Django Unchained (2012)
USA; 165min
Action, Drama, Western
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio

So, Tarantino decided to make a western movie, as he is a big fan of them. Not only that he decided to make one, he decided to make a very good one with a relatively typical spaghetti western story but, to put it mildly, not typical characters and locations. So Django Unchained takes place at the South of the USA (so-called Deep South) a few years before the Civil War and the main protagonists are German bounty hunter and a black slave who quickly becomes a black cowboy.

A former dentist, now a headhunter, Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) decides to buy a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) to help him in finding three brothers for whom an arrest warrant has been issued. Thing is that Schultz does not know how they look while Django do. If he successfully complete the task Django is promised to get his freedom but Schultz was thrilled with Django as a headhunter so he offered him a partnership and help in saving his wife from cruel slaver Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).
Django Unchained is more or less what the majority of the audience expected. While it is legitimate to criticize Tarantinos stylistic and filming constant throughout his career the fact is that he creates high-quality films that meets with mostly positive response among the audience. Also stylistic and filming repetitiveness is belaud characteristic of many other acclaimed filmmakers (the Coen brothers, Carpetner ...) so there is no reason to be harsh with Tarantino for that.Django Unchained is primarily entertainment, then a brutal display of the first half of the 19th century in USA,  and ultimately the criticism of human morality. Often mentioned violence is pervasive and somewhat glorified, but no more than in average action film.

Acting is on extremely high level, which was also directly contributed by writing the script for specific actors. Thus, for instance, Dr. Schultz, Candie and Stephen were written directly for Waltz, DiCaprio and Jackson, while Django was written with Will Smith in mind. Jamie Foxx is definitely the weakest among main cast, although far from being bad his acting is definitely forgetful while previously enumerated trio is far away from being forgetful. Christoph Waltz is simply brilliant in the role of Dr. Schultz, which deviates slightly from Hans Landa and although many will find problem of repetitiveness in that, that should be ignored due to the success of the character and Waltzs performance. DiCaprio is excellent in his first role as a villain. He was so into it that when he really accidentally hit a glass with his fist and despite sizable bleeding never went out of the character. Samuel L. Jackson is also excellent in the role peevish old man with plenty of swearing and yelling. 
 It looks like Tarantino wanted to have as much people as it was possible to participate in this movie, so we have a bunch of supporting characters, most of which was a cameo or almost a cameo role and most of them end up serving as cannon fodder. Even Franco Nero, the original Django, appears in the film and there were written roles for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sacha Baron Cohen and Michael Kenneth Williams which were ultimately thrown out of the film as the trio couldn't participate in project. 

The dialogues are wonderfully worked out, with many lines that will become cult. The disadvantage is the unnecessarily lengthiness of the film itself and many completely unnecessary scenes. Some of these unnecessary scenes that serve the purpose of comedy like the one with hoods are not the problem, but the vast majority of others are, specially in the last half of hour. Editing is also obvious worse than in previous Tarantino films which were edited by, now late, Sally Menke. 
Soundtack is particularly interesting. Giuseppe Verdi, Ennio Morricone and James Brown/2Pac duet (which unlike Rick Ross is interesting musical experiment) as a music background in few almost connected scenes is really special experience. 
Tarantino continues as usual, and while some will be happy with it, others will not, but the fact is that Django Unchained is instant cult film which in addition is well made and which characters will be quoted and scenes will be endlessly viewed.

Odlučio Tarantino, kao veliki ljubitelj istih, snimiti svoj western. Ne samo to, odlučio je snimiti odličan western sa relativno tipičnom spaghetti western pričom ali, blago rečeno, ne tipičnim likovima i sa ne tipičnim lokacijama. Tako se radnja Django Unchaineda odvija na samom jugu SAD-a (tkz. Deep South) nekoliko godina prije Građanskog rata, a glavni protagonisti su njemački lovac na glave i crni rob koji brzo postaje crni kauboj.

