Quentin Tarantino's Western movie "Django Unchained"

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-django-unchained-quentin-tarantino-funniest-scene-20121226,0,5034993.story

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-quentin-tarantino-django-unchained-music-soundtrack-streaming-20121224,0,3590448.story

Would have liked this a whole lot more without Samuel L Jackson's character (I don't think he added anything dramatically and was certainly the easiest to see accusations of minstrelry around), also the first time I've really been uncomfortable with Tarantino's obsession with nigger.

OTOH, killing slave-owners/overseers is about as satisfying as killing Nazis and there were elements that brought home the brutality of slavery better than anything I can think of recently. Kept thinking of right-wing "slavery wasn't so bad" bullshit and whining about this being an attack on white people throughout.

This was actually the first time QT's use of nigger didn't bother me, because it seemed honest -- it was a word that lots of people said all the time, every day. And I think Samuel Jackson's character gets the movie away from overly simplified race dynamics. He's a Machiavellian opportunist who has managed to take whatever power is available to him. (The scene in the library with DiCaprio is great.)

you guys who havent seen Basterds need to see it

this is pretty fantastic. i can only think of a few nitpicks - usage of music is poor (maybe the worst in QT's career), certainly could've done without the self-insert.... i wished kerry washington had more to do a la melanie laurent in IB. its a terrific picture though. sam jackson's amazing.

I thought the music was good, only obtrusive a few times. The deployment of hip-hop was especially otm.

But true that Kerry Washington needed at least one showcase scene.

the horrible mutant 2pac/james brown thing blaring over the candieland shootout was such a poor choice. after the relative musical restraint of Inglourious Basterds (i only recall one pop song being used, and it's all the more memorable for it), this felt overstuffed to me. like i said though, it's a nitpick.

james remar playing 2 characters in this threw me for a loop

gah I have to wait at least 2 more days to see this
I wanna see it NOW

the horrible mutant 2pac/james brown thing blaring over the candieland shootout was such a poor choice

Huh. That was probably my favorite music moment in the whole thing.

On your other nitpick about Tarantino's cameo, tho, yeah. Even more distracting than his ridiculous accent was just spending five minutes thinking, "Man, Quentin's really let himself go," and wondering if it's because he quit cocaine or something.

tipsy mothra otm imo.

only sore thumb moment was maybe the piece of redneck cannon fodder getting shot for comedic effect a couple times too many.

http://www.theroot.com/views/tarantino-unchained-part-1-django-trilogy?page=0,0

http://www.theroot.com/views/tarantino-unchained-part-2-n-word

So ... John Ford.

spoilers ahead...

Fitfully entertaining for most of its length, dawdling only when Tarantino insists on extending a lame joke about masks so that Jonah Hill can get a line and when Christoph Waltz overacts through an explanation (he's better just chatting with Jamie Foxx), but it really doesn't need the "cathartic" ending, especially when we know Django and Hilde aren't getting out of Ole Miss alive, with or without her slave papers. It woulda been a chilling coda if Tarantino dropped the games and let Candy's men execute Django.

It took a while to get used to him but Scrunchy Face eventually gives his most entertaining performance since Catch Me If You Can.

And I think Samuel Jackson's character gets the movie away from overly simplified race dynamics. He's a Machiavellian opportunist who has managed to take whatever power is available to him. (The scene in the library with DiCaprio is great.)

Unsure whether any plantation owner would have taken the liberty of allowing his black butler access to Grand Marnier and his chair by the fire but, yeah, Jackson and DiCrap handled the power dynamics like pros.

haha, the masks bit killed me. agreed about leo. everything after the castration scene does feel weird narratively... i was hoping it would go somewhere a little more unexpected. still enjoyed the final showdown, stephen dropping his cane, etc.

It woulda been a chilling coda if Tarantino dropped the games and let Candy's men execute Django.

It would've, but I can count on one hand the number of -sploitation movies I've seen that have deliberately NOT given the on-screen avatar of the disenfranchised what the audience wants on their (and their own) behalf.

Yeah, he's an avenger not a martyr.

I don't think QT can "do" martyrs.

