Movies

Oscar-Winnner 'Django Unchained' Rated R-16 Uncut by MTRCB

The Philippine Star

March 11, 2013 | 9:05am

MANILA, Philippines - Columbia Pictures' epic and action thriller â€œDjango Unchainedâ€ has been rated R-16 With No Cuts by the Movie & Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) which means audiences 16-years-old and above may be admitted to the film when it's shown starting Wednesday, March 13.

This development also allows the Quentin Tarantino masterpiece â€“ which recently won Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay (Tarantino) and Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz) â€“ to arrive in Philippine cinemas in its original, complete version.

Film buffs and moviegoers will thus be treated to an uncut depiction of slavery in the American South, the physical and psychological violence perpetrated upon African-Americans, and the utter inhumanity of it all.

As castmember Samuel L. Jackson explains, â€œItâ€™s a piece of American history that generally gets sort of whitewashed or perfumed in a way that this film just doesnâ€™t do.â€

Set two years before the Civil War, â€œDjango Unchainedâ€ revolves around Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Waltz). Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty. The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles â€“ dead or alive.

Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways. Instead, Schultz seeks out the Southâ€™s most wanted criminals with Django by his side. Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago.

Django and Schultzâ€™s search ultimately leads them to Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), the proprietor of â€œCandyland,â€ an infamous plantation. If Django and Schultz are to escape with Broomhilda, they must choose between independence and solidarity, between sacrifice and survivalâ€¦

Along with the countless awards it has won, â€œDjango Unchainedâ€ had its share of tributes from the critics who've recognized the film's extraordinary brilliance.

â€œMore than any other director, Quentin Tarantino tests and extends the power of pop culture fantasy to engage the painful atrocities of history,â€ writes The New York Times film critic A.O. Scott. "[`Django Unchained'] is digressive, jokey, giddily brutal and ferociously profane. But it is also a troubling and important movie about slavery and racism."

Betsy Sharkey of The Los Angeles Times praises, â€œTarantino is a man unchained, creating his most articulate, intriguing, provoking, appalling, hilarious, exhilarating, scathing and downright entertaining film yet."

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter describes â€œDjangoâ€ as â€œA jokey, discursive, idiosyncratic and spirited film that does to slave owners what `Inglourious Basterds' did to Nazis. Tarantino injects the weighty material with so many jocular, startling and unexpected touches that itâ€™s constantly stimulating.â€

Finally, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone applauds, â€œ`Django Unchained' is an exhilarating rush, outrageously entertaining and, hell, just plain outrageous. Unchain Tarantino and you get a jolt of pure cinema, dazzling, disreputable and thrillingly alive.â€

â€œDjango Unchainedâ€ is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.