Django Unchained (2013)

Slightly over-indulgent and about 30 min too long Django Unchained is nevertheless a great film and hugely enjoyable.  Jamie Foxx is great as crab man Django, Christoph Waltz is fantastic as Dr Schultz and the relationship between them is perfect.  Di Caprio also turns in a pretty good turn as the unpredictable Calvin Candie, and of course the usual Tarantino favourite Samuel L Jackson is present as well as Tarantino himself making an appearance.

It's another revenge story, but unlike Kill Bill the narrative is linear and more straightforward.  Also unlike Kill Bill which is fairly fantastical, you could imagine many stories such as Django's actually happening when the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was at its height.  As such I really felt the emotion as he was whipping one of his previous tormentors.  But for all its portrayal of slavery in 19th century Southern States, (and violent revenge), there is a lot of humour.  It's OK though, it doesn’t detract from the violence and swearing!  If Sergio Leone was the first to show a gunshot and a man being killed in the same shot, then Tarantino has taken that to the next level with so much blood and lumps of flesh (from men and horses) flying about the place.

Unmistakably a Tarantino film, Django Unchained is really good, well written characters played by an excellent cast, and there is some wonderful photography giving a grand scale to the story.  I just feel (and this is a very minor point) that with a tighter script and so a slightly shorter run time is would have been truly excellent.