DVD Savant Blu- ray + DVD + Digital Review: Django Unchained. Reviewed by Glenn Erickson. Quentin Tarantino has built a career reinventing genres to his own taste, which is an eclectic but resonant grab- bag of ideas, situations and attitudes gleaned from 1,0. VHS in fat clamshell cases, preferably with garish artwork on the cover. Distilling the essence of subgenres snubbed by mainstream audiences and critics, Tarantino has founded his own Super. Genre of action- revenge tales. In one two- part show he blended samurai slaughter, trailer trash intrigue and comic book martial arts ideas. He divided another feature into two exploitation mini- epics. They came complete with simulated broken film and missing reels, recreating the unique splendor of flea- pit filmgoing experience. For many viewers the film overstepped the bounds of acceptable taste, incorporating a broad streak of . But Inglourious Basterds had a point in that it highlighted the way WW2 is now perceived almost exclusively through big budget entertainments designed to simplify traumatic world events into matinee movie thrills. Tarantino even noted our desire for . The original Django was about a blue- eyed gunman first seen dragging a coffin packed with armaments, all of which are soon put to use. On at least one level the Sergio Corbucci film is a knowing parody of Sergio Leone's epics, which on at least one level were also parodies, of the American westerns so beloved by the European audience. Django Unchained is by and large a straight- on hero worshipping, operatic music playin', vengeance seekin' comedy of manners, that ups the violence quotient (natch). But it also keeps our attention with great Tarantino dialogue scenes and an in- your- face confrontation with a subject that American movies almost always ignore, water down or sidestep with any number of cowardly evasions.. Django is like the hero of the first monster Italian import hit, Hercules. The villains can only keep Django locked up and powerless for so long, until he gets the chance to smash them with their own chains. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) makes a living by murdering wanted criminals and collecting the rewards. 4.0 out of 5 stars 62. He's also a master conman, which allows him to spring the runaway slave Django (Jamie Foxx) during transport to new owners. They make a deal - he and Django will partner to collect bounties, and when the Winter is over they'll rescue Django's wife Broomhilda (Hildi) von Schaft (Kerry Washington). She's a runaway as well, purposely separated from him as a punishment. King and Django mercilessly waylay, bushwack and otherwise slaughter a number of wanted fugitives; at one point King must lecture Django on the necessity of being heartless in his work, as that's just how things are. In the Spring they head to Candyland, a notorious Mississippi plantation where the refined Calvin Candie (Leonardo Di.
King pours Django and himself a beer and the two drink in a. Django Unchained, arriving on Blu-ray and DVD with a meager. Django Unchained (Blu-ray). Region: All Regions (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.) Aspect Ratio. Caprio) keeps a stable of slaves that fight to the death in Mandingo combat. Candie's lavish empire is maintained almost entirely on the suffering of his many slaves; when one Mandingo fighter refuses to fight, Candie has him torn to pieces by dogs. Django has difficulty maintaining his composure when he sees that Hildi has been locked naked in a hot box as punishment. King proceeds with his elaborate ruse to trick Candie into selling her cheap. The only problem is that Candie's sycophantic, devious head house slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) gets wise to the scheme as soon as he sees how Django and Hildi look at each other. Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx are a great buddy team in that they're so different. After playing the heinous villain of Inglourious Basterds Waltz gets to show some real charm as he smooth- talks and bamboozles his way through a succession of frontier yokels - - aided, I must add, by a spring- loaded Travis Bickle derringer he keeps tucked up his right sleeve. Foxx has just the right level of sentiment behind his simmering anger. Tarantino makes them as likeable as Butch and the Kid, and a lot more interesting than the more popular Spaghetti 'buddy' duos from the late '6. Buy Django Unchained (Blu-ray Steelbook) at Walmart.com. Django Unchained (Blu-ray + DVD + VUDU Digital Copy + UltraViolet + Bonus Disc) (Walmart Exclusive). Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. We know that all the bounty hunting action is but a preamble to the main course, when our boys venture South to recoup Django's wife. The flashbacks aren't backed by a '7. TV theme; he only degrades the image a bit, so that some of Django's memories of Hildi look like lo- con workprint material. Smash- zooms to faces at key moments are accompanied only by a little 'whoosh' noise. The inter- titles are kept to a minimum, and they aren't purposely goofy, making fun of expository conventions. Likewise the music choices seem more subdued. Tarantino communicated genuine fan- boy joy when he jammed Al Hirt's Flight of the Bumblebee into a quick motorcycle buzz through Tokyo, or applied an out- of- left- field David Bowie ballad to a sequence showing a French theater owner dressing to kill a