Tarantino Tales: Episode 9 - Django Unchained

Django Unchained is a good film, but it's the first QT film without his longtime editor, Sally Menke, and it shows. The rhythm is just off. Diversions that felt natural in is earlier films felt shoehorned in here. Think the watch scene from Pulp Fiction vs the KKK takedown in this film. The first one works while the latter doesn't, IMO. Because of this, and because our heroes don't exactly have a straight path to victory, there are plenty of options for what to cut away while still telling the same story well. I think this edit was mostly successful. Plenty is cut away (including the scene mentioned above), and nothing is missed up until the very end. I can see what the editor was going for, and it almost works, but I will echo other reviewers that the ending feels a bit abrupt, almost as if there is one scene missing. It's not ruinous, and I still enjoyed myself.

On the visual and audio editing, again, there's some great work here, and it's almost perfect. I love the decision to convert this to black and white, and it's clear there was a lot of work put into doing it right. Because it looks gorgeous in color, and it looks gorgeous here. My only note is that there are a couple of exterior shots at dusk and night that are a bit dark and muddy. It's only a couple, though. The flashback scene tries something different, and I think it worked really well. The scene was also well-placed and stuck around just long enough to serve its purpose. I loved it. There are new music choices in this edit, and they all work! There's just one that isn't integrated very well. It drowns out the dialog and doesn't stick around long enough to justify its inclusion. Stylistically, the song works, but it feels like a scene transition patch, and it isn't wholly successful. (I won't say where in this review in case others don't feel the same way.) Other than these nitpicks, I think all the choices here were winners.

There is a heavy focus on the music throughout this edit. A lot of effort was put in the choices for the music throughout. It was a good soundtrack

The action looks good in black and white.

The biggest issue with the movie though is the end. It kinda just jump cuts twice with no logical leaping between these two points. I honestly don't know how they would connect in relation to the narrative told. And then credits.

I really don't like putting someone's work down but it honestly felt unfinished.

This one was really fun, with only a few small issues!

When I started watching I was originally going to hate on the use of "6 Months Earlier" but Tarantino is the flashback king so it seems on brand, and it was a good scene selection. Then when you did the Speck Brothers flashback-in-a-flashback, it was very well done and clear, and I loved the audio effect you put in there double-down and make sure we knew what was happening. The montage leading up to "Mississippi" was really well done and flew through like 40 mins of the movie in 2 mins. The cuts keep the plot easy to follow, and before I knew it we were catching up to the beginning of the episode.

Unfortunately for me the ending feels very rushed and here's where it fell apart a bit for me. I would have loved to see a shot of Django riding his horse like a wild-man like he was escaping, and then coming back after Candie's funeral to kill the rest of them, blow up the house, and save his wife. Sam Jackson's character never gets his comeuppance, which felt unsatisfying.

If the ending was reworked this one would be near perfect for me, but as it is I'd say it's pretty good.