Movie Review: Django Unchained (2012)

Django Unchained has won 2 Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz) and Best Original Screenplay (Quentin Tarantino).

My heartiest Congratulations to Christoph and Quentin on their success.

Django Unchained is my favorite Quentin Tarantino movie since Pulp Fiction. Inglourious Basterds was Quentin's revisionist take on World War II and this movie takes an unflinching look at black slavery.

The movie is set in the 19^th century and opens with shots of Django (Jamie Foxx) being led along with other slaves in chains. Like previous Tarantino movies, the opening credits are done in the genre style - in this case, Spaghetti Western. The song accompanying the stylish credits is sung by Luis Bacalov and sets the tone for the movie.

Django is soon set free by Dr King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). Shultz is a German bounty hunter and needs Django’s help to identify the Brittle brothers. After netting the trio, Schultz agrees to help Django get his wife, Broomhilda von Schaft (Kerry Washington) and trains him.

Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained

Broomhilda is being held by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), a young and sadistic plantation owner. Calvin’s right hand man is Stephen (Samuel L Jackson).

Schultz devises a plan to free Broomhilda. He introduces Django as an expert on Mandingo fighting and offers an insanely large amount of money to Calvin in exchange for his top fighters. Schultz’s actual intention is to acquire Broomhilda as part of the bargain, by showing his affinity for her knowledge of German language.

The observant Stephen catches Broomilda stealing glances at Django and confronts her. Broomhilda does her best to convince Stephen otherwise. The astute Stephen does not buy her arguments and promptly and discreetly informs Calvin of the situation.

Kerry Washington as Broomhilda von Schaft

The enraged Calvin finishes the business transaction at gunpoint. He gloats over the fact that he was not deceived by Schultz’s plan and forces Schultz to acknowledge that fact through a simple handshake. Schultz has already witnessed the brutal death of a slave and refuses to (literally) shake hands with the devil.

The resulting showdown is pure entertainment in Tarantino style.

Both Waltz and Tarantino richly deserve their Oscars. Waltz is just amazing as Schultz. Schultz has a very dramatic style of presenting himself and just as accurate with his shooting. Tarantino has done some of his best writing for Colonol Hans Landa and Dr King Schultz. It comes as no surprise that Waltz scored Oscar wins for portraying both these characters.

Christoph Waltz gives an Oscar winning performance

Leonardo DiCaprio gives the second best performance as the villainous Calvin Clandie. DiCaprio’s natural good looks combined with his French goatee and red clothings make Calvin one handsome devil. DiCaprio has delivered one strong performance after another in a variety of roles and Calvin is yet another feather in his cap.

Leo did some research and came up with the idea of using the skull in the pivotal dinner scene. He is reported to be highly interested in the Victorian era and looks very much at home, smoking his pipe.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie

Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington and Samuel L Jackson give great performances as well. 

Samuel Jackson in particular is excellent as the cunning and sharp Stephen who has some tricks up his sleeve.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L Jackson in Django Unchained

There are a number of supporting performances. Jonah Hill and Quentin himself appear in brief cameos. The bag head scene featuring Jonah is pretty funny and is classic Tarantino.

There a lot of beautiful outdoor shots and full credit to Robert Richardson for the amazing cinematography.

Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained

The costumes, makeup, the sets and the music are all top-notch.

As expected, the dialogues crackle with wit and energy. Tarantino loves to write long chatty scenes and Django has a bunch of them. Still, the movie is consistently entertaining thanks to Quentin’s sharp writing and even sharper screenplay.

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The shootout scenes are just spectacular and will leave a smile on your face. This is Tarantino doing what he does best: a genre movie that can stand on its own and simultaneously is an homage to the genre.

Quentin Tarantino

A must watch for fans of Spaghetti Westerns and Quentin Tarantino.

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Image Sources: The Weinstein Company and Columbia Pictures

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Movie Review: Skyfall (2012)

Daniel Craig as James Bond

The movie opens with Bond on the pursuit of a document that has a list of MI6 agents. This is an extended chase scene, first on motorcycles and concluding on a moving train. Bond gets mistakenly shot by his fellow agent, Eve (Naomie Harris) and is presumed dead.

Silva (Javier Bardem), a former MI6 agent is determined to ruin MI6 and especially M (Judi Dench). He ends up blowing up the MI6 building right in front of M. He is so effective in his plans that he ensures that she is actually present when it happens.

