Movies

Film Review: Django Unchained

3 January 2018

By Lauren E. White

5/5

Released in 2012, Django Unchained received critical acclaim and box office glory, gaining five stars pretty much everywhere and two Academy Awards for the Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay.

It is the script and the story of Django Unchained that makes it such a successful film. Set two years before the American Civil War which was fought largely because of the north wished to abolish slavery while the south wished to keep it as slavery helped make their agricultural industry boom as it did. Tensions are therefore high in Django from the beginning as the eponymous character, played by Jamie Foxx, is a slave being made to walk through the Deep South when Christoph Waltz’s character, Dr Schultz, purchases Django and then makes him a free man.

Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio

Dr Schultz and Django travel the south bounty hunting and playing different characters to get close to those who are ‘wanted’. Django gets a share of the profits and forms a close bond with Schultz, a German dentist by trade, who promises Django that he will rescue his wife who was separated from Django when their previous slave owners found out they were married. It is this heartwrenching detail that keeps you engaged throughout the film.

Dr Schultz and Django

The casting of the Hollywood blockbuster is also fantastic as Foxx and Waltz are joined by Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson who together try to stop Django from escaping with his wife in a bloody showdown. These castings, together with the unapologetic goriness of the film, make it exciting and an easy watch for almost three hours.

Django Unchained is a brilliant film, encapsulating Civil War and racial tension alongside love and perfectly-timed humour. It’s therefore no surprise we’ve given it five stars of five.

 

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