Django....

Rating: 8/10 (11 May 2014)

To say that "Django Unchained" is a revisionist revenge fantasy is beyond the obvious and besides the point. It is a visceral , outrageous , frightening , in some points hysterical movie that examines this country's history with racism and slavery that we still haven't worked through , and still bear the scars of. Who's to say that there wasn't a German bounty hunter roaming the old south in the days before the Civil War , and who's to say that he didn't employ a former slave as his assistant? OK , that probably didn't happen , but Quentin Tarrentino is an artist , and a very skilled one at that , so he takes some liberties , which pay off big in the end. The movie gives us scenes of the old south and slavery that we haven't seen before , frightening , ugly scenes , that may well have been the common , everyday experience for a lot of people , and puts it in the context of "this is how it was , and this was the reality " . He does it the style of the spaghetti western , and throws in some comic relief to take some of the pain away , which makes it a little easier to take , but it is still a highly disturbing vision , and can weigh on your mind long after the film is over, which is what good art is supposed to do. I saw this film at the theater when it first came out , and was troubled by it's brutality being shown as everyday life , but , I'm watching it on HBO now, of course the small screen will tone down some of the brutality , and the other aspects will come through, as the comic relief aspects , showing what a bunch of buffoons the "poor white trash" element could be, there is a "Blazing Saddles" sort of silliness to some of those scenes. To put it into perspective , "Django Unchained " , is an important film , trying to grasp an important topic , in a way we haven't seen in quite this way before. It's hard to watch in places , it is disturbing , but it makes you think , and that's always a good thing.