I'll preface this by saying that I'm not generally a shoot-em-up, Tarantino-type fan. In fact, the only other Tarantino film I've ever seen is Pulp Fiction, and while I didn't hate it, I also didn't really get what all the fuss was about. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson have funny hair? There's a sex gimp? Yay?
This isn't to say that I have anything AGAINST ultra-violent movies, per se. I'm not appalled by superfluous exploding blood packets or bareknuckle fistfights or anything. It's just that the movies have to have some sort of interesting story behind them. For example, two of my favorite movies are The Departed and Four Brothers - extremely violent, everyone-must-die gore-fests that totally drew me in with interesting stories and characters (although it's possible that at least 40% of the reason I like those movies is because of their good vibrations).
And that's where the divide between Django Unchained and Pulp Fiction occurs for me, and apparently for the Golden Globe- and Oscar-voting audience. Pulp Fiction was disjointed and weird and the prize everyone coveted was some mysterious gold-glowing suitcase that we never saw. Django has one awesome story, a bunch of awesome characters, and an actual substantial goal in mind: sweet, sweet revenge in the form of a sawed-off shotgun.
For those new to the game, Django starts with King Schultz, a dentist-turned-bounty hunter in the 1858 south. Schultz is hunting three brothers who work as slave overseers at plantations and seeks out a specific slave named Django to help him out (since he knows what they look like). Schultz is anti-slavery and approaches Django as a deal. The pair immediately click, joining forces to take on the various southern baddies who are wanted dead or alive (mostly dead). But the ultimate goal is to find the plantation where Django's wife, Broomhilda, was sent and freeing her.
That leads them to Candie Land, a bizarre funhouse of slave torture run by Calvin Candie. In this corner, we have a brothel full of good-time slave women. In that corner, Mandingo fighting (where two slaves fight to the death with their bare hands). Over there, a runaway punished by being torn apart by vicious dogs. (The latter two supplied two of the goriest, eye-coveriest scenes I've ever witnessed.)
I won't ruin the end for you but I will make these general points about the last hour or so of the movie. 1) Samuel L. Jackson's character might be the worst one of all, considering where his loyalties are, and Jackson does a delightful job in making such a horrific person. That is, until 2) he ends the movie by just being Samuel L. Jackson. Which is fun, too. 3) It must have been a weird role for Kerry Washington (Broomhilda), who spent probably 85% of her screen time being whipped, being hit, being chained, screaming, crying, and requiring rescue. While there's debate over what this movie means in terms of race, there's no debate over gender issues: this woman is a Damsel in Distress requiring some Big Strong Men to Save Her.
Generally, that might bother me, but this movie was too fun, even considering I had to watch a decent portion through my fingers. Plus, Tarantino made great pains to portray this as an old-timey Western, stylizing everything from the original music to the credits, and a woman's role in that kind of movie was to be saved.
Moreso than Tarantino's writing and directing, what really made the movie was the acting performances. Christoph Waltz won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and I can see why. He's absolutely fantastic. And so are Jamie Foxx as Django and Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie. Even Jackson is kind of awesome even though you spend most of the movie wanting to grab the shotgun out of Django's hand and shoot the guy yourself.
Django Unchained is up for Best Picture, Tarantino and Waltz could double up their awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. I think the best chance they have to win is Waltz, although I wonder if the Academy will be more impressed by some of the other pedigrees (Robert DeNiro, Tommy Lee Jones, Alan Arkin). Tarantino also has a decent shot, although my heart lives with Wes Anderson and Moonrise Kingdom.
Here is my updated list of Oscar movies to see:
Les Miserables
Zero Dark Thirty
Life of Pi
The Master
Flight
The Impossible
The Sessions
Frankenweenie
Wreck-It Ralph
ParaNorman
Brave
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
5 Broken Cameras
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
The Invisible War
Searching for Sugarman
No comments:
Post a Comment