There's no shortage of bullets and spurting blood in this boisterous western, half revenge flick/half training montage.
I know it’s become a bit of a joke within film circles to clown all over Tarantino and his foot fetish and his odd quirks, but I’m going to have to admit that I like his movies and I think they’re pretty damn fun. That being said I’m sure nobody really cares and by the time I’ve writing this everyone’s probably moved onto the next cinema meme stock. Those Bernie Sanders memes are pretty big about now so maybe I can slip this review in the midst of everyone’s attention turned away from here. I probably won’t.
Tonight, was my fifth viewing of Django Unchained (2012), no not all in one day, goodness I definitely don’t have all that time on my hands… haha…. I must say that as fun as the movie is, as exhilarating and in your face, bullets whizzing past your ear and blood spraying like covering the mouth of a garden hose as it is, I find that after your second or third viewing, you don’t notice anything new about it. Granted, it’s a low-brow blacksploitation film with some shortcomings and I don’t expect it to be the sort of film where my eyes swivel with a new detail I manage to pick out upon my 34th watch. It’s still just as fun and often hilarious and always heavy with the demented savagery of the slave trade. My girlfriend most definitely enjoyed the film which is good. A western blacksploitation film is something you don’t see every day and I’ll savour the opportunity to watch any and all like matured cheese with toast.
The camera work in Tarantino’s later offerings is vivid and breath-taking, with a boisterous personality exuding out of those wide angle lenses, the characters although engulfed by the world around them, their stories and emotions fill that air with their surroundings taking on their dispositions. Swift crash zooms would take me with the speed of a bullet right up into a character’s face for a reaction shot, pans would whip me left and right between characters until some of my screws knocked loose, off its own accord the camera would pull me back from a close up into a landscape shot, it never stops moving and I have a weakness for a restless camera. Landscapes and sceneries all look crisp and immersive, a solid foundation to build his immaculate set design upon.
Nothing immerses me in a western world better than horseshit scattered in mounds around the place, rickety wooden saloons and people slinging revolvers around their hip. I was hurled head first into the carefully crafted world of pre-civil war America with a deceptively picturesque backdrop for a story through which such glassy delicate issues flow through, visually it was all there. Of course, in typical Tarantino fashion, each death is bizarrely extravagant and messy, blood exploding as if through a red paint balloon, bodies being flung backwards with the force of bullets that bullets from a small arm revolver couldn’t ever possibly pack which coupled with the dialogue makes each death comical, even in serious situations.
Left right and centre I was pulled into conversations about whether the overuse of the ‘N’ word is something worthy of reproach when the film projected in cinemas, and at the time I didn’t have the backbone to involve myself in such a conversation. But now behind the relative safety of my bulletproof laptop and with an insight into these bigger issues I shall involve myself into this discourse and say that although the word is used quite liberally and almost to an obnoxious extent, it fits the image of a caricatured depiction of greedy, stupid white slavers who would throw that word around like a tennis ball across a court. Historical accuracy is one thing but those standards shouldn’t be held to a film that doesn’t aim to be a historical isomorph of the past, despite its amazing set design.
Will he can it about the set design I can already hear the people say.
I happen to own the soundtrack of the film on vinyl, which should say everything on opinions I hold on the film’s soundtrack. Spaghetti western music are one of the coolest pieces of guitar work and scores I’ve heard and they aurally transfer you into the American wilderness under a scorching sun. Some of the songs the soundtrack needle drops are quite fitting for the film too.
The ensemble cast all do a sterling job of filling the roles, especially with Leo and the moment where he cuts his hand open on set and continues playing the scene without a hitch.
I realise that the words are flying out of control and this review has eclipsed the length of any review I’ve written so far, I supposed I got a bit carried away so I’ll pull the leash back now. Although not his best film in my opinion, it is definitely up there among the more polished ones where his style finds the room to wiggle around and play. And most of all, don’t have any expectations of this film, it’s a Quentin Tarantino film, it’s a bit of dumb bloody fun with quirky dialogue and really cool camera work.
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