Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)

[Spinal]

Shit. I made my first big mistake as mod.

I was quoting number8, and instead edited his message.

Sorry about that...

Umm... 8, care to repost, and I'll quote?

:embarassed:

Heh. I remember the days when I did that.

[Raiders]

There, I split the posts. We actually do that quite frequently.

[number8]

I just read the first issue of the comic. I laughed a few times. Can't wait to see this tomorrow.

[D_Davis]

I don't know what changed in me, but I now have absolutely no desire whatsoever to see this movie. It went from my most anticipated film of the year, to I don't care if I ever see it. I've been trying to figure it out, but I can't put my finger it.

Is it black, is it white?
Is it really out of sight?
I can't put my finger on it.
da-da-da

[baby doll]

I feel like IB had the same worry with the multiple languages and oddity of it all. It became Tarantino's most successful movie.

According to Box Office Mojo, that's not unambiguously true. If you go by domestic figures adjusted for inflation, Pulp Fiction is still his most successful movie. On the other hand, Inglourious Basterds made most of its money abroad (in contrast with Pulp Fiction, where it's a fifty-fifty split), and the worldwide figures aren't unadjusted for inflation, so actually there's really no way of telling which film was more successful.

Oddly enough, even adjusting for inflation, Reservoir Dogs made less money in its US theatrical run than Four Rooms.

[Pop Trash]

Oddly enough, even adjusting for inflation, Reservoir Dogs made less money in its US theatrical run than Four Rooms.

Yeah, as popular as it is now, it's easy to forget that Res Dogs only found its cult following after it came out on video (similar to Donnie Darko, Office Space, and Repo Man.)

[Ezee E]

I don't know what changed in me, but I now have absolutely no desire whatsoever to see this movie. It went from my most anticipated film of the year, to I don't care if I ever see it. I've been trying to figure it out, but I can't put my finger it.

Is it black, is it white?
Is it really out of sight?
I can't put my finger on it.
da-da-da

Hatemonger.

[MadMan]

Fuck you.

[D_Davis]

Hatemonger.

Actually, it's probably because I'm really racist.

[baby doll]

Actually, it's probably because I'm really racist.

I don't like people from Luxembourg. I'm just being real.

[Bosco B Thug]

A modest success. This is Tarantino making the piece of entertainment he's always wanted to make - so, knowing Tarantino's taste, this is an artistic disappointment. It's totally not a tonal piece or thematic work. It's an honest-to-god popcorn exploitation flick. Tarantino is in Kill Bill mode here - busy, busy filmmaking, trying to channel the energies and capriciousness of the real filmmaking of olde - but without Kill Bill's scope, tonal exquisiteness, or focus.

He tries his absolute damndest to make every minute come straight from the 70's or 90's (and I love it - it doesn't result in a masterwork, but I love it). Augmenting the 70's filmmaking joie de vivre with the scrappy 1990's sense of narrative propulsion results in Django Unchained - a dumb grindhouse flick, but an intelligent and audacious one... which is the way one wants to describe those 70's pieces of detritus worth remembering (or dated 90's slogs worth remembering). Well done, Quentin, you've realized your dream with your weakest, clearly most slapdash picture. Had a great time, though - the screenplay is full of high points and some fascinating returns.

[plain]

Django plays like a FAR less cohesive B-side to Basterds' measured brilliance; it's never dull, but perhaps QT's emptiest. It's everything you're hoping it is and everything you're fearing as well. Waltz and Sam Jackson steal the thing.

[Mysterious Dude]

I noticed Ted Neeley's name in the credits. I didn't recognize him in the movie. He is still the best Jesus.

[Bosco B Thug]

Django plays like a FAR less cohesive B-side to Basterds' measured brilliance; it's never dull, but perhaps QT's emptiest. It's everything you're hoping it is and everything you're fearing as well. Waltz and Sam Jackson steal the thing.

Jackson for sure. DiCaprio handled himself very finely, too, I thought. You all were right - you can just tell Foxx is a rather limited actor, but he's entirely suited to the role given him, and his sideline performance - along with Kerry Washington's as Broomhilda - nicely makes them the sole "real people" amidst a bunch of white person grotesques. Their completely passive role in the first climax is the film's biggest stroke of brilliance for me.

[plain]

Could have sworn QT was one of the KKK members, anyone else recognize hs voice?

[Bosco B Thug]

Could have sworn QT was one of the KKK members, anyone else recognize hs voice?

Didn't occur to me, but I dunno.

That was a baaad scene, btw. More so in execution and performance, though why Tarantino let it go on and on to a groan-worthy point is beyond me.

[plain]

Would agree. Anyone else slightly turned off by the zooms?

[Bosco B Thug]

Would agree. Anyone else slightly turned off by the zooms?

Yes. It's what sends off the signal that Tarantino's main prerogative here is to make a 70's B-movie, a film to be taken seriously be damned. Yes, there are so many in the beginning.

[TGM]

This movie was freaking nuts. Had a blast with it!

[Pop Trash]

I have a feeling this is going to bomb big time. The toxic combination of a violent movie about slavery being released on Christmas Day (good plan there Weinsteins?!), the Connecticut shooting, plus deflating buzz is just not going to work, but we shall see...

I might eat crow here since the show I saw was nearly sold out on a Wednesday afternoon and the crowd was vocally into it by the end (one older guy behind me mentioning he liked it better than Pulp Fiction) so the word-of-mouth should be pretty great.

Anyways, really liked it, better than I expected. It has the usual Tarantino trademarks of being simultaneously funny, disturbing, interesting, politically incorrect, brutally violent, and crowd pleasing often in the same scene. It also seems to be a big 'fuck you' to anyone who wants to recontextualize 'south-will-rise-again' Cracker Barrel-esque Americana as warm and fuzzy. Like Basterds Tarantino understands the power of films to create an image we have of history and fills in a new image for that historie(s) du cinema.

Don't really get Boner's complaint that since Django takes place pre-cinema, something is lost from Basterds timeframe. This is about our memory of American History via The Western Movie just as much as it is about actual American History. I thought the use of hip-hop as a timeless expression of Black Male Empowerment makes just as much sense as Robert Altman's anachronistic use of Leonard Cohen as sad bastard folky tragic cowboy music.

[

Show Spoiler

I will nitpick and say the final act seemed redundant, and unless I'm missing something, could have easily been woven in to Leonard DiCaprio's (who is great btw) demise as the grand finale shootout. Not sure why we needed to see Django escape then come back to Candyland. I feel like that all could be one long epic Wild Bunch-esque finale and cut the running time down by 15 or so minutes.

]

[Boner M]

Don't really get Boner's complaint that since Django takes place pre-cinema, something is lost from Basterds timeframe.

Huh?

[Pop Trash]

Still processing my disappointment (although the trailers didn't do much for me). Is it the fact that QT's characters can't possibly be into movies this time the reason why the film feels, for the most part, so slack and disengaged? Possibly. It works best as a broad comedy.

Isn't this what you are saying? That the characters can't be tied into cinematic pop culture since cinema didn't exist in the 1850s? So Tarantino's 'thing' feels disengaged as compared to Basterds (where the main character is a total cinephile)?

[Boner M]

Ah yes, sorta. Your prior sentence just seemed like a misreading.

[number8]

This made my Christmas. Certainly Tarantino's simplest narrative, but incredibly satisfying. It's like he distilled the essence of shooting Hitler in the face and stretched it out to 3 hours.

[Grouchy]

Doesn't open here until January 31st. Fucking sonsofbitches.