Tarantino’s endless love for the spaghetti western is once again proved in his latest movie, which is actually none other, then a spaghetti western itself. Django Unleashed is the story of a black slave, who becomes a gunslinger bounty hunter and with the help of his companion tries to save his pretty black wife from evil slavers.

Of course, there is more than that – there is always more than that to Tarantino movies. Deep characters, witty dialogues, sometimes, funny sometimes purposefully horrible scenes are the main elements besides the pastiche of the spaghetti western formula.

They are all good, bad and ugly

Of course, as far as those are concerned, Tarantino always excels. It comes to no surprise that Christopher Waltz is once again marvelous, as the sometimes cynical, sometimes humanist bounty hunter, and his lines are perhaps the best in the movie. He is just as a convincing bounty hunter, as he was an excellent German colonel in Inglorious Basterds. What is surprising however is that Leonardo Di Caprio is perhaps even better, than Waltz, as the corrupted, presumptuous, aggressive and sometimes civilized and extremely intelligent, sometimes stupid plantation owner.

He came a long way since not only the pretty boy roles, but the muscled up rough hero roles as well, and he shows here how versatile he can be. Let’s not forget Samuel L. Jackson either, the favorite actor of Tarantino, who is once again funny as hell as the old and faithful, yet cynical black servant of Di Caprio. Jamie Foxx has a hard time trying to be as perfect as the other actors, and still he delivers as well, even if he’s not the best of the bunch.

For a Few Homages More

Story wise Tarantino excels once again. While the basic story this time is a lot simpler, than in his other movies, still it has its WTF moments, sudden deaths, and funny situations. And of course there are several homages to Sergio Leone’s and other western movies as well. The title of the movie itself may be familiar to the spaghetti western enthusiasts: the original “Django” was a western from 1966 with Franco Nero (who makes a cameo appearance here as well), which was followed by other Django movies, and another Franco Nero movie.

The bounty hunter story is of course homage to Sergio Leone’s For a Few Dollars More, and there are also allusions to another movie called “Mandingo”. The music is less of a treat this time, even if Ennio Morricone’s name is mentioned, it’s actually composed by Louis Bacalov and it is rather uninteresting and less inspired, than Morricone’s music. There is even some rap music in some scenes, which are terribly out of place.

Less talk, more “presence”!

So the story is good, the dialogues are excellent, the actors as well, still I felt Tarantino this time somewhat missed his mark. While he worked hard, that his movie would like Sergio Leone’s and other classic westerns, he forgot, what made Leone’s work so excellent: the presence of the actors, their long, silent “looks”, those laconic, yet meaningful phrases, and just afterwards deadly fast gunfights.

I understand that Tarantino probably don’t want to just copy the basic elements from famous spaghetti westerns, but his typical witty dialogues and grotesque movie moments sometimes felt out of place from the traditional spaghetti western formula.

Still those are of course nitpicks, and if you like westerns and Tarantino, de yourself a favor, and do absolutely download this movie: this time it doesn’t need to be HD quality anyway: since the lower resolution feels like part of Tarantino’s art…

-BadSector-