I felt bad for Alexis Arquette.

especially remembering how bad he was in Surviving Picasso.

the slate.com writer was bothered by Django not being able to liberate himself:

In Tarantino’s movie, by contrast, Django tries and fails to escape and is only liberated, and empowered, by the benevolent bounty hunter Dr. Schultz.

Yeah, it's basically QT's Amistad.

thats funny because hes obliquely singled out Amistad as the movie he's trying not to make

Bad luck for him, then.

In Tarantino’s movie, by contrast, Django tries and fails to escape and is only liberated, and empowered, by the benevolent bounty hunter Dr. Schultz.

An odd argument. Unless you had extraordinary will like a Frederick Douglass or Harriet Tubman, how else could a former slave be liberated and empowered?

also lol @ Dr. Schulz as "benevolent."

"The crusty but benign bounty hunter"

i think it'd be a more potent comparison if the movie built up to schultz freeing django at the end, instead of it happening in the first scene of the movie...

ive been digging your usage of "crusty but benign" lately alf

Third part of the HLG interview (which is really good) gets into that:

Things have to go awry, and Schultz has to be taken out of the picture for Django to truly emerge as the hero. He has to actually be caught. He can take down a lot of people, but he actually has to be caught.

http://www.theroot.com/views/tarantino-unchained-part-3-white-saviors

A "crusty but benign" tumor.

no look I get that he has to turn into the Terminator; by that point the audience had been so jolted in anticipation of catharsis. But it's facile, and neither the scene with the mine transporters nor the final shootout were particularly inventive in staging to deserve their inclusion.

I guess rhythmically it's a little weird to have the big shoot-out, which really feels like a climax, and then have the actual final confrontation be so low-key. But it makes sense narratively, because Django has fully emerged at that point, he's in complete control. None of these guys have a chance against him.

Also, I think the shoot-out and attendant bloodbath is the catharsis. The ending is the resolution, so everyone can go home smiling.

comforted by the thought that Django and his bride will be drawn and quartered before they reach a free state.

the final shootout is worth it for me just for how sam jackson plays it

xpost

Nah, they ride into the sunset! There's no reason to go imposing grim realism on the ending.

plus they're Shaft's grandparents or whatever

Irl Django wouldnt have gotten away clean, but hes got the quickest draw in the south and he just singlehandedly destroyed the 4th largest plantation in the state so he should be ok. the genre/wish-fulfillment aspects of django seem to clash a lot more with the authentic-seeming presentation than in Inglourious basterds - maybe because the holocaust is an offscreen horror in the latter, whereas django wants to rub our faces in slavery. and if you're thinking about the reality of slavery, you're also thinking about the reality of django trying to escape

We really feel the pathology of slavery -- how it warps basic human weaknesses like envy and ambition into evil -- in Samuel L. Jackson's perf.

yeah, nicely put. he ended up being the big surprise for me.

if you don't have AIDS throw your hands in the air

― winoa ryder sexes creatures of the night (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, June 23, 2011 5:27 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously fuck that guy

― winoa ryder sexes creatures of the night (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, June 23, 2011 5:27 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's on his first record

― winoa ryder sexes creatures of the night (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, June 23, 2011 5:33 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I didn't read this thread because spoilers. Just popping in 18 months later to point out that He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper was Fresh Prince's SECOND album.

*drops mic*

he still sucks

was Will Smith almost cast as Candie?

I was joking at the end of the movie that the Django story should have been the backstory to The Wild Wild West.

this was pretty good, not great. jamie foxx was excellent, so much better than will smith would've been (i guess it's possible that the role was re-written to play to foxx's strength at underplaying) lil' leo wasn't bad but he was asked to carry half of the movie and just wasn't up to it. i was disappointed that it wasn't tenser, I never had any doubt that the ending would be candie and thomas and candie's men massacred and candieland burnt to the ground. black kill bill. which is def entertaining but it still feels like a missed opportunity.

samuel l jackson was fun. his character felt like a massive troll of spike lee. the biggest laugh for me (but no one else in the theater) was django at the end going "ok all the black folks leave……now wait a minute thomas" as he tries to shamble out the door.

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/27/tarantino_is_the_baddest_black_filmmaker_working_today/