So, Django Unchained. This is pronounced, 'Jango Unchained'. Up until a few days ago, I called it 'De-jango'. It was very embarrassing. Like all Tarantino's films, this will no doubt have a massive pop culture following. It's cool and very well done, dealing with the difficult topic of slavery, but so much unnecessary violence. De-join me in having a look (hehe).
Beginning- Goodbye poor horse, WESTERN!
It is 1858, 2 years before the beginning of the Civil War. The film opens with some bright red Flintstone-esque font, with some slaves walking in the background in chains. There is a good original song playing in the background. The music is well done in this film. Camera skips, Django is marching with his fellow slaves through a wood. It is all very eery. A horse driven cart with a giant tooth on it approaches. The slave owner looks pissed off. It's Harry from Dexter! Hey you! The guy in the cart starts speaking. He sounds exactly like John Malkovich. He is called 'King Schultz'. He wants to buy Django. Harry won't sell Django. King shoots a horse in the head, and Harry in the head. First bit of over the top blood squirting and violence! Whoop! King frees Django, and tells the other slaves they can either kill their master, who is trapped beneath the cruelly murdered horse, or take him to a doctor. That man gonna die! He does, he is shot in the head as well.
Django and King arrive in a cowboy town. I forgot this film was a Western! WESTERN! Saloons, saloon doors, cowboy hats, sheriffs. King is wearing a coat that makes him look like an armadillo:
There is a lot of, 'Why is that n**** on a horse?' King reveals he is a bounty hunter. He shoots a sheriff. He reveals to the town that he killed him because the sheriff was a wanted criminal with a fake name, and has the documents to prove it. HA! The town owes him $200. Django and King are talking later in a very rocky hide out. FLASHBACK. Django is married to a beautiful girl called 'Broomhilda', but she is being whipped and he is wearing a horrible slave mask. A man in very 20th century looking bright yellow glasses is mean to him. Did those sunglasses really exist in the Wild West?
Dandy blue suit
King needs Django to point out three brothers with a bounty on their heads. Django gets to pick his own outfit. He picks a very attention seeking one:
King and Django arrive at a very beautiful pastel plantation in Tennessee with all these floating ethereal trees and white flowers. These trees are a big feature in the film, get used to them. Django goes with King to find the three brothers. There are more violent flashbacks of Django and his wife trying to run away. He finds the brothers. He kills the brothers.
He says, ‘I like the way you die boy’, which is cool. King does his sneaky bounty contract move. I can see this failing at some point, I certainly won't be trying it myself.
The dentist
cart is in a valley, which is approached by a bunch of men riding ferociously
on horses. It is all very 'Gandalf and the riders of Rohan saving the day' in Lord of the Rings,
The Two Towers, only with racists not saving the day with bags on their heads. Oh, Jonah Hill is there! They have a conversation about the bags. The men get blown up and shot at by King and Django. King says if Django bounty hunts with him all winter, they will go and rescue Django's wife. Does Django like
being a bounty hunter? ‘Kill white folks and get paid for it. What’s not to
like?’. I know many critics have complained about how much this movie likes
killing white people, but I don’t have time to form an opinion because LORD OF
THE RINGS SCENE AGAIN! They are basically in Middle Earth, riding towards Gondor.
King and Django travel
through the snow and collect bounties. Django practises on a snowman, which is
a very cool shot and I can imagine being made into some kind of graffiti later on, like Pulp Fiction and the banana. King has a
nice chinchilla coat, I like it better than the armadillo coat. They travel to Mississippi and find ‘Calvin Candie’, owner of ‘Candyland’, bought Broomhilda. This just reminds me of Willy Wonka, the creepiest children's character invented. Apparently Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) likes to be called ‘Monsieur’, but
he can’t speak French. I get the feeling he is going to be a total dandy. Yep, he is
dressed like a dandy. Candie is watching two slaves wrestle ('Mandingo' wrestling) in front of the fire,
and who is also watching? HARRY! HARRY IS BACK! But he got shot in the head! Some
people think this is a hark back to the spaghetti western tradition where an
actor played two roles due to lack of funding Some think, because he got shot in
the head and is wearing a hat but there was a sign saying ‘no hats’, he somehow
survived but has no top of his head? I think it’s probably the first reason, there are a lot of clever
references to Westerns in here. Oh god, violent Mandingo fight, broken arm, eyes
taken out, can’t watch, try to watch on silent, can’t watch, skip forward to end. They are in the ‘Julius Caesar’ room, which is clever, as gladiator
fighting, etc. Someone asks Django what his name is and how to spell it. 'Django, the 'D' is silent'. That line is on the film advertising poster. Candy is drinking a fancy coconut drink.
