IMDB: 8.6/10 (Top 250 #39)
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Roger Ebert: 4/4 stars
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson
Directed By: Quentin Tarantino
Written By: Quentin Tarantino
Release Date: 25 December 2012
Described By IMDB as "With the help of his mentor, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner."
Well, the Oscar nominations came out today, so I thought I should finally get around to writing my review for this film, and what a film it was.
I enjoyed every moment of this film, all 2hours and 45 minutes of it. Clearly thats a long time, but it honestly doesn't seem long or drawn out at any time. There's constantly action, and just quirky, interesting things going on. I actually feel incredibly bad for it because of the number of fantastic movies that came out this year. I mean, there are aways a handful of great movies every year, but I think this years Oscar nominees are all deserving, which I haven't been able to say with 100% honesty in the past. I really think this film deserves an Oscar for best picture, but I just know that Lincoln or Argo is going to win, and I think they both deserve it as well, so its a complicated feeling that I have. I think it is astounding that this film has already made it to number 39 on the IMDB Top 250 list. Unreal. I went to see this film twice in theatres and I would definitely go back again.
The acting in this film was absolutely breathtaking, best ensemble acting I've seen in a very long time. Dr. King Shultz(Christoph Waltz) commands the screen from the first moment he appears from the darkness with his wacky tooth cart. His badass-ness isn't questioned for a single moment in this film, and I think thats great. Waltz has already won a Golden Globe for his performance, and just last night also won the BAFTA for his role as Dr. Shultz as well. Very well deserved, but I think that a couple of people are going quite unnoticed. I sort of feel bad for Jamie Foxx because I think if I was in this film I would have assumed that this would have been my next Oscar film, and he hasn't even been nominated. I think this is definitely one of his best performances that I've seen for sure. I do wish he'd gotten a bit more recognition, but I think everyone is aware of how great a job he's done in this film. Then theres Leonardo DiCaprio, just wow. I thought he did such a great job in this film, you really couldn't help but absolutely dispise him. I thought our introduction to him was absolutely genius, it perfectly sets up how you're supposed to feel about him, and Mandingo fighting is enough to make anyone sick. He's totally awful throughout the rest of the film, and its perfect. Finally Samuel L. Jackson really proved himself to me in this one. In all honesty, I can't think of many films he's been in that haven't had the 'Snakes on a Plane" vibe so it was nice for me to see him in something that he's really done well. I think on a different year he also could have deserved an award, but not this year. His character Stephen is really as bad as you can get. He's an African-American who is on the white, slave-owner's side. I don't want to give too much away, but his final scene is pretty damn epic.
The soundtrack was really great and fit the movie perfectly. Tarantino really has a way of capturing that in his films. Most of the songs he uses has no business being in his films as they don't even begin to fit the time or setting of the film, but its ok, because it totally fits the emotion he's trying to portray. The song "Django" was stuck in my head for a week after seeing this film. its just so good. I'm trying to do this review with as few spoilers as I possibly can but its going to be hard. I'll be sure to put up an alert if I feel one coming on.
Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite directors, and I don't even fully enjoy all of his movies as I have enjoyed this one and Inglorious Basterds, but I think its important to have people with imaginations as wild as Quentin's in the directing world. You really never know what you're going to get, and I think this one really blew everyone away. The writing, as always from Tarantino, was fantastic. Intense but funny at the same time. There were so many great lines and I think he really gave the actors an amazing tool to build their characters around. The love story he built was really fantastic, and it was a fantastic fountain for this film to be built on. The love that Django(Foxx) had for Broomhilda(Kerry Washington) is something to be admired.
Tarantino's cameo in this film is short and sweet, I think he was the only actor who really sucked, but his *spoiler alert* death is one for the ages. I mean, who wouldn't want to write their own *spoiler alert* death in a film? I think everyone on earth would. So hilarious, and I think thats the most interesting thing about this film. Its such a serious and important topic, but there are just some absolutely hilarious moments in it. "You silver-tongued devil you."
The controversy of this film is absolutely ridiculous. This film is not offensive in any way. This shows the true horror and torture that was slavery in the United States, and if you can't accept your history, then you aren't much of patriots in my mind. The other controversy with Quentin Tarantino about the film promoting violence, I don't think thats true at all. I don't think that revenge is the answer for anything, but in this time/world where all they knew was being tortured, I think that this would have been the ultimate fantasy for a newly freed slave in the 1860s. I don't think theres anything wrong with giving it to them. Its a movie, and Tarantino is all about alternate endings (ie Inglorious Basterds which completely re-wrote history.)
I am giving this film a 10/10. No joke, I think this film will go down as one of my favorite films of all time. Amazing, go see it right now.
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