Django Unchained

RED BLOOD SPRAYS THE WHITE COTTON

-Taken from page 34 of Django Unchained-

Do. It. Ever.

Let’s take a step back. A couple of weeks ago it was announced that Tarantino’s new film would be Django Unchained and it would star Franco Nero. I seem to recall my reaction was somewhere along the lines of…

(Courtesy Surrealist Obits)

Then it was announced that the film would take place in the American South, Nero wouldn’t be playing THE Django and the reviews of the script were mixed. I was still intrigued. But wasn’t exactly on “Bring That” levels of enthusiam.

Now having blasted the Ennio and read Django Unchained for myself, where am I on the spectrum?

You best believe it baby.

It has been suggested that Django Unchained is uncommericial. That is unevenly paced. Slow and talky. It has been suggested that the American Public will not happily munch popcorn whilst watching.

I’d suggest that the people who have suggested this are on crack.

This is a pure epic action film from start to finish. There may be nothing here on the level of The House Of Blue Leaves big, but it is certainly larger in scale than anything in Inglorious Basterds or even Death Proof. Those who dismiss Tarantino’s last two films as a boring talkfests (poor dumb bastards) will find a lot to love here. There are moments that are strikingly, instantly iconic, shots described that leap off the page and sear themselves into your brain. If Tarantino can get this script made it might be a damn miracle. But the results will be worth it.

Because make no mistake Django Unchained may well be uncommericial, but if it is uncommericial it’s because it holds a fun house mirror up to America’s great sin. It takes what has heretofore been treated with prestige picture solemnity and makes it lurid, ugly, pulp. This may piss more than a few people off. I expect that this movie will make the “controversy” around Basterds look like negligible. I applaud it. Cruelty and evil are not prestigious, they are not stately. They’re absurd, ugly and squalid. Tarantino has tapped into that with a vengeance. Beneath all the shock value, beneath the exploitation, Django Unchained is a movie that draws blood.

There are a few things to note. Not too many I don’t want to give anything away. Waltz as some have suggested is basically playing a version of Hans Landa who you don’t have to feel bad about liking. For another parts of the script are played broad. Broader than anything else in Tarantino’s canon by far. One sequence in particular which examines the logistics of a particularly potent piece of Spaghetti Western Iconography (just what I will not spoil) would be right at home in a Mel Brooks movie.

Still these are minor problems. As a whole Django Unchained could actually could be a crazed bastard of a masterpiece. It’s a long rode from the page to the multiplex. Especially with material as controversial as this. But I’ll be rooting for Django to make it.