(For Day 12 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem related to a tall tale, so I borrowed a certain larger-than-life character from Tarantino.)

Now hear the tale of Django, who was once a lowly slave,
But given chance and some romance, he rose as from a grave.

His finger was born itchy, and his bullets ne’er ran dry,
And eye for eye meant nothing once his foe could not reply.

The white folks watched their words whenever Django wandered free,
And when an N was uttered, they were dead before the G.

The hooded ones who lived off fear, of Django were afraid;
And if a hundred gathered, ninety-nine would flee for aid.

They tried to hang him once, believing numbers were the key,
But Django fought and with one shot, felled them and then the tree.

He was villain to the villains; he was vengeance none would dare.
His story isn’t history, but Django wouldn’t care.
_________________________

MPA rating:  R (for very good reason)

This was definitely out of character for me. While I did previously review Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (because it was part of a 2019 Best Picture nominee marathon at Regal), I generally steer clear of Quentin Tarantino movies. His reputation for gratuitous violence and profanity is the kind of indulgence I prefer to avoid, but Django Unchained happened to come on TV at least somewhat “cut,” so I opted to give it a chance.

Set in the antebellum South and taking its hero’s name from the 1966 spaghetti western Django, the film follows its own Django (Jamie Foxx) as he grows from slave to avenger, thanks to the colorful intervention of Dr. King Schultz (Oscar-winning Christoph Waltz), a bounty hunter who trains him in the ways of killing bad guys for money. After some success at doling out bloody justice, the duo set their sights on the despicable Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), a gleeful plantation owner holding Django’s wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) and unlikely to part with her easily.

First, the good stuff. It’s obvious from his first scene why Waltz won his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar (following his previous win for Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds); Schultz boasts an undeniable charisma and charm to match his ruthlessness, and Waltz embodies the silver-tongued mercenary to a T. It’s a perfect case of a fine actor distinguished further by great dialogue, and, while Foxx and DiCaprio are also pitch perfect in their roles, the scenes that shine most are their interactions with Waltz. I can also appreciate Tarantino’s skill as director and storyteller, blending western and blaxploitation tropes into a compelling tale with an iconically anachronistic soundtrack.

Yet every R-rated movie for me is a balancing act between the laudable and the hard-to-watch, and which side has more weight by the end determines my opinion of it. Despite its good points, Django Unchained is excessive in multiple ways, from the cruelty of its slaveholders to the almost cartoonish amount of blood sprayed in the shootouts. (Watching on TV, I was spared the non-stop N-words and some brief nudity, but it certainly didn’t feel like a “cut” movie by most standards.)

Tarantino’s MO seems to be taking already hateful figures, whether Nazis, slaveholders, or the Manson family, and tweaking history to allow the heroes to slaughter their caricatures en masse with justifiable vengeance. Racism is terrible so why feel bad when Django shoots an unarmed woman? I get that it’s intended to be some form of catharsis, but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth to make gory violence something cheer-worthy. The film was rightly controversial upon release as well, so even mainstream critics took some issue with its excesses. I suppose you could call it a mixed bag: entertaining and off-putting, well-made and ill-advised, impressive and nasty. I assume that was Tarantino’s intent, but, despite some masterful scenes, it’s not something I’m likely to revisit.

Best line: (Calvin Candie, after being given an exorbitant offer) “Gentlemen, you had my curiosity; now you have my attention.”

Rank:  Dishonorable Mention

© 2024 S.G. Liput
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