Bivši zubar, sada lovac na glave, Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) odluči otkupiti roba Djanga (Jamie Foxx) kako bi mu pomogao u pronalaženju trojice braće za kojima je izdana tjeralica, ali za koje Schultz ne zna kako izgledaju dok Django eto zna. Ukoliko uspješno izvrši zadatak Djangu je obećana sloboda, no brzo se dopadne Schultzu koji odluči produžiti njihovu suradnju i to u partnerskom odnosu, a zatim mu i pomoći otkupiti ženu koja je prodana na plantažu okrutnog robovlasnika Calvina Candiea (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Django Unchained je više manje ono što je većina publike i očekivala. Iako je legitimno Tarantinu zamjeriti stilsku i izvedbenu konstantu tijekom cijele karijere činjenica je da stvara kvalitetne filmove koji nailaze na većinom pozitivni odjek među publikom, a i stilska i izvedbena konstata su hvaljene karakteristike mnogih drugih filmaša (braća Coen, Carpetner...) pa nema razloga previše zamjerati Tarantinu na tome.

Django Unchained je prvenstveno zabava, zatim brutalan prikaz SAD prve polovice 19.st. i u konačnici kritika ljudske moralnosti. Često spominjano nasilje je sveprisutno i donekle glorificirano, ali nikako ne više od prosječnog akcijskog filma.

Gluma je na izrazito visokom nivou, čemu je sigurno pridonjelo direktno pisanje scenarija za određene glumce. Tako su na primjer Dr. Schultz, Candie i Stephen pisani direktno za Waltza, DiCapria i Jacksona, dok je sam Django pisan sa Will Smithom na umu. Jamie Foxx je definitivno najslabiji u glavnoj glumačkoj ekipi, daleko od toga da je loš, ali je definitivno zaboravljiv dok su prethodno nabrojana trojica daleko od zaboravljivosti. Christoph Waltz je jednostavno genijalan u ulozi Dr. Schultza koji malo odstupa od Hansa Lande i iako će mnogi u tome nači problem repetitivnosti, on se brzo zaboravlja s obzirom na uspjeh lika i Waltzovu izvedbu. DiCaprio se izvrsno snašao u svojoj prvoj ulozi negativca, a koliko se čovjek uživio pokazuje i scena u kojoj stvarno rukom slučajno razbija čašu na stolu i unatoč povećem krvarenju ne izlazi iz lika. Samuel L. Jackson je također izvrstan u ulozi čangrizavog starca uz obilje psovki i dernjave.

Tarantino kao da je želio da što više ljudi sudjeluje u filmu, pa tako imamo hrpu sporednih likova od kojih većina ima cameo ili gotovo cameo uloge, a većina ih na kraju samo služi kao topovsko meso. Čak se Franco Nero, originalni Django, pojavljuje u filmu, a napisane su i uloge za Joseph Gordon-Levitta, Sachu Baron Cohena i Michaela Kennetha Williamsa koje su u konačnici izbačene iz filma zbog nemogučnosti sudjelovanja trojca s obzirom na druge obveze.

 Dijalozi su standardno Tarantinovski izvrsno razrađeni, kako oni humoristični tako i oni donekle ozbiljni. Posebno ozbljinih dijaloga u ovom filmu baš i nema što s obzirom na cilj filma nije nikakav nedostatak. Nedostatak je s druge strane prerazvučenost samog filma i više potpuno nepotrebnih scena. Neke od tih nepotrebnih scena koje služe humorističnoj svrsi popunt one sa famoznim kapuljačama i nisu problem, ali velika većina ostalih je u što ulazi dobar dio zadnjih pola sata filma. Također je montaža očigledno lošija nego u prijašnjim Tarantinovim uradcima koje je do sad odrađivala, prije dvije godine preminula Sally Menke.

Soundtack je posebno zanimljiv. Giuseppe Verdi, Ennio Morricone i duet James Browna i 2Paca (koji je za razliku od Rick Rossa zanimljiv glazbeni izlet) u razmaku od svega nekoliko scena je stvarno posebno iskustvo.

Tarantino nastavlja po starom i dok će jedni biti zadovoljni time drugi neće, no činjenica je i Django Unchained instant kultni film koji je uz to i kvalitetno napravljen i čiji će se likovi dugo citirati i scene beskrajno vrtiti.