He agrees to see them
about King buying a Mandingo fighter, which is actually a ruse to buy Broomhilda- they will buy the fighter for $12,000, get Broomhilda for way less, then run away without the fighter and signing the contract. They go to Candyland.
Candyland, with sunglasses and Hamlet
Everyone is riding to Candyland. Django is wearing John Lennon glasses. Did the Wild West have its own hippy movement in the 19th century I don't know about? I DON’T UNDERSTAND
THE SUNGLASSES IN THIS FILM.
Django imagines he sees Broomhilda. I love the visions in this film, they show how much he loves her and is thinking about her. There is some rap music. There is a slave up a tree surrounded by dogs. Uh oh.
Candie gets all sassy with the slave. King, because he is adorable and kind,
tries to buy the slave. Django says, nope. Wow, douche bag. Candie lets the dogs rip up the
slave. Fast forward. Candie is watching Django closely. Leo has always reminded me of Puss
in Boots, he looks like a little cat. They arrive at the fancy plantation. The ethereal trees are floating around. This movie isn't as colourful as Tarantino's other films, and I think he is trying to contrast the pastel, beautiful landscape with the horrific violence and cruelty of slavery, as symbolized by this shot:
It works. Samuel L Jackson emerges from the house as a slave called 'Steven' with very white eyebrows. He is not a happy little bunny. He clearly adores Candie and has a long history in the family, as 'yo daddy would be rolling in his grave!' to see Django on a horse. What an odd slave, maybe he has Stockholm syndrome? I sense he is evil. King asks if they have any slaves who speak German (Broomhilda can speak German), and they reveal she is locked in a box. Django looks distraught. She is released from the box. Candie's sister, a female dandy if ever there was one, comes waltzing down and kisses Candie on the lips. Oh god, weird sister brother relationship. King informs Broomhilda of the plot in German. Django reveals himself. Broomhilda faints. King says, 'you silver tongued devil you'. I LOVE HIM. They all go to a dinner party. Steven correctly deduces Broomhilda knows Django, because they are not being subtle at all, keep staring at each other, and have matching 'r' scars from when they ran away together. He tells Candie he has been tricked. Candie goes cray. He re-emerges wearing eyeliner, and starts babbling on in a very racist way, holding a skull.
To be, or not to be? To wear eyeliner, or not wear eyeliner?
He demands 'the man with the exceptional beard' pay $12,000 for Broomhilda. King agrees, because he is a lovely man. When Candie is signing the contract, King has flashbacks about the slave ripped apart by dogs. My violence limit is being reached. It shows how much it all effects King, like Django's vision of Broomhilda. King gets all sassy with Candie. Candie demands they shake hands. King shoots him. He then says, 'I couldn't resist', and lets another man shoot him. GOODBYE KING I LOVE YOU!
Violence limit reached
Django tries to kill everyone. There is a shoot out in the plantation house, very much like in Kill Bill where she kills the crazy 88. So. Much. Blood. I feel sick. This is horrible. Fast forward. I'm not sure I can carry on watching. It's fine in Kill Bill with the samurai swords because it is so exaggerated it is funny, but this is breaking bones and plucked out eyes and horrible gun shot wounds and so much blood and gore everywhere and urgh. It basically looks like this:
I get how the cruelty towards the slaves is necessary to show the brutal history realistically, but this shoot out is like that stupid bit in Inglorious Basterds with the hammer and the Jew hunter, which also traumatized me. Anyway, Samuel holds Broomhilda hostages and Django drops his guns. Django is tortued. I can't watch. Fast forward. He is taken to the mines to be worked to death, and Broomhilda is taken to be a sex slave. Django shows the slave drivers his bounty hunter contract, and tricks them that there are some criminals with a high price on them back at the plantation. When they free him, he kills the slaves and steals their dynamite. He returns to Candyland in a fancy purple and gold suit. Always with the showy suits, this one. He kills everyone, including the creepy sister, and evil Steven (which reminds me of Even Stevens, which is so much easier to watch than this, because no one gets their bones slowly broken on camera). Django puts on his John Lennon sunglasses and blows up Candyland. What a cool cat. Django approaches Broomhilda, and makes his pony do some cool prancey tricks. He says, 'hey little trouble maker'. The pony is spinning around in circles. The pony is taking prancey steps. The pony seems as much as a show off as its owner, I bet if it could pick a suit it would pick a bright blue one with a fancy collar as well. There is a flashback to King (yey!) in the snow, saying, 'they will call you the fastest gun in the south'. WESTERN! Shot switches back to the burning Candyland. THE END.
Summary
I liked a lot of things about this movie. The flashbacks, the visions, the shots in general, the beautiful landscape, good acting, the music. But I don't think I'll ever be able to watch it again because, TOO MUCH. Maybe that's just me being a massive sissy, maybe not.
No comments:
Post a Comment