Django Unchained

Wedge Antilles said:

I'm not a big fan of Tarantino but I did like this movie. Isn't one of Tarantino's trademarks the Mexican standoff? There wasn't one in this movie was there? I don't remember seeing one.

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He's not obliged to include any of his trademarks, but I'd also argue that there's a clear gesture towards such a standoff in the scene following the lengthy dining room sequence.

Honestly, after the brilliance that was Inglorious Basterds, this seemed fairly predictable fare as far as QT goes. It was a bit better than the trailers made it appear, but not by enough. And if I may say so, the hilarity of Tarantino's cavalier usage of a certain racial epithet has finally worn itself out completely by the end of this film.

Me said:

Don't forget to scoop up your Django Unchained action figures before they're pulled from store shelves due to controversy

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Well, if you didn't opt to pick them up last time then you're... well, 'ish out of luck. The Los Angeles Times is now reporting that the Weinstein Company has asked NECA to discontinue the figures/dolls/whatever in light of the (completely manufactured) controversy that "trivializes" and "makes light of" the horrors of slavery.

Now, in a wonderful bit of free-market capitalism, you can have one if you have a couple of thousand dollars lying around. Or, if you're more budget conscious, then this auction has all eight figures for about two grand... for now.

Broomhilda seems to be going for several thousand bucks, but the others are currently only asking for a few hundred.

Still haven't seen the movie either. I'm just glad I can finally reenact slavery in the privacy of my home.

I honestly did not think the movie was that great. It only started to get good about halfway through...

Le Saboteur said:

Well, if you didn't opt to pick them up last time then you're... well, 'ish out of luck. The Los Angeles Times is now reporting that the Weinstein Company has asked NECA to discontinue the figures/dolls/whatever in light of the (completely manufactured) controversy that "trivializes" and "makes light of" the horrors of slavery.

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I just read on OneSixthWarriors that a set of those NECA figures just sold on Ebay for $2,700!


http://www.onesixthwarriors.com/for...ssion/646131-enterbay-django-unchained-6.html

So I finally just watched this film and this is my initial thought...

There are a handful of movies I have in a certain category,
and that category happens to be films where the screenplay was just as (if not more) enjoyable as the movie.
Django Unchained, for me, is there.

In fact I'll go ahead and say that I like the script a bit more than the film.
Believe it or not I also put the original Lethal Weapon in this category.
I love Lethal Weapon, I mean a lot...
so for me to tell you that reading the script by Shane Black is just as good if not better than watching the film, then you know you have a great vivid writer.
and Shane Black was certainly that.

So that's how I feel initially.

Haven't seen the film yet but I keep up to date with sixth scale action figure releases.

Appears Enterbay has been forced to cancel their line of figures over the issue of racism in the movie. So that's a lot of development money gone down the drain for them.

Not that I was ever going to buy them, but it's another sign of a politically correct world gone crazy.

Never mind, collectors can still buy 1/6 scale figures of Hitler, Goebbels, Göring et al, if they wish. (Not that I wish to see their ugly mugs on my shelves!)


So, what is so heinously terrible in Django Unchained?

I knew very little about the film before seeing it, beyond the facts that Django was a black slave and that there was controversy enough to pull toys from shelves...before they even got to the shelves.

I think the real controversy was that Tarantino was remarkably honest with his portrayals.

The first indication of such was the moment Schultz shot the horse. Too few horses get targeted in westerns, let alone any genre of film. How many Indians have chased stagecoaches for miles on end when they could simply have shot one horse instead?

Another case in point was the moment Django decided to let the slave be torn apart by dogs. A human reaction, rather than a typically heroic one, to a hopeless situation in which all he really cared about was rescuing his wife.

Typical Tarantino elements blend seamlessly with the honest realities. Faded, worn out Grindhouse flashbacks; unusual music choices; spurting blood; humour and irony. And naturally the spaghetti western styles and music that have influenced him before.

Where is the controversy? The amoral revenge? What else could he do but destroy Candyland? It always bugs me in westerns when an enemy is allowed to live, because they always come back with murderous intent.

Django Unchained has the spaghetti western sensibilities that set the genre apart from most Hollywood westerns of the '60s and early '70s.

Montana Smith said:

Where is the controversy? The amoral revenge? What else could he do but destroy Candyland? It always bugs me in westerns when an enemy is allowed to live, because they always come back with murderous intent.

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Tarantino may just be the only filmmaker who can get away with so many n-words in a movie without me being offended or finding the director insensitive. I usually find the word very repulsive, but one of Tarantino's magical gifts is the power to take something like that and almost make it feel normal, given the film's context and setting. For me, Tarantino is living proof that there is absolutely nothing wrong with "self-interest filmmaking", as long as it's done well and has a unique feel all its own.

For all our white-hot angry disagreements, Smiffy, at least we agree that Quentin Tarantino is a true artist of the insane mixed with awesome.

kongisking said:

Tarantino may just be the only filmmaker who can get away with so many n-words in a movie without me being offended or finding the director insensitive. I usually find the word very repulsive, but one of Tarantino's magical gifts is the power to take something like that and almost make it feel normal, given the film's context and setting. For me, Tarantino is living proof that there is absolutely nothing wrong with "self-interest filmmaking", as long as it's done well and has a unique feel all its own.

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Indeed. After the first few mentions they become a normal part of conversation, because they would have been a normal part of conversation when differences in race were openly expressed in terms of power relationships.

Consider Joseph Conrad's novella of 1897, The Nigger of the 'Narcissus': A Tale of the Sea. It's interesting to note that the first American edition was retitled The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle, probably because the topic of slavery was a more recent memory than it was in Britain.

I liked the antithesis between the totally non-conformist Django, and the overly conforming Stephen who had eked out the best possible existence through ingratiating himself with Candie.

Schultz was a very likeable character - the balancing point between the opposing worlds - in spite of him committing the taboo of equicide so early on!

kongisking said:

For all our white-hot angry disagreements, Smiffy, at least we agree that Quentin Tarantino is a true artist of the insane mixed with awesome.

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Montana Smith said:

- in spite of him committing the taboo of equicide so early on!

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That's how I'll retire from this place, should I ever feel the need.