3 stars (out of 4)

Released 2012

This western-actioner is pretty much what one would expect from a Quentin Tarantino film.  It manages to be smart and dumb at the same time and there’s no skimping on gore.  It takes place in the American deep south a couple of years before the Civil War.  Like LINCOLN, it covers the topic of slavery, although the 2 films couldn’t be more different in terms of presentation and tone.

Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx deliver strong performances in their roles of dentist-turned-bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz and his eventual partner, slave-turned-bounty hunter Django.  Django’s ultimate goal is to rescue his wife Broomhilda from the Candieland plantation, but there’s a lot of character- and plot-development enroute.

DJANGO UNCHAINED is brutally violent, with copious amounts especially toward the end.  Fortunately, it is frequently amusing too.  Just one example: a pre-raid meeting held by the white supremacists in which they air their grievances about the headgear they are supposed to wear.

Going in, the running time of nearly 3 hours gave me pause, but ultimately, the movie didn’t end up feeling too long.

(On a side note, seeing Dr. Schultz’s cute horse made me nostalgic for another cute horse: Comet, from The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.)