Tarentino is back!

Django Unchained was an entertaining breath of fresh air and a return to form for Quentin Tarentino. I was bored for all but 5 minutes of "Death Proof" and either bored or asleep for the excruciating 2 and a half hours of "Inglourious Basterds", so I was a little worried when i saw that Django was almost 3 hours long. Thankfully, that long run time passed in what felt like minutes.

Django takes everything about the traditional western and turns it on its head. Instead of a white hero on a white horse and a bunch of comically stereotyped minorities we get a black hero on a dark horse poking fun at the violent, racist period that's been glorified over and over throughout film history. The best example of this is the scene which shows the first ride of (what will become) the KKK, a bunch of clueless idiots complaining that they can't see out of their poorly made hoods; only to be scattered by a simple distraction.

There are wonderful performances from the heroes and villains alike, but I thought the most enjoyable aspect of the movie was probably the soundtrack. It draws on music from just about every era and hearing a modern rap song while our main characters mosey-ed along on their horses made me laugh and applaud.

The ultra-violence of the gun fights is well filmed and comically absurd (giant ribbons of shooting blood), an effective combination of action and comedy. This is contrasted with the other violent parts of the movie, demonstrating just how brutal American slavery of blacks was for a long period of our short history. Some might call these scenes over the top or unnecessary, but they miss the point. They are exactly what is needed before Django can justly carry out his revenge on the slavers and ride into the sunset.

7/10