Nothing better than Saturday night at the cinema,
glued to my seat viewing splattering body parts in Candie Land. If you haven’t
yet seen the film then maybe you shouldn’t read this; it may contain a few
*SPOILERS*.Every story has been told, but it’s the way you tell the story that makes the difference. A delicate theme such as slavery is definitely dealt with differently in Tarantino’s film Django Unchained and he never fails to provide his work with violence and black humour. There has been a huge debate regarding both the theme and (obviously) the violence; first of all, there is a great controversy from director Spike Lee who states that he will not watch it because “it’s disrespectful to my ancestors.” I can understand his disapproval and can’t imagine what slaves had to go through in those days…just as the Jews during the Holocaust. This is defiantly not the first film which reviews the discourse of slavery or blaxploitation, some explore the matter but attempting to create a ‘heroic’ image/icon of Afro-Americans; see for example Red Tails by George Lucas. When I first saw it, I thought: why don’t they talk about this during history class?
Tarantino claims that he had always wanted to produce
a western and approach matters that have ‘haunted’ American history: “I want to do movies that deal with
America’s horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti
westerns, not like big issue movies”. I’m not very fond of westerns myself but
this innovative approach mixed with “Tarantino’s touch”, the violence and humor
was intriguing and kept me fixed to my seat! The blood and gore were a bit
extreme in certain parts, as the Mandingo fighting or D’Artagnan wrenched to
shreds, but also possessed a twisted-surrealistic humor, as the shoot out in
Calvin Candie’s house. It presents us with accurate, interesting and horrifying
facts… Tarantino did his research. One
of the most striking moments of black humor, I would say, is the ridiculous
discussion between the white masters deciding whether they should keep the
white bags over their heads even though it was difficult to see; mocking the
embodiment of the KKK. An alternative element can be the slave plantation
called Candie Land, very unusual and not really fitting the description. 
I was also
intrigued by the pattern I found between Django
Unchained and Inglorious Bastards; there
is a certain role exchange between the two dominant nations. In Django, the
Americans are perceived as ‘the bad guys’ while Dr. Schultz, the German,
develops a sense of compassion for the slaves. In Inglorious Bastards, the American’s fight in favor of the Jews. “The
enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
The movie presents two types of
violence: 1) Django’s pay back and 2) the violence of the time. Recently a
reporter tried to tackle the matter directly with Tarantino but with little
success. It’s an ongoing debate that of violence in various mediums, performing
a negative impact on society. I don’t agree. I watch violent films, play
violent games…and I’m scared to kill a tiny spider. As director Oliver Stone
affirms: “it was not films that influence people but instead ‘perhaps a
negligent or abusive upbringing, combined with defect in their psyches…”. Some films
simply portray facts, what MANKIND has done in history and is still doing; no
filmmaker told a nation to conduct slavery, impose the holocaust or go to war.
Overall, I
enjoyed the film and had some good laughs; it is a clever mix-match of
cinematic elements, ‘cracky’ dialogue and nifty soundtrack… although, I was
tempted to use some ‘Django tactics’ on a spectator messing with their phone
during the film.
Clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O34Vf50sPQ - “I like the way you die boy”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrsJDy8VjZk - “I’m shutting your butt down!”
AG
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