"Django Unchained" is Tarantino Unleashed.

DVD Review: "Django Unchained"

"Django Unchained" is writer, director Quentin Tarantino’s revenge on the institution of slavery. It is a mish-mash of a film that bounces between comic book fantasy and slap stick. The story is a simple one. The slave Django (Jamie Foxx) is freed by a bounty hunter, Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz), so that Django can identify three brothers with a price on their heads of which Dr. Schultz is intent on collecting. The two find their men and in the process develop a bond with Dr. Schultz agreeing to assist Django in rescuing his enslaved wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington).

It is a simple tale that when the Tarantino touch is added runs to one hundred and sixty-five minutes. Mr. Tarantino’s film pays tribute to the western with an emphasis on spaghetti westerns. The opening credits transport us back fifty years. The movie is aided by music composed by the spaghetti western maestro himself Ennio Morricone ("The Good the Bad and the Ugly," "Once Upon a Time in the West") which does a nice job setting the mood. Mr. Tarantino uses a quick zoom which was popular and hasn’t been used (with the exception of Mr. Tarantino’s movies) since the early seventies when it was invented. But no matter what tweaks are used this is first and foremost a Tarantino movie.

A Tarantino movie is its own genre. "Django Unchained" is a new extension of that. It adds a bit of farce to a story that handled seriously would drain the emotions out of its audience. Instead we have no doubts about the outcome and can watch without putting too much emotional weight into any one character since this world of the old United States of America is a total fabrication of Mr. Tarantino’s imagination. It includes Mr. Tarantino’s stamp of parable-like dialogue, camouflaged intelligence in unlikely characters and buckets of bloodshed unrealistically splattered about. It is also a movie that takes its time going where it wants to go. Mr. Tarantino can afford to do that since his talent is creating imaginative scenes the likes of which we’ve never seen before; distracting us enough from realizing we’ve wondered off the narrative path.

Mr. Waltz’s Dr. Scholtz is a character ahead of his time. Seemingly without any preconceptions of blacks whether slave or free he makes Django his equal partner. Mr. Waltz’s bounty hunter is also remorseless- not a bad thing for his line of work treating the "alive" part of "dead or alive" as too much work. There is also an intelligence and sense of justice that attracts our sympathies. With Mr. Waltz every scene is a mystery. We know he will get out of the circumstances he has put himself in but how he does so is the surprise.

For the first half Mr. Waltz carries the movie. Mr. Foxx is hand cuffed (not literally) since his actions are limited being black in America when slavery was still fashionable. He has to control his emotions and takes a back seat to the Dr. Scholtz character which makes Django a less appealing character.

It is not until Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), Broomhilda’s owner, enters the movie that it takes off. Portrayed by Mr. DiCaprio Candie is deliciously evil. Dressed in nineteenth century aristocratic attire with a long pointy goatee and long wavy hair Candie is the incarnation of the devil himself. Mr. DiCaprio adds pizzazz and charisma that makes this vile character alluring. It is one of the best performances in Mr. DiCaprio’s career.

When Dr. Scholtz finds out that Candie owns Broomhilda he devises a scam for traveling back to Candie’s plantation to free her. The cat and mouse between Dr. Scholtz and Candie is the first hook of drama the audience can grab on to. When they arrive at the plantation, Candyland, we meet the overseer, Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson). Just when you think Candie is the reincarnation of evil Stephen brings a heavier dose of maliciousness minus the charm. Stephen is a quintessential Uncle Tom whose priorities are to himself and then to Candie’s plantation. Mr. Jackson’s performance is brilliant. He is a sly manipulator. In public he’s a limp, nosy, absent minded, pain in the derriere manager but behind closed doors with Candie he is cold and ruthless. His presence in a scene tightens the stomach and makes the hairs stand on guard. It is in this setting Dr. Scholtz and Django have to work surreptitiously to free his wife. It is worth getting to that point.

It is the tradition of most westerns that a gun battle settles the narrative. But as the movie reaches the climax and the confrontation erupts, Mr. Tarantino pulls us into farce. Just as a fire hydrant sprays water, blood is sprayed everywhere unfastening our sympathy for Django and his wife. Perhaps it is a tribute to Sam Peckinpah’s "The Wild Bunch" but the blood letting had a point in that film and even after five minutes we still cared for the characters. In "Django Unchained" the final battle doesn’t conclude the movie. Django is taken prisoner again and must once again come to the rescue even after our sympathies have been squandered. It is a tough task to rebuild interest again but at least Mr. Tarantino makes it entertaining.

It is a mish mash of a movie. We even get a pony show at the end as Django shows off for Broomhilda just as they used to finish a Will Rogers’ film during the golden age of movies. But the performance seems out of place in a film with this much red paint being splattered. But then again there is a little bit of everything in this movie with about half of it being gripping drama. The other half can stand on its own since its being held up by Mr. Tarantino’s writing.

Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino; director of photography, Robert Richardson; edited by Fred Raskin; “Django” theme by Luis Enriquez Bacalov; production design by J. Michael Riva; costumes by Sharen Davis; produced by Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone; released by the Weinstein Company. Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes.

WITH: Jamie Foxx (Django), Christoph Waltz (Dr. King Schultz), Leonardo DiCaprio (Calvin Candie), Kerry Washington (Broomhilda), Samuel L. Jackson (Stephen), Don Johnson (Big Daddy), Walton Goggins (Billy Crash), Jonah Hill (Bag Head No. 2), Quentin Tarantino (Mine Company Employee) and Franco Nero (Bar Patron).

A Great Gatsby!

