I enjoyed this action/comedy movie because I hated the evil doers and wanted to see them die because of their brutal natures. I reveled in their pain. And that's the problem.
I'm going along about half way on this one because the performances are as good as they are and I can appreciate Quentin Tarantino's collegial sense of humor. Two "Django's" shaking hands. Brunhilde and Siegfried coming out of nowhere. A musical score that is an homage to Ennio Morricone. The surprises that pop out of a man's mouth or his sleeve.
Tarantino's earlier stuff was pretty good -- "Reservoir Dogs", "Pulp Fiction" -- and "Jackie Brown" was finely written and directed, a very nice piece of work. The "Kill Bills" was far too stylized for me.
"Inglourious Basterds" was a disappointment. It was much more violent than anything else he's done, and instead of comic internal conflicts, he'd chosen as villains the Nazis, the most evil people of the century, and their torture and murder could be endorsed without chagrin by the least sophisticated of us, the kind who think "Don't just kill the enemy; torture them before killing them." It was a kind of pornography for the millions.
He's followed the same course here and I didn't like it much. Given the depraved character of the slave-owning Southerners, no punishment is too harsh, so Django can kill helpless and unarmed people -- including women -- at will. As a hero, the character of Django is not just flawed but practically turned inside out. Superman was a hero Roy Rogers was a hero. Django was a walking abattoir, savagely killing everyone he disliked -- and Tarantino has provided him with a the simple-minded excuse of hating that "peculiar institution." I don't want him as my hero. He's too Old Testament for me.
The performances are good, though, and the production values high. Jamie Foxx has about two notes on his instrument but Christoph Waltz does a great job as the German bounty hunter. His accent doesn't sound German at all. It sounds like it came from somewhere in outer space. And Don Johnson is surprisingly chipper and colorful as Big Daddy, the plantation owner who gets splashily offed by Django's powerful rifle. (The squibbs seem to have had double charges.) Tarantino obviously has a lot of talent and a keen sense of humor. I wish he'd get back to his roots and lay off the easy targets.
I'm going along about half way on this one because the performances are as good as they are and I can appreciate Quentin Tarantino's collegial sense of humor. Two "Django's" shaking hands. Brunhilde and Siegfried coming out of nowhere. A musical score that is an homage to Ennio Morricone. The surprises that pop out of a man's mouth or his sleeve.
Tarantino's earlier stuff was pretty good -- "Reservoir Dogs", "Pulp Fiction" -- and "Jackie Brown" was finely written and directed, a very nice piece of work. The "Kill Bills" was far too stylized for me.
"Inglourious Basterds" was a disappointment. It was much more violent than anything else he's done, and instead of comic internal conflicts, he'd chosen as villains the Nazis, the most evil people of the century, and their torture and murder could be endorsed without chagrin by the least sophisticated of us, the kind who think "Don't just kill the enemy; torture them before killing them." It was a kind of pornography for the millions.
He's followed the same course here and I didn't like it much. Given the depraved character of the slave-owning Southerners, no punishment is too harsh, so Django can kill helpless and unarmed people -- including women -- at will. As a hero, the character of Django is not just flawed but practically turned inside out. Superman was a hero Roy Rogers was a hero. Django was a walking abattoir, savagely killing everyone he disliked -- and Tarantino has provided him with a the simple-minded excuse of hating that "peculiar institution." I don't want him as my hero. He's too Old Testament for me.
The performances are good, though, and the production values high. Jamie Foxx has about two notes on his instrument but Christoph Waltz does a great job as the German bounty hunter. His accent doesn't sound German at all. It sounds like it came from somewhere in outer space. And Don Johnson is surprisingly chipper and colorful as Big Daddy, the plantation owner who gets splashily offed by Django's powerful rifle. (The squibbs seem to have had double charges.) Tarantino obviously has a lot of talent and a keen sense of humor. I wish he'd get back to his roots and lay off the easy targets.