Quentin Tarantino is as popular as it is controversial. Fame attracts controversy, yes. But in Tarantino’s case, his craft brings in the heat, so to speak. There hasn’t been a film Tarantino has made that hasn’t faced some form of backlash. The ten-year-old release Django Unchained is no exception. It was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture. Christoph Waltz won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and yet the Jamie Foxx star has had to contend with criticism in interviews, some reviews, and the internet in general. That’s not to say that Tarantino is some kind of niche filmmaker, an outsider who could do without all the towing. The principal can take the questions, but in his defense he has been taking a version of the same question for years. Every time a film is released, a section of the audience wonders, why was it necessary to show so much violence, why use the charged “N” term at all?
In the case of Django Unchained, however, Tarantino had a reasonable explanation: “I show what I see, what I read happened, what history says happened. These African Americans were called that word to demean them, to show them their place, to belittle them until they lost any sense of being human at all.” So Tarantino isn’t a historian in Django Unchained, but he’s not distorting facts either . Man uses his talents only to embellish a certain ugliness that already existed in mankind. In a way, it’s a mirror. And mirrors are hard to look at, especially for people who think they’re being too self-righteous. The many reactions that Django Unchained generated showed us the impact such a film can have. It is always an act of courage to do a racing-themed project and be a part of it. It shows that artists are willing to take the credit and the volley and go all the way through just to create something they believe in.
Django Unchained is that movie, at least for me. It’s bold, it’s stylish as hell, and it packs a punch without missing a beat. Despite its running time of 165 minutes, the film never feels long. It focuses on a black man as the hero of his own story. It gives him the power to question and show what he knows, the only hiccup was that the director and writer was a white male. But Quentin had advisors, he was surrounded by black artists who gave him perspective when things went wrong. And when so many people of that race stand by this movie after breaking a sweat, it can only mean one thing — Tarantino knew what he was doing. One has to assume that he must have been sensitive in his dealings with his actors while handing out harsh sequences for the performance. Samuel L Jackson and Jamie Foxx have repeatedly come to his defense for the violence and cruelty he displayed in Django Unchained.
For the uninitiated, Django Unchained revolves around a free slave named Django (a spectacular Foxx) who teams up with a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) to rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from the clutches of a despicable plantation owner, Calvin (Leonardo Dicaprio). . Whether he succeeds or not matters here (and he does, hooray!). But his journey to gather courage and get as far as Calvin’s Lair without being killed first is a feat in itself, and Tarantino tells this story as only he can – with a genuine delight in good, honest stories. While the entire cast was great in my opinion, Leonardo DiCaprio was the definitive scene thief.
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The performance was an enigmatic mixture of charisma and an unnerving variety of inhumanity. They loathed Calvin but could understand why he was so feared. Leonardo as Calvin had an impressive on-screen presence that took on a life of its own, especially when seen in a theatre. Playing someone you’ve personally distanced yourself from is the basic job description of an actor, but to play the role of one of the most racist men you’ve ever met comes with a baggage. In a previous interview, lead actor Foxx had been open about the kind of reservations Leonardo had on the first day on set, until Samuel Jackson finally told him it was just “another Tuesday.” The next day, Leonardo was the devil incarnate as Calvin Candie. And the rest, as they say, is history (pun intended).
You can watch Django Unchained on Netflix, SonyLIV, Apple TV Plus, YouTube and Google Play.