Django Unchained (2012)

Quentin Taratino presents a spaghetti western (or southern) about slavery.  And guess what?  It's a comedy too.  A comedy about slavery?  Only someone with Taratino's talents could make this work without being offensive (or at least offensive to me).  Jamie Foxx plays Django an ex-slave who teams up with German dentist turned bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz played by Christoph Waltz to buy back Django's wife, Broomhilda, from a ruthless Plantation owner and Mandingo promoter Mr. Candie played by Leonardo DiCaprio.  Like all Taratino films, this one is a cobbling of cinematic genres of the past molded into something new: you have a spaghetti western, a Blaxploitation film, a twist of Blazing Saddles with Sam Peckinpah like violence.  With his typical Taratino soundtrack of odd but perfect songs, you have something that feels like it was made for the '70s directed with today's technology.  I'm not sure if I'd say this is a great film or even Oscar worthy but it is an enduring entertaining cinematic experience with moments of greatness.  Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson each give spectacular performances.  A warning: while I stated that this is a comedy there are some serious moments too that depict the horrors of slavery with "intended" honesty.  These scenes are not for the squeamish but this country's cruel past isn't for the squeamish either.  And a blog about this film isn't complete without a mention of the N-word (yes, I'm choosing to use the accepted political correct term out of politeness.).  I'm very glad that Taratino uses the N-word as much as he does in this film, to not use it would have been a travesty and would have ignored how people talked back then.  We can't ignore the past; we need to meet it head on no matter how awful it is.  Or as this film does, make a mockery of those that made it so awful.  Grade: A-