Film #7 by Quentin. Interesting period piece account of antebellum slaveries that follows his alternate WWII tellings of Inglorious Basterds. Two years before the Civil War broke out, and the world of plantation owners and bounties. Not the harvest kind. Wanted Poster kind. I guess technically Jamie Foxx as the title character is the main one, but it’s definitely German Cristoph Waltz’s show here, well done as it plays out.
You know what you didn’t have a lot of in 1858? Dentists. And this one is pretty skilled, as we see Dr. King Schultz (Waltz) encounter a pair of guards and their slaves making their way through in the chill of night. Turns out Doc works on more than teeth, seems like he’s a bit of an accomplished gun-wielder, too! Huh! And his latest business endeavor, a lucrative one, finds him partnering up with Django. The ‘D’ is silent, don’tchaknow. It results in a lots of guns, bullets, and some interesting strategeries to collect on the latest bounty.
A lot of secondary characters here to back it up. Even get a little Tom Savini if you look close enough! An embellished take on the Westerns genre through a Southern lens in true Tarantino fashion, with some mostly okay sometimes questionable modern soundtrackings to accompany the old-timey plots. Not bad overall, zips along rather wittingly through the first act, but drags a bit for the second for, pffft! plots. Has a decent amount of dark humor and blood-cannon kinda gore to double-punch ya in the glistening eyeholes throughout while playing out the slightly off-kilter premise. And that’s what makes it a fun enough ride, even with all the raystisms. Not the most memorable addition to the Tarantino collection with a length that probably coulda been tightened up a bit from its somewhat excessive runtime. But even if there are no Muthafkn Snakes on this Muthafkn Plane...tation...for Samuel L. Jackson to yell at, he don’t need no snakes to get yelly. Overall a slick-shot look at the antebellum era through a blacksploitation filter, warts and all.
