MOVIE OF THE WEEK (12/25/12): DJANGO UNCHAINED

"Look at long this cigarette is – it's GOT to be bad for you, right?!" Django (Jamie Foxx) stares into the eyes of Mandingo fighting magnate Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) – who also just so happens to be the man who owns his beloved wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington, not pictured) in a scene from writer/director Quentin Tarantino's DJANGO UNCHAINED. Credit: Andrew Cooper © 2012 SMPSP / The Weinstein Co. All Rights Reserved. 

KEY CAST MEMBERS: Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Johnson, Jonah Hill, James Remar, Walton Goggins and Laura Cayouette 

WRITER(S): Quentin Tarantino

DIRECTOR: Quentin Tarantino

WEB SITE: http://unchainedmovie.com/

THE PLOT: A Spaghetti western style tale set in the South 2 years before the Civil War, Django Unchained stars Jamie Foxx as Django (the "D" is silent), a slave who happens to be traveling – on foot with other slaves – through Texas. As fate would have it, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) just so happens to cross his path looking to buy a slave who might be familiar with a certain Southern plantation. You see, while Schultz  is traveling under the guise of being a dentist, he in reality is a bounty hunter looking for the Brittle Brothers (M.C. Gainey as Big John, Cooper Huckabee as Lil Raj and Doc Duhame as Ellis) – but he doesn't know what they look like.

Django, as it turns out, does – which is why he then joins forces with him with a promise: If he can help him find him, he will set him free. Once they hit the road together, Schultz and Django – now being paid to kill many of the white men who enslaved people just like him – realize they have a good partnership together and become friends. Schultz is unprepared, however, for the bombshell is newfound buddy drops on him: His wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington of Scandal fame) was sold to another plantation and he doesn't know where his beloved is. 

Awestruck by the revelation, Schultz decides to help Django track his wife – who just so happens to speak German after being raised in a household where the language was spoken – down so they can reunited. Unfortunately, Broomhilda is at the fourth-biggest plantation in all of Mississippi, the one belonging to Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). Launching a plan to get inside and free Broomhilda with no bloodshed, things seem to be working out ... But there's something about the situation that Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), the head house slave of Candie's plantation, doesn't trust about it. 

So will Django and his beloved be reunited? You'l have to watch the movie to find out!

THE TAKE: "Kill Bill with a slave." While that may or may not be exactly how Tarantino pitched Django Unchained to the Weinstein Co. (the film's distributor), that is easily the quickest and most accurate way to describe his latest nearly 3-hour opus. The thing that sets this film apart from that one, however, is the historical context in which it is set and how effectively the cast and crew bring you into the time period in a completely unflinching – and sadly, realistic – fashion.

For as much as Foxx presents himself as the image of a ladies man in his music, comedy and/or interviews, when the camera is on, he has shown he can be a master thespian – and Django Unchained is his finest performance since his Oscar-winning turn in Ray. Foxx commands the screen in each scene he's in, showing a balance of humor, steadfast determination, cunning and savvy to make his character anything but the caricature Spike Lee likely fears it is. In Django, Foxx presents his character as a man thrust into a situation unexpectedly and then grabs it with full vigor to make the most out of a life he never expected to have. 

Likewise, Waltz is phenomenal as the astute King Schultz, presenting his character almost as a wise, Yoda-like mentor to Foxx character whose quips serve a dual purpose as both humorous and insightful throughout the film. Not to be outdone, DiCaprio shows he can play evil as well as he can heroic, layering Candie's personae with depth to showcase just how deep attitudes towards slavery at the time could – and did in fact – run and worse yet, justifiably (in at least the popular thought of the day) so. While Washington is mostly seen in a limited capacity, she makes the most of her screen time to progress the story ... And Jackson? Well, let's just say he turns in a performance that is so ... just not right (in a good way) that he comes off as the living embodiment of Uncle Ruckus (Link and language not safe for work - at all!) from Aaron McGruder's hit (and controversial) Adult Swim cartoon The Boondocks! 

What will ultimately, however, determine just how well you may feel about the film is how you feel about the subject itself. Django Unchained deals with TOUGH subject matter and Tarantino is and has never been for the faint of heart when it comes to violence and language. Thus, if the idea of savage brutality bothers you so much you can't even think about it, be prepared to watch many scenes through your fingers as they shadow your face from the unflinching, unrelenting intensity you see unfolding before your very eyes. 

While most people in modern America are good natured, humble people who want to live peacefully in society, there are plenty of people – as President Obama was recently reminded following the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. (once again, language not safe for work) – who would seemingly be happy if things were as they were pre-1865. And that might be Django's ultimate triumph: Presenting a film in 2012 that might help start conversations that can help reduce – for I fear elimination is an impossible goal, sadly – longstanding attitudes about race thanks to a fine performance by a black lead actor directed in perfect harmony by a Caucasian male ... With a little German assistance. 

PARTING SHOT: A film that's not easy to watch at times but great fun to do so at others, Django Unchained might not exactly be your typical Christmas Day love story movie, but it's quite good nonetheless. 

RATING (OUT OF FOUR BUCKETS OF POPCORN):