By the time I watched Django Unchained, I was already a fan of Quentin Tarantino. His movies were the very definition of “cool”, and he remains a pillar of influence on college dorm posters the world over. Since Django Unchained was released, I have somewhat cooled on my opinion of Tarantino. I still like his work, and I believe he mostly improves as time goes on, but his obsession with 60s and 70s films, particularly Spaghetti Westerns, Blaxploitation, and Kung Fu films, has perhaps run its course as far as his homage-focused style of filmmaking. Having said that, Django Unchained is arguably the greatest use of all those influences, even when it overdoes it. The movie’s title is a send up Sergio Corbucci’s Django for crying out loud! It gets a lot of side-eyes because it’s a film about slavery that puts slavery in the backseat, but because the slavery isn’t the focus of the film and more of a background, the incredible violence, humor and genre-bending mostly gets a pass.

A German bounty hunter/dentist named Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) seeks to purchase a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) because he should recognize the faces of his next big bounty, the Brittle Brothers. The deal is, if Django can point them out to Schultz, then Django is a free man. As they track down the Brittles, Schultz gives Django the opportunity to learn to shoot and read, where he proves to be a natural at both. After they successfully kill the Brittle Brothers, Schultz learns that Django was married to a house slave named Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) before they were sold separately and is determined to reunite them. They discover Broomhilda or “Hildi” is a slave at the plantation of Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), and come up with a ruse to get Candie to sell Hildi to Schultz by acting interested in one of Candie’s fighting slaves and adding Hildi to the transaction. The main house servant, Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), discovers the nature of Django and Hildi’s relationship, and alerts Candie who doesn’t appreciate being lied to. Multiple gunfights ensue and it’s going to require all of Django’s wit to get out of Candie’s plantation with Hildi alive.

Christoph Waltz typically gets most of the praise here for his performance Dr. King Schultz, and rightfully so. He’s quick and funny. His introduction is one of the best 10-minute segments of film ever. Schultz is the most entertaining and bombastic part of the movie, so much so that Will Smith, who was originally offered the role of Django, declined it because it “wasn’t the lead”. I disagree with his takeaway, but there’s merit to it to be sure. Jamie Foxx does a superb job with Django, portraying his change from innocent and unknowing slave to aggressive and sly bounty hunter perfectly. Foxx, who is kind of a chameleon when it comes to his performing, is the best person for the job and he takes the reins with familiarity and assurance. A cavalcade of colorful caricatures make for a surprisingly laugh-out-loud experience. It’s rare that a movie can so easily jump between comedy and surreal violence. But even that violence is comical. At least the violence against the slave owners is. The violence against slaves is brutal and without a wink from the director, which is certainly for the best.

The controversy surrounding the film is two-fold: the onscreen violence is so ridiculous that it is considered by some as a mockery of the real violence that happened in that era, and the constant use of the “N-word”, which can be a valid criticism in some other Tarantino films, but I honestly don’t understand how that can be a criticism of a movie set during the 1800s American South. Nevertheless, I mention these two things because for some viewers, it’s best not to go in blind. Quentin Tarantino is not for everybody. I’m well aware of that, but if you can look past his overindulgences, you can find a charming, action-packed, and surprisingly hilarious send up to Spaghetti Westerns in here. The movie has intensity and swagger, and a multitude of well-defined characters in spades. Django Unchained is one for the ages.

Bonus Review: Once Upon a Time in the West

Sergio Leone decided to retire from making Westerns after his Dollars Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly), and so he went to work on another epic, Once Upon a Time in America, which would not come to fruition until the mid 80s. In the meantime, he was given a massive budget from Paramount Pictures and the use of Henry Fonda (Leone’s favorite actor whom he had always wanted to work with) if he would tackle another Western. Thus, we got Once Upon a Time in the West. In a rare twist, Fonda was cast as the villain of the story, Frank. Fonda was originally reluctant to play the villain, but was convinced by talking to Eli Wallach, who worked on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and a pitch from Leone himself regarding using Fonda’s celebrity against the audience. Charles Bronson plays the closest thing to a good guy, “Harmonica”. Unusual for the Leone films that came before it, Once Upon a Time in the West is slow and sparse with dialogue, building tension slowly until sudden bursts of violence occur. The reasoning for this that Leone gave was that he was not interested in violence, he was instead interested in the setup before such violence happens. An emphasis on the calm before the storm. The film dwells in that lull.

A train arrives in town and a man with a harmonica is cornered by three men. He guns all of them down quickly and walks away. The three men work for Frank, an outlaw working for the railroad tycoon, Morton, and is trying to acquire land owned by Brett McBain. Frank kills McBain and his children at their ranch, and leaves evidence to frame another outlaw called Cheyenne. McBain’s new bride, Jill, who gets off the train, is now the sole heir to the ranch. Morton and Frank cut ties because Morton only wanted Frank to intimidate McBain, but Frank wants the land for himself. Harmonica connects with Jill and Cheyenne and discovers Frank’s connection to Morton. He rescues Frank from being gunned down in an ambush. Frank proceeds to intimidate Jill into giving up the land. Eventually, Frank and Harmonica meet at the ranch (with Cheyenne and Jill inside the house) and proceed to have a standoff. In a flashback, Harmonica is revealed to be the younger brother of a man who Frank had previously hanged. Harmonica was forced as a boy to use his shoulders for his brother to stand on just to live a little while longer. Frank placed a harmonica in his mouth and walked away. Back in the present, Harmonica is the faster draw and guns Frank down. Frank, as he dies, asks for Harmonica’s real identity. Harmonica places the harmonica in Frank’s mouth to remind him, and then Frank dies. Jill begs Harmonica to stay, but Harmonica carries Cheyenne (who has been wounded) away.

Once Upon a Time in the West is an interesting film. It’s considered a masterpiece in its own right, but its scenes are made up of references to other Westerns. Leone asked for help from Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci in writing the script, and the way they went about it was by watching older Westerns together and writing down their favorite scenes. A list of the films Once Upon a Time in the West references includes The Iron Horse, Duel in the Sun, Winchester ‘73, Shane, Johnny Guitar, The Searchers, The Comancheros, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and The Last Sunset (the ending fight between Frank and Harmonica is almost a shot-for-shot replica of the gunfight in this film). The scenes that were referenced mostly replace the meaning in a way to give Once Upon a Time in the West a very ironic feel. Despite the pacing, this movie is exciting and brimming with life.