The much talked about Quentin Tarantino helmed Django Unchained arrived in theaters today.
With the help of his mentor, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
Though you are still probably filled with holiday cheer, we want your honest opinion of the movie. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Why? Make it deep and meaningful down in the comment section, and don’t let that little spoiler about Shaft shade your view of the flick.
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
3 Comments
Went and saw Django this afternoon and after some thought, I think this is my least favorite Tarantino flick. Not because of the acting (Christoph Waltz is amazing yet again) or the dialogue, but because of the way he handles the subject matter. I am a big fan of Tarantino and have watched all his movies multiple times. This is the first time I have seen one of his films and it made me uncomfortable. As usual the film is over the top gory in some scenes and typically this would not bother me, I really enjoyed the Kill Bill movies and Dusk till Dawn. Yet when comic book style violence and posturing is applied to such a vile subject matter it seems to devalue the material. This could be due to the culture we have here in the US, as most of the time in the media we are hyper sensitive to anything that is perceived as racially charged. Never in a million years would I think I would remotely agree with Spike Lee, but like him I found it disrespectful. That and I could have gone my entire life without seeing a full frontal shot and a taint shot of Jamie Foxx’s junk. I wouldn’t day its a bad movie, just not one that I enjoyed. I really wanted to like Django if for no other reason than the cast attached to the film but alas I left the theater with a bad taste in my mouth.
On a side note I was a bit distracted by the group of adults who had the genius idea to bring a 7 year old to a Tarantino film. Much like Bruce Banner I had to control my rage and keep myself from giving them a verbal smashing.
I understand your reactions, especially with a seven year old in the theater. (I had a five year old sitting behind me).
But I think that the problem is not with the film itself but with how we as the audience reacted to it. We apply our outrage at the portrayal of slavery but in all honesty. slavery was horrific and there is no way to candy coat it.
I applaud Tarantino for not white washing the subject and showing it for its true horror.
Slavery is horrific and he did not candy coat it. Its when you take that subject matter and pair it with the style of movie that Tarantino does that I found distasteful. I felt like I was watching Kill Bill or Dusk Till Dawn (both awesome) and that it didn’t give the movie its proper gravitas. There are movies that show how vile slavery was like Color Purple or Amistad but those movies have a very different tone than what Tarantino did. Its like if someone tried to do a wacky comedy about 9/11. The jokes could be hilarious, but a lot of people would take offense to that topic being handled so inelegantly. I have no problem with people enjoying the movie, it just wasn’t for me.