Django Unchained (2012)

The Weinstein Company

The term given to Italian-made Western films is "Spaghetti Westerns." So if an American makes his own "Spaghetti Western", what would someone call that? I'm guessing a "Spaghetti-O's Western." While I'm not much of a fan of Tarantino, a lot of his cliches seemed to have finally paid off with this movie. He's big on dialogue and long takes ("Spaghetti Westerns" loved close-ups) and in Django Unchained, the dialogue might be the best part; especially between Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx. They are such a great team, an odd couple in fact, that they're one of the best movie duos I've ever seen.

However, I don't think this is a perfect movie. I can't tell if this is a brilliant parody of Westerns, one so great that it blows so many holes into Blazing Saddles it makes that look like Swiss cheese. The first portion of the movie, when Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) frees Django (Jamie Foxx) is a superb recreation of these "Spaghetti Westerns." The two of them team up to collect bounties and it was fun to watch their chemistry. However they meet a formidable foe in the South and that's the point where it veered into a parody. I won't say what scene it is, but you'll know it when you see it, because it's a cross between the "farting" scene and the "bad guy badges" scene in Blazing Saddles. It disappointed me a bit because I was the only one laughing out loud in the theater. After that the duo cross paths with the real bad guy of the movie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and the movie shifts gears again. It takes on a serious and sinister tone during this portion, which was engaging and made me really get behind Schultz and Django even more. I hate to let an ending to a movie ruin what was an otherwise great movie, but I think the finale almost does, as it turns back into a parody; the ending felt like a Looney Tunes Western.

I still can't believe how great Waltz and Foxx worked together and I do have to applaud Tarantino for that. He took the two Wild West hero archetypes, the silent gunslinger out for revenge and the man who is standing up for justice, and put them side by side. It was also done in For a Few Dollars More, which is not only my favorite Eastwood Western but also my overall favorite of the Westerns I've had the pleasure of watching. However Tarantino takes it a step further by making one man a black man and the other man a white man, so it's as if they're the yin and yang of Westerns. Not only that, Waltz starts off the movie as another Wild West character- the guy just collecting bounties for quick cash, but then he is so endeared to Django that it transforms him into the selfless hero who's only out for justice. I liked how well Waltz and Foxx played off each other, especially when Dr. Schultz tells Django a German story and he sits cross-legged and listens intently to the tale like a child hearing a bedtime story. I think their casting choice, as well as the rest of the cast of characters, was so fun to watch that it outweighs Tarantino's stylistic flip-floppiness. Its almost similar to this past year in politics; you hear so much chatter about who's flip-flopping on issues, yet a very well-done political speech can win you over in the end.