full house of Nazis. Here we get a few country songs and a lot of re- used Spaghetti tunes. We love Ennio Morricone western music, but it's also no surprise to hear it in Django Unchained. This is nonsense from the same mindset that would prefer that racial crimes both historical and present- day be kept out of sight and especially out of earshot. There's no exaggeration in Django Unchained, as everything presented did occur. There were atrocious places like Candyland seemingly dedicated to racial brutalities, where slaves were bred like cattle and elaborate, sick philosophies were indulged to justify their subjugation. The way mainstream viewers ignore documentaries, it's refreshing to see a popular movie with so educational of a theme. King Schultz and Django warm our hearts even more than Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper did in the original double- crossing cynical western Vera Cruz. But going to Candyland is like a trip to Hades, the kind of scheme that only a pair of experienced crooks could pull off. Calvin Candie is such a hiss- able dastard, and our partners go so far out on a limb, that the filmic tension goes through the roof. Forget propaganda BS about slaves being treated well, Yankee distortions, etc. Candie regards his slaves as submissive and servile sub- humans incapable of imaginative thought. Biberman's Slaves, or the trashy de Laurentiis Mandingo. Paul Bogart's interesting comedy Skin Game must have crossed Tarantino's DVD player during the conception of Django Unchained; it's about a similar con game played by partners James Garner and Louis Gossett Jr. Garner repeatedly sells Gossett Jr. Skin Game uses the 'n' word quite a bit, too. I don't think anybody would dare consider such a non- PC comedy idea today. Sometimes it seems funny and other times uncomfortably smug. He does this by keeping all notions of seriousness at an ironic arm's length, and surprising us with characters richer than those found in earnest, 'respectable' movies. Jamie Foxx's Django is interesting because King considers him a Siegfried in search of his lady love. King wisely doesn't tell the version of the myth with all the murders and betrayals. Calvin Candie is the year's best- written but most contemptible bad guy, an exaggeration of every hateful racist idea known about the South. He's a walking insult so rancid that even Dr. King cannot control his outrage. King has clearly seen a lot. The proof of this is in Samuel L. Jackson's Stephen, who figures as a fascinating spin on the Uncle Tom stereotype. No innocent, dotard or victim forced to act as Candie's supervising 'house nigger,' Stephen is a prime example of black- on- black injustice. Worse than a Kapo in a holocaust story, Stephen has worked himself into a position of trust by ruthlessly carrying out Candie's evil bidding without having to be asked. Candie trusts Stephen so much that the old, white- haired overseer is able to interrupt, talk back and offer his scathing opinions without being beaten down. Candie preaches about phrenological evidence proving that blacks are inferior. Entreating people to accept such nonsense is just another demonstration of Candie's power: Stephen is probably the smartest guy in the room, and more than a match for King and Django's masquerade. The word- image of Calvin Candie's Candyland conjures a critical comparison between Candyland and Walt Disney's Disneyland, each of them time- honored American traditions. The goofy name 'Broomhilda' associates with a syndicated comic strip, and when combined with 'von Schaft', generates a possible obscene connotation. But in the movie itself the very non- Aryan 'Hildi' functions as a surprisingly old- school damsel in distress, the beautiful, helpless kind. En route to Candyland, Django is visited by beautiful visions of Hildi, in fields, in a mountain lake. She's also seen partially nude in the picture, which may be a first for Tarantino. Although the scenes here aren't really very exploitative, I admired his earlier ability to create sexy women without simply undressing them.. It is the first Quentin Tarantino film I've seen that I'd describe as being sabotaged by its own bad story structure. The movie rises in an unbroken curve of mounting interest and tension until the big dinner scene at Calvin Candie's. Most of the main players are present and anything can happen. Tarantino is a master of dialogue- driven standoffs, where various parties pretend not to hate each other's guts long enough to chat and drink before things get seriously murderous. Quentin tightens the knot, then releases it, tightens it again, and then pulls that special ace he reserves for an action launch point, in this case, Calvin's insistence on a 'friendly' handshake to a dirty deal well played. The blast of gunplay that follows is a perfect capper to two hours of old- fashioned, stylish spaghetti bloodletting. Tarantino's effects men outdo themselves to show gunshot victims gaily exploding like big tubs of icky sticky hemoglobin. Django Unchained (Blu- ray + DVD + VUDU Digital Copy + Ultra. Violet + Bonus Disc) (Walmart Exclusive) (With INSTAWATCH) (Widescreen)Important Made in USA Origin Disclaimer: For certain items sold by Walmart on Walmart. King Schultz (Academy Award(R)- winner Christoph Waltz). Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles - dead or alive.
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