Django Unchained

[Fat1Fared]

My god, this film was fantastic. It has been a long, long time since I have seen a film that I was sad to see end; which is made all the more impressive when one considers that this film runs at almost 3 hours long. This is Tarantino's best film since Pulp Fiction.

This is the film that Inglorious Bastards wanted to be. A dark and humorous look at sick part of human history. While I realise that IBs is a very popular film, I personally thought it was just sick, trite and at time downright repugnant. So, why could I accept this film, heck why I did love this film, when I hated IBs. Well, the simple answer is that both this films want to ridicule the stupidity of those who instigated some of histories darkest and most sadistic pages, but IBs failed to say why it wished to do this. Django say why, [ the scene when you are forced to watch those two men fight each other to the death while everyone else just laughes and dances about should be enough to make anyone's turn stomach turn. Or when you are force to listen Mr Candy's self-vindicating tripe about why 'black's are sub-human is truly sickening when one realises that even today people believe these things) ] By not shying away from why this part of history is so 'wrong', the film does not become exploitative, even when there are silly or humorous scenes. I mean in both films there were some very silly moments [ (the masks' scene in Django Unchained, and the Bear scene in IBs) ], but while IBs just came off as distasteful and heck, in my opinion, exploitative, due to its shying away from the harsh realities of the subject matter. I felt Django actually did what it set out to do, make an entertaining and even at times funny Western, while still making some very serious points.

Another thing this movie had, which many of Tarantino's other recent releases have lacked, is a fantastic sound track and some wonderful cinematography. This was at times visually stunning, while at others very dark and gritty. In addition, it sounded great with the music's sharp and almost jarring stops really forcing you to hear the more grim sound-affects.

PS Jamie Foxx deserves real credit for taking what could have been a very dull character and making fun enough to be likable, without so over the top as to loss his purpose within the plot. I also like the greyness of this character. I like the fact that it takes the White Knight (no pun intended) myth to dark areas, IE [ our White Knight is so determined to get his princess that he is willing to let a man be eaten by dogs to get her. ] Christoph Waltz is awesome as always and takes what could have been an over-the-top, hammy character and makes him charismatic and likable by taking Tarantino's ability to write dull things in enigmatic way and turns it into a human personification.

I realise that this film will not be for everyone, but to me, it is already one of my favourite films.

[ Before someone says anything, I know this is not historically acute and things like Mandingo fighting is historically contentious at best. ]

[DeliciousMuffin]

Being a white southern guy, some of the slavery stuff really made me cringe. But it was a really awesome movie, one of Tarantino's better films. I still like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds better, but Django wasn't behind by much.

Also, props to the soundtrack.

[CELTIC]

Film of the year by miles!

[killshot]

I haven't seen this one yet, but whats with the hate for Inglorious Basterds? The dialog was great, Hans Landa was one of the best villains I've ever seen, and there are several memorable scenes throughout the movie. The exploitation was so over the top I don't see why anyone would be offended. It was clearly intended to be a parody of exploitation films. Most importantly, its a damn fun movie to watch.

No one ever talks about Tarantino's best film though. [ Jackie Brown ]