Django Unchained -Juvenile Gore or Django Unbrained?

Rating: 2/10 (19 January 2020)

Yet another Tarantino exploitation cartoon that foolish critics and Awards committees have tarnished their names and reputations by stumbling blindly into the filmmaker's simplistic style of moviemaking. This 'style' is all about copy-cat plagiarism, which proves, if you make enough money from fooling people who should know better, you can thumb your way to the top of a bottom-rung industry. If you've seen one Tarantino movie you've seen them all, it's only the names and settings that change (slightly).
This movie-maker is as readable as a child: the first rule of thumb; Take themes that spark controversy, over- exacerbate the violence and gore in order to hook those with a cause or agenda to push, and they will follow blindly to the ticket box - making the likes of supporters, Harvey Weinstein and a handful of overly familiar stars (mates) along with a full assortment of soulless industry associates very rich. Violence and lurid subjects appeal to the lowest common denominator the world over (only need to check out the daily news for some confirmation) and, the monkey see monkey do syndrome will unfortunately, always be with us, this also gives us a punishing three hours of torture to prove it.
Handfuls of insightful commentators have seen through the thinly-veiled ugliness, and bravely called it out. See; Thomas Frank - Louis Farrakhan - and surprisingly, industry personalities such as fellow moviemaker Spike Lee, and actor/reviewer Jesse Williams, who all clearly see the folly of Tarantino being taken in any way seriously. Then there's the silliness of Michael Moore attempting to call it 'satire'! The most obvious rip-off in this piece of tosh is the spaghetti western, after all, what did Italy know about the experience of living through the American west? Europeans were simply enamoured by the 'romance' of watching fictional American westerns. Leone is blatantly copied right down to the choice of music (with even the composer, Morricone, calling Tarantino out for his lack of original ideas) The bulk of other music is as with most of this copyists work, lifted from other better films and too often unsuited to the era or narrative themes.
Much more could be said but why bother, when consumers seem to love being coned - right down to their History, groceries, comic books, and so on...