Django Unchained

[Swissman]

After a looooong period without visiting a cinema, a buddy an me decided to
watch Quentin Tarantinos new movie "Django Unchained". Most of the US-
movies here will be showed english spoken and with undertitles in German/French.

I was surprised that they show in this case a german-spoken version.
Normally I hate this. But because Dr. Schultz is a German and is played by the
Austrian actor Christoph Waltz (his motherlangauge is German), was it a great
show. Mr. Waltz spoke the german-version of Dr. Schultz. And he played all
other actors against the wall. Only Samuel L. Jackson comes a bit closer to
Mr. Waltz. Most of the other roles were played very good too, but Waltz set
a class of itself.

All in all it is a really great movie with a lot of funny scenes. What disturbs me
was the "overusing "of the N-word. Sometimes I felt like they wrote the lines
because the want to insert the N-word as much as possible.

I must confess that there were a lot of good changes in the cinema-facility
since my last visit of a movie (Golden Eye).

Swissman

 

[Chromedhearts]

Golden Eye? It seems this is your first cinema outing in this century.
I rarely go myself, my last one being Clint Eastwoods "Gran Torino".

 

[Harrison]

You have entered into the world through Hollywierd eyes. Old movies and old music are the best.

 

[lawandorder]

From what I have heard about it I would not waste my $ on it. Then again any money spent on most of that garbage that passes for movies these days is wasted.

 

[Blastmeister]

It was pretty good, QT's movies I find, are usually worth the price of admission.

 

[fat tom]

I haven't seen the movie. Probably wait for it to come to NetFlix. Christoph Waltz would be the main reason for me to see it. He is a superb actor!
f.t.

 

[forindooruseonly]

It's endlessly referential to a number of older spaghetti westerns, Old South mythology, over-the-top exploitation movies, ect. Classic Quentin Tarantino in that it becomes so referential that it is nearly all style and no substance.

That said, I did enjoy it. Immensely, probably because I grew up watching awful westerns and got many of the nods that QT threw in. The only other movies that QT did that I liked was the Kill Bill series, probably because of the references in it. The script was pretty brutal, the N word is used a lot. He defended it as saying the N word was used a lot in 1858, and it dang sure was.

How this translates over is a matter of personal taste. Frankly, if the liberal use of the N word was what bothered you, not the concept of "comfort girls", the brutal torturing and murder of people in bondage, the incredible gap between the luxuries and education of the plantation elite and the poor white trash that served them, the immense bloodshed in the movie from all fronts, coarse usage of all the four letter words, the utter deference displayed by most of the slaves in the movie, the constant insinuation by Southern characters that most slaves were less developed than their white counterparts, and all the other offensive things that were portrayed in the movie, I'd say you're probably overly sensitive to the use of the N word.

This movie can be hard to watch - but least of all because of the language. It is also very satisfying.

That's what gets me. This has become a bit of a controversy. In the movie, none of the "good" guys ever uses the N word outside of playing the character of a "bad" guy, just as cover. The overwhelming use of the N word was almost exclusively the domain of everything that was portrayed as monstrously evil, and QT uses the N word to show that everything in 1858 south was racist, their society was built on the subjugation of an entire race of people. Ironically, the only non-racist whites in the entire movie are the German, and the northern sheriff in the mountains.

Just my thoughts.

Finally, don't go for the expectations of anything being period-correct. It's full of anachronisms - including the firearms.

 

[Marshwheeling]

A couple of weeks ago, I added this movie to my list of favorite Westerns. I enjoyed it immensely, and my wife wanted to go back and see it again.

It was pure Tarantino, self-indulgent, full of homage to everything from Blazing Saddles to spaghetti Westerns, unabashedly derivative and loads of fun.

Tarantino has been having too much fun using the N-word for years now, and Spike Lee continues to take him to task. I guess it could be said that Tarantino lacks subtlety. So what else is new?

