Quitting Quentin

Rating: 2/10 (3 January 2013)

Like Inglorious Basterds, this is another juvenile cartoon by the perennially adolescent Tarantino. However this time he manages to make it a racist cartoon, as well. How is it racist? Tarantino plays out a macho fantasy game by featuring a strong though implausible African American protagonist and yet spreads the N-word liberally throughout the film. He's defended that particularly odious over-usage by suggesting that being "authentic" to the times demanded it. And yet much of the film's details are otherwise incorrect: the rifles are wrong for the time period, for example; and the soundtrack is a hodgepodge of rap, old pop (Jim Croce?) and music from other films. And most obviously, the racial attitudes of both white and African Americans are simply ludicrous. The taunting, insolent attitude by Django towards white people would never have been tolerated in the South, circa 1858. And certainly no Mississippi plantation owner would allow him at the dinner table with white guests. Tarantino has also led many to believe--dishonestly, this is his version of an Italian western. However, it hews closer to a sub-genre of Seventies Blaxploitation--Westerns (Buck and The Preacher, Take A Hard Ride and very obviously The Legend of N---- Charley and its sequel The Soul of N---- Charley, to name a few.) Of course there are the standard QT touches in the film: odd flashes of humor, odder cameos (Michael Parks, Lee Horsley, Don Johnson, father and daughter Russ and Amber Tamblyn) and over-the-top violence--although even the violence is handled ineptly. The gushing blood shots look more like exploding balloons over-inflated with red paint. QT hasn't lost his touch with actors and he gets good performances from his leads--Waltz, Foxx and especially DiCaprio. Samuel L. Jackson as the boss of the African American house crew gives a masterly performance reeking of evil. But all of it comes in service to a trashy, overlong and digressive film. Tarantino is over-due for a course in films not marketed to 13 year old comic book readers or grindhouse fans. Until he shows an adult perspective I think I'll forgo any more of his films.