Django Unchained

Tarantino is back on form with his latest offering, Django Unchained; as gory as he can be without being overly gratuitous, this non-western, post-modern western rocks. Violence juxtaposed with laughter always has the audience bordering on feeling bad for laughing; but it just has to be remembered that it’s only a film.  Despite the fact that this movie does emphasise the harshness of the South towards slaves and is quite upsetting in places, the next minute it will have you laughing at the funniest Ku Klux Klan scene ever (yes there is such a thing), which could be seen as reflecting the wider stupidity of the people back then.

Tarantino staple, Samuel L Jackson, gave the performance of his career in my opinion, slipping into the role of “grumpy old man” splendidly.  You have to wait a while for him to pop up but he is definitely worth the wait, in fact this film is quite long, 165mins, but it does not feel it and keeps you engrossed from start to finish.  As per usual with Tarantino, a true auteur, there is ultimate focus on the mise en scene, producing multiple scenes that you would just love to have as a poster, especially the silhouettes of the lead protagonists riding off into the sunset.

There is definitely more than one ‘sink down in your seat and hide your face’ moment, including the most uncomfortable scene involving male genitalia since Daniel Craig’s in Casino Royale, but fortunately it is not too “jumpy” so no worries about your popcorn/sweets flying all over the place.

If you enjoy muttering old men, non “pc” laughs, and good ol’ fashioned shoot outs then this film is for you.  However if you are easily offended by the N word then watch out as by some counts it features 110 times...