【電影簡介】

1858年，美國南北戰爭前兩年。德國賞金獵人金·舒爾茨（克里斯托弗·瓦爾茲 飾）從販奴商人手中買下黑奴姜戈（杰米·福克斯 Jamie Foxx 飾），讓其重獲自由。舒爾茨實則是要把姜戈培養成無法無天的賞金獵人，為其緝拿各種通緝犯以換取報酬。姜戈的唯一條件是：從暴虐的糖果莊園主卡爾文·坎迪（萊昂納多·迪卡普里奧 飾）手中解救出自己的妻子布魯姆希爾達（凱麗·華盛頓 飾）。

【音頻文本】

A Chinese critic divides Quentin Tarantino movies into two categories— remade movies in honor of old classics and original movies characterized by endless dialogues. "Django Unchained" is a bit of both.

On the one hand, the spaghetti-western style is obviously a tip of the hat to Italian director Sergio Corbucci's original "Django" in 1966. Tarantino even has the original Django, Franco Nero, asking for the nameof the new Django, Jamie Foxx, to which the latter responds: "Django, the D is silent." – Quite an amusing scene for those who notice.

Only a few minutes of watching the movie are enough for viewers to realize the style of cinematography andmusic is a bit uncommon in contemporary moviemaking. In particular, the useof songs to mark major transitions in the storyline is a far cry from the quick-paced commercial movies of our time. An interesting thingto note about how the soundtrack reflects cultural differences: While an African-American colleague of mine said he/she appreciated the mixture of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western scores and a few contemporarysounds, even some rap, Chinese viewers in general seemed to tilt toward the negative.

Nonetheless, the movie still indulges Tarantino's distinctive style. This time the chatterbox is Christopher Waltz, playing a confident bounty hunter in the guise of a dentist. The always good-mannered German dentist sets free a black slave Django, and takes him on his pursuit of wanted fugitives. Pretty soon, DjangoFreeman learns all the tricks, and both partners go on a mission to rescue Django's wife. Later when the doctor is down, Jamie takes up his job as both chatterbox and bounty hunter.

In "Django Unchained," Tarantino describes the cruelty of slavery rather boldly, from straightforward whipping to Mandingo fights and dog attacks. His playful approach reminds everyone of his previous movie "Inglorious Basterds." Only this time he is saved by the consistent playfulness of his previous works; otherwise, he couldn't have pulled it off without being offensive. In fact, based on the opinion of my colleague, I'm sure some viewers are offended, despite the fact that the director is at the same time very serious about the topic.

While Christopher Waltz does an exceptional job, his claim to the Golden Globe's Best Supporting Actor Award could have met with a serious challenge if Samuel Jackson had been given more screen time. Jamie Foxx is equally brilliant. When he becomes talkative near the end, he is almost another Dr. Schulz, and Dr. Schulz is cool.

The "N words" sounds a bit too much even for Chinese viewers; otherwise, "Django Unchained" is a perfect movie. For a fair rating, I am thinking an eight out of 10.

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