Bond is forced to come out of his self-imposed exile. Bond fails the fitness exams and is still assigned to work. There is a new Q (Ben Whishaw) on the block. Q is much younger than Bond and considers Bond to be too old for active duty.

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The next section of the movie is set in Shanghai and has been shot beautifully. We meet the requisite femme fatale of the movie, Severine (Bérénice Marlohe).

The next action scene is set in a nightclub and has a nice nod to the crocodile jumping scene from Live and Let Die (Roger Moore, 1973).

Bond and Silva meet and Silva shows his admiration for not only Bond’s intellect but also his brawn. Bond quickly dispatches Silva’s henchmen and takes him into custody.

Naomie Harris as Eve

Q tries to break into Silva’s laptop and discovers that it was latter’s plan to get caught all along. Silva escapes after killing a couple of agents. Bond stops Silva from murdering M, who once again makes good with his escape.

Bond takes M to his home “Skyfall” to prevent further collateral damage and to finish Silva once and for all.

Sam Mendes is an exceptional director and is responsible for two of my all-time favorite movies: American Beauty and Road to Perdition. It comes as no surprise that Skyfall is one of the best Bond movies. In addition to the usual gadgets/guns, the iconic Aston Martin DB5 also makes a comeback.

Aston Martin DB5

The cinematography by Roger Deakins is spectacular in the Shanghai sequence and in the final section of the movie set at Bond’s home.

The movie has already won the Golden Globe award for Best Original Song (Adele and Paul Epworth) and the BAFTA award for Original Music (Thomas Newman) and Outstanding British Film. The movie has been nominated for 5 Oscars as well.

This is Daniel Craig’s third outing as Bond and he is very good. I have seen Casino Royale and am yet to watch Quantum of Solace. I enjoyed his performance in the former and this performance is even better.

Craig is an excellent actor and he brings a lot of depth to his performance. Craig may not have the dashing looks of Pierce Brosnan or Roger Moore. To me, Craig is on par with Sean Connery as being the best Bond.

Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem in Skyfall

Craig’s Bond is the most three-dimensional I have seen yet. It is a fitting way to celebrate the 50^th year of the Bond movie series.

Javier Bardem oozes pure menace as Silva. He is aided by some great CGI work, especially in the scene where he explains his sufferings to M. He is one of the best Bond villains in a long time.

The supporting cast fills out their roles nicely. Special mention must be made of Ben Whishaw as Q and Albert Finney as Kincade.

Ben makes a good successor to Desmond Llewelyn as Q. It was fun to watch Q and Bond develop their chemistry over the course of the movie.

Albert Finney as Kincade

Albert Finney is one of the best character actors around and makes a good impression as Bond’s mentor.

Craig’s scenes with Ben and Albert are among the best in the movie and sparkle with great chemistry between the actors.

Ralph Fiennes, Judi Dench and Naomi Harris are good in their roles as Gareth Mallory, M and Eve respectively.

Helen McCrory has a brief cameo as Clair Dowar MP. Sherlock Holmes fans might remember her from Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking.

Ben Whishaw as Q

The film does suffer from a couple of drawbacks:

I felt that the movie was heavily inspired from Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies. The movie was like a reverse walkthrough of the trilogy. The scenes where Bond’s age catches up with him and he fails his tests and is being made fun of by Q reminded me of similar scenes with Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Rises. Silva’s plan to deliberately get caught and then making his escape from the MI6 building was similar to the Joker’s in The Dark Knight. Finally, the scene where Bond’s home “Skyfall” is burnt to the ground reminded me of the scene in Batman Begins where Bruce Wayne’s manor is destroyed in the fire set off by the League of Shadows.

----------------- Spoilers Ahead -------------

If you have not seen the movie yet, I would recommend that you skip this section.

Bond is at least partly responsible for M’s death. If M had stayed hidden inside the hidden tunnel/basement under “Skyfall”, she would most probably have lived through the day.

----------------- End of spoilers ----------------

The movie is a must watch for James Bond fans and readers who enjoy action/thriller movies. Daniel Craig makes a great Bond and I look forward to the next Bond movie that reportedly reunites him with Sam Mendes.

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Image Sources: Eon Productions, Danjaq

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