesting environments to play out his love for exploitation cinema finds a brilliant home in the Spaghetti Western aesthetic of Django: Unchained.

While his recent films have felt akin to a geeky kid at school donning the shades and ripped jeans aesthetic of lower-budgeted exploitation films, with Django: Unchained, Tarantino still allows himself to indulge but the film overall feels lighter and more at peace with itself.

Set at the midpoint of the 19th century, in the southern states of America, the world of Django: Unchained is one constructed around slavery almost to a point of hyper-reality. It’s prolific use of the ‘N word’ and larger-than-life characters exist in a post-modern vacuum that eliminates the chance for a sensitive dissection of an ugly part of American history. This will be a disappointment - or even cause offence for some - who would not like to see such themes handled with such a light touch. For the less disconcerting however, Django: Unchained is an awfully entertaining film.