 

[Nico Testosteros]

It didn't seem Tarantino-Ish to me until the shoot-em-up scene in the mansion. The blood was over the top campy. Not up to Kill Bill level but I had to laugh nonetheless. I agree that Christoph Waltz stole the show. I enjoy his performances greatly.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Well, I kinda liked Leonardo and Don Johnson too. The raid scene was hilarious

 

[badguybuster]

I've been wavering on going to see it. The constant use of racial slurs annoys me tho

 

[Joewisc]

Another example of America's descent into depravity.

 

[growr]

Save your money to buy more ammo.......

 

[jkc]

Another example of America's descent into depravity.

No, you need to watch the TV "news" and daytime programming to see real examples of our descent into depravity. This is merely a movie, designed and purpose-built for its foremost and only purpose: entertainment. To ascribe anything beyond that to a Hollywood feature is to conflate film with fact, and never the twain shall meet. The film was undeniably vulgar, outlandish, anachronistic, funny, entertaining, and pointless --- of no socially redeeming value, but of no socially damaging harm.

Well, maybe if you've been raised by wolves, you may have missed that racist white people actually owned, and mistreated black people, but QT wasn't trying, I think, to inform us on these points. Moreover, any film in which a dirtbag carrying a bag of dynamite is shot and spectacularly vaporized, needs no other redemption...

 

[Swissman]

".....but Waltz sets a class of itself......"

and the Oscar goes to:

Christoph Waltz!

He deserved it so much.

Swissman

 

[Bullet Bob]

I look forward to seeing it when it comes to television. I quit going to theaters when cell phones became endemic. Darned if I'm going to pay to be that PO'd.

 

[Stephanie B]

I look forward to seeing it when it comes to television.

I imagine that you'll have to watch it by pay-per-view, Netflix or on a premium channel. I can't see it airing on basic cable without a lot of edits.

And if they edit it for broadcast, it'll be a 25 minute movie.

I enjoyed the movie.

 

[DR505]

Not a QT fan...sorry.

 

[Knightrider03m]

I liked it

 

[therevjay]

Did they "dub" in the German, or actualy shoot two versions? What about actors who can't speak German?

 

[george minze]

Q.T. Has a knack for using foul mouth words in his movies....However some of those words are every day occurances in some parts of the city...The dumbing of America.......It is a new world out there...Sort of sad....

 

[pumpedTSI]

Ummm..........its a movie....

 

[calmex]

Don Johnson rocked!!!

 

[rwsmith]

That turns me off

All in all it is a really great movie with a lot of funny scenes. What disturbs me
was the "overusing "of the N-word. Sometimes I felt like they wrote the lines
because the want to insert the N-word as much as possible.

I must confess that there were a lot of good changes in the cinema-facility
since my last visit of a movie (Golden Eye).

Swissman

It sounded interesting but that in itself is enough to turn me off. All my boy listens to in music is liberal use of the N-word along with the steady flow of obscenities. I'm surely not going to spend money to see a movie with all that in graphic detail.

 

[26Ford]

Mr Tarantino is a genius and quite a approachable man in person. He lives just minutes from both my Mother and Sister in upstate New York. His movies are not for everyone no different than work by Steven Spielberg or Francis Ford Copola.

That being said, there is a valid reason for the abuse if you will of the N word, " that's how things were!! " He wanted the movie authentic and it justifies the 270 or so times the word was used. He told us how some of the actors had to practice and even had some difficulty using the word, until they understood why. He was not trying for a award in shock and awe, or any other underlying reason but to repeat history as it truly was while telling a story in a way only Mr Tarantino could tell.

 

[26Ford]

I would also like to add, that a few weeks ago I trined in a gym where I was clearly the only Non African American there. For the hour and a hlaf, approximately the same duration of Mr Tarantinos movie, if I had a dollar for every time I heard the N word played on music? over the sound system, I could buy this whole web site, and the gym.