Django Unchained (2012)

*****

Last night was our weekly movie night so my husband picked this, which I had never heard of before. I quite liked that I'd never heard of it though 'cause I enjoy watching movies where I have literally no idea what it's about, what genre, who's in it or anything till it actually starts.

However, it obviously has to be a good movie for me to enjoy it! This is difficult to do since it requires that someone else pick the movie whose judgement I trust. My husband manages to pick out some good movies most of the time though. One time I got him to pick a movie at the cinema and I made sure I didn't find out what it was till it started - that was fun, I definitely recommend it. At the very least I don't like to see trailers till after I've watched the movie, or at least not the whole trailer (sometimes need to get a feel for whether I'll like it or not if I'm paying to see it!). Some trailer just totally ruin the movie for me (e.g. for a comedy it shows the funniest parts, or a thriller it gives away key features of the plot - an example would be Quarantine - so glad I saw the movie before the trailer!). 

Anyway, I'm totally going off track here so back to Django. It starts out following a group of half naked black men chained together by their feet as they walk through the forest, so immediately I figured it must be to do with slavery and set in the past. Which it was, but I was also expecting it to be rather more serious and factual that it turned out to be. While the main theme and issues addressed in the movie were serious and based on fact (set in the 1860s btw) the storyline and things that happened were definitely not, which made it very entertaining and quite humorous in some places. A nice balance between the two. Be warned however as there is a high level of violence, a bit too much for my taste I have to say, but it didn't really detract from my overall enjoyment of the film, I just think it was a bit unnecessary.

The characters are really interesting and make you want to get to know them better, while the storyline is simple but intriguing and it kept me guessing about what was going to happen next. There were no parts in the movie where I was bored or felt that this would be a good time to nip to the loo or make a cup of tea. There's quite a few 'uh, that would never actually happen' moments (e.g. 'how come he's suddenly riding a dressage horse?? or 'that is such an inappropriate moment to be kissing!') but in general there were not too many of them and most of them I liked, made it fun to watch. 

So, I definitely recommend it, but if you're still not sure and you'd rather not follow my strategy of watching the movie first and the trailer after, here it is to convince you. Please leave me some comments on what you thought if you've seen it.