Synopsis
In the antebellum era of the Deep South and Old West(?), a miserable slave lost his wife to a brusque plantation owner. The movie describes his journey across America to rescue her, with the help of a bounty hunter.
IMDb: 8.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes :88%
My Rate:.8.9/10
Review
The opening was absolutely impressive, with "Ancora Qui" Theme and a chain of slaves shuffled through a dangerous mountainous zone. It reminded me of Les Miserablés' Jean van Jean, especially when Jamie Foxx turned up. I gotta feeling it would turn out to be musical-dramatical, lol (even the horses walked in accordance with the beat =.=). But I was wrong, of course, as I don't possess (any) sixth sense.
The first scenes ended with 4 slaves unchaining themselves in front of Django, which promised more doughty scenes ahead of me o.o. Just as I expected, the movie goes on and on with bloody-minded homicides and ridiculous Mr. King Schultz with "kill first, explain later - or not". Honestly, to add a "minus" point to the movie, the blood was a bit faky fake faky (too diluted, TT.TT).
The movie was firm from the beginning until end, and the main theme "Unchained" was illustrated brilliantly. It started to reach the climax when Candie found out the real identities of the two bounty hunters. As a consequence, main characters and extras were killed, along with the freedom of the lead character Django, who finally achieved a happily ever after life with his beloved Broomhilda, as well as the collapse of Candyland, the "chain" to the a lot of slaves who represented the most stereotypes of "nigga" in the 19th century.
It was clear that the process of accepting new perspectives in Django was perfectly logical. From a frightened and lonely slave who looked up to Dr. King Schultz, Django was changed into a shrewd and cold-blooded assassin, after going through the meaningful journey and suffering from all kinds of torturing. I appreciate the way Django was delineated. It has given me a panorama about America in 1858: the atrocity of discrimination, how white Americans enjoyed "mandigo" which was grotesque, and the love between slaves was mortified.
The word "nigga", obviously (to my point of view), was overused, together with its baddest meaning. Maybe I'm not familiar with 19th century America, but what people did to Django, together with calling him "nigga" all the times, really enraged me. Everywhere "nigga nigga nigga", seriously??? It seems to me the director could never get enough of that word. Another "minus", it was not a great idea to take advantage THAT amount of tomato sauce to impress the audience!!! Too much (fake) blood coming from everywhere, and I swear I was like "God, is this the copycat of the creepy Japanese movie Ganz 2 in which walls were painted red magically after a homicide?!?" The movie itself did an amazing job in delivering the dominant ideology without all that sauce.
To conclude, it was more than worth it when I decided to give this movie a try, as I normally don't watch any Oscar-winning (or aiming) movies. They are either somehow complicated to understand, or squeeze my heart day after day like Django Unchained. I really think I should start looking for movies of this kind more often! Again, thank you for the moments, Django Unchained!
** Jamie Foxx as Django
Jamie did a (little) fair job in the lead role Django. I remembered watching him on Ellen, describing the director's instruction to him "You know, just black it up". Yeah, he blacked "it" up kinda well, though I hope his eye expression (of anger and pain) could be fiercer and more obvious. In other words, he did not carry out well the director's idea of a sturdy and complex Django. To me, he relied (a bit bit bit too much) on the appearance of Django, which was created by production team. Bravo to you, prod team!
** Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz - the killer on a toothcage
Mr. Waltz obviously lives up to the Oscar given to him, and my personal prize "The only character should be with beard so as to have a respectable look". Dr. King Schultz kinda reminded me of Hannibal, just at the super lower level of cruelty towards assaulting. Although the acting was excellent and beyond any description, still, I don't like assassin characters. As a matter of fact, he kinda had a heart for his home country and his fellow Django, therefore when he died, sadness mounted gradually inside of me (definitely not the same feeling when Candie died). So... I might be so impressed by the movie that I hope I will not dream bad dreams about Dr. Bulleye Schultz. Also, I was surprised at the way he died at the end of the movie! Unlike his character which remained unchangingly interesting and profound, his death was absolutely out of the blue. I think the director was like "Good lord I dunno wat 2 do wiz this doctor just kill him for me plz!"?!!?
** Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie
"Urgh, what the heck!!!" was my first thought of Leo's Candie. I'm sorry for that, Leo, but I just can't stand that 90-year-old Dumbledore style beard. As for his acting, even Jamie Foxx was in high praise of him. He was so into the character that he could not escape from Candie off-scene. As a matter of fact, he did act to the max of himself: he cut himself in a scene, and made used of his blood to impress the audience. OMG, that was totally Mayalicious!!! (LOL I just made up this word, I mean the babyface Maya in Glass no Kamen :P). Well, back to Candie, with sick hobbies of watching and gambling on slave fights. Overall, Candie did not give an amazing impression like Dr. Schultz, but he did win the most aesthetic scene: the nigga's skull's lecture, and Broomhilda's auction with his blood on her face. Superb, Leo, but I can see why they didn't give you the Oscar statue. A glaring spark is incomparable with the shining light from start to end. And I'm sorry that Candie died, but he had to, as he was a total slave bloodsucker.
The most memorable scenes & lines
- The Opening "Ancora Qui" - chain of exhausted and trembling slaves tried to walk.
- The "Tooth sits on top" coach approaching them (LMAO). Did dentists in the 19th century always put a jumping tooth on top of their cage and examine patients inside?
- "I mean you no harm." and then later on Dr. King Schultz shot one of the bros, one horse and broke the other guy's leg. Okay, no harm at all.
- "They've never seen a nigga on a horse before." Django, to Dr. Schultz, as people staring at them, with discrimination.
- "Nigga with sand" - the creep-looking old man with yellow glasses and Django with an iron mask.
- Django's freedom of fashion choices - I did read between the lines... oh no, see between the scenes, to find out the profound meaning of this scene :).
- Slaves torturing - I watched this movie at midnight, and these scenes broke my heart worst then.
- Django as a blue freedom and justice icon - it's deja vu, of course, but imposing.
- Huh, the funny tooth was a piggy bank, with two holes as a nose.
- Huh, 30 ppl to hunt a "nigga" and a "joker", and started the "civil war" just because of bags with holes.
- Impressive American mountainous areas during winter.
- Django did not know the word "thousand", well, because he had neither had a thousand dollars, nor heard of such amount in his slavery life.
- Candie's lecture about a nigga's civility with a skull. Most impressive and brutal scene, I must say!
- "You really want me to shake your hand?" Dr. Schultz, to Candie. Then massive assassinating. No, don't come find me again nightmares!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- The collapse of Candyland. It was not how amazing the scene was was the reason for me to remember this scene. Neither "you deserve it." It was the ending scene, and I hated how the movie ended like that, just like I hate the fact that in every single Hollywood movie there has to be a hero turning up from the smoke of a blast. Enough said.
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