Tarrantino's Tour of American Slavery

Rating: 8/10 (2 January 2013)

Last week, Charlie Rose, on his PBS interview programme, spent one wonderful hour with Tarrantino discussing "Django Unchained" as well as giving a master class on cinema history. Well worth checking out, if it is on "YouTube" or Charlie Rose's website.
Prior to the film commencing, there were four rushes of upcoming films, all drenched in gunplay and violence. In a post Newtown world, I felt very uncomfortable watching these previews, and slightly guilty at the bloodbath that "Django" promised to be. On the other hand, the entire show, including "Django", presented something of an overview of what the gun represents in American society: The Instrument of Vengeance/Justice, symbol of manhood, authority, individual freedom, the State, institutional power, and just plain fun. Very disturbing.........
"Django Unchained", which I saw on Sunday 30 December 2012, is somewhat more serious than other Tarranatino films. Oh, there is the trademark humour, if a little underplayed than in the past, as well as the B-movie sensibilities. Tarrantino himself acknowledges that the film has more of a linear narrative than his past work. More than anything, though, this film seriously presents Tarrantino's understanding of the experience of American slavery, as well as his own revulsion of the institution. As such, "Django" presents as archetypes the slave as the central character, the rage that he feels towards the enslavers, the white liberal stand-in for himself (Christof Waltz), the dichotomy and conflict between the plantation slaves and the house slaves,the slave owners themselves (Don Johnson and a superb Leo DiCaprio), and a very Inglorious Basterds' fantasy of what visceral vengeance could look like, all dressed up in a spaghetti western sensibility. Not to be missed.