Movie Review: "The Great Gatsby"

"The Great Gatsby" is writer/director Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Mr. Luhrmann seems to have taken the advice administered by Howard Hawks to John Huston when Mr. Huston was attempting the third adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s "The Maltese Falcon," of which the first two films were duds. Just film the book was, in essence, what Mr. Hawks had said and it is what Mr. Luhrmann has done with "The Great Gatsby." This collaboration is a wonderful marriage as Mr. Luhrmann’s ability to tell a story with enticing visuals translates well Fitzgerald’s picturesque sentences.

Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) narrates the film from a sanatorium while he recovers from a hangover brought on by the roaring twenties. Mr. Maguire still holds on to a boyish quality in his facial features that works well at presenting Nick as an innocent in the devious world of money. We take a ride with Nick through the exciting world of the privileged but watch as Nick grows disenchanted when the glamour peels away and the callousness is revealed. Nick recalls the summer he moved from the mid West to Long Island renting a small house wedged in between mansions of money. Across the bay lives his cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and her husband Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton) who is wealthy from his inheritance. In the mansion next door lives the elusive and mysterious Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). The event for the money sect every summer is Gatsby’s parties which are extravagant even by their standards. What makes them provocative is that no one has ever seen their host. Gatsby is a mystery and somewhat of a legend since he doesn’t make himself accessible to anyone. People have come to their own conclusions about him which embellishes the legend.

One day Nick finds an invitation to one of Gatsby’s parties which may be linked to a condition since no one has ever received one before. Gatsby makes his acquaintance and Nick learns that Gatsby’s existence has been focused on rekindling his love for Daisy of whom he had an affair many years before. Gatsby recruits Nick to reintroduce him to Daisy and Nick agrees believing that Tom’s philandering is proof of a rotting marriage. Daisy and Gatsby are reunited and their love blooms but all they have collected in their lives during their absence is also present and shaped them into different people. This reunion is more complicated than when they first met.

Mr. DiCaprio, with his movie star status, can stand still and be Jay Gatsby for both have money, power and mystery. But Mr. DiCaprio, just as Mr. Maguire, has boyish features in his face that the lines of experience have been powerless to evict. It is a hindrance when Mr. DiCaprio has to portray men who have to look danger in the eye (e.g. "Gangs of New York," "The Aviator," "Blood Diamond") but in "The Great Gatsby" it fits the character rather nicely. When Nick first meets Gatsby, Gatsby’s a free-wheeling millionaire playboy. When Gatsby reveals his desire for Daisy Mr. DiCaprio turns him into a young school boy going on his first date. Gatsby glows with love when he is finally reunited with her. But when that love is threatened we can see a dark transformation come over Gatsby. It is a wonderful performance by Mr. DiCaprio, from being the loving, long lost love of Daisy Buchanan to a disillusioned loner.

Mr. Luhrmann has surrounded Mr. DiCaprio with a cast that could fit into anyone’s ideal image of the characters they have conjured up while reading the novel. Ms. Mulligan is Daisy. She is a young woman whose only hobby is to milk the days away in leisure while giving Tom the occasional headache whenever his mistresses invade her space. That is the extent of her life until Gatsby re-enters it. Ms. Mulligan bounces about in giddy excitement from once again being able to taste young love. But there is a limit that Daisy’s intellect and courage can handle. Faced with a choice that could release her from her serenity her lack of fearlessness keeps her anchored. Ms. Mulligan has the charm and the radiance of life that makes Daisy lovable but when the heat turns up the actress shows us the iceberg that makes up her soul. As Tom, Mr. Edgerton gives the least developed character some spice. Doing his best Richard Burton impression Mr. Edgerton intensifies the heart rate of the scenes he’s in and turns a cad credible when he competes for Daisy’s loyalty with Gatsby.

This fine enactment of "The Great Gatsby" is done on a colorful canvas that Mr. Luhrmann has painted. In all of Mr. Luhrmann’s movies, and this one is no exception, he flexes every muscle in the canon of filmmaking. From rich color palates to camera movements to new arraignments of contemporary pop songs to imaginative production designs there is no mistaking that one is watching a movie extravaganza and that is not a negative. Mr. Luhrmann who is gifted with an imaginative visual style uses Fitzgerald’s visual prose as a blueprint from the breeze filled curtains during Daisy’s introduction to the menacing eyes in the expired ophthalmologist advertisement on a decrepit billboard. The making of this movie in three dimensions is another toy you can feel Mr. Luhrmann enjoyed playing with.

But the joy Mr. Luhrmann had from making "The Great Gatsby" can be felt through the story that explores familiar territory for the filmmaker ("Romeo + Juliet", "Moulin Rouge!"). That is a protagonist who goes after love but once they obtain it find that it is too slippery an object to hold on to. Mr. Luhrmann is still unable to find a character who can capture love and we are better off for it.

Directed by Baz Luhrmann; written by Mr. Luhrmann and Craig Pearce, based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald; director of photography, Simon Duggan; edited by Matt Villa, Jason Ballantine and Jonathan Redmond; music by Craig Armstrong; production design and costumes by Catherine Martin; produced by Mr. Luhrmann, Ms. Martin, Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher and Catherine Knapman; released by Warner Brothers Pictures. Running time: 2 hours 23 minutes.

WITH: Leonardo DiCaprio (Jay Gatsby), Tobey Maguire (Nick Carraway), Joel Edgerton (Tom Buchanan), Carey Mulligan (Daisy Buchanan), Isla Fisher (Myrtle Wilson), Jason Clarke (George Wilson), Elizabeth Debicki (Jordan Baker) and Amitabh Bachchan (Meyer Wolfsheim).