After a few exploding heavies it occurred to
me that Quentin Tarantino has borrowed the central device from Passion
of the Christ for his last two movies. That premise being if you make
the antagonists sadistic enough then no amount of violence
is too much. In Gibson’s case the violence was heaved on our hero,
making the heavies all the more so vile. In Tarantino’s case the
violence is directed toward Nazis or slave holders and in such comic
form that it is part shocking and part humorous. As the audience we
must simply accept that human beings are put into this film to turn into
a river of goo. If you think of it as a Tom and Jerry cartoon with
guts then you will have a better shot at getting through it, because in
Django Unchained human biology is 80% blood and a single gunshot empties
the entire container. Further, guys will sometimes run into a room
single file so that Django can turn them into empty containers, much
like Beatrix putting away teenage samurais in Kill Bill. At one point
it seems that every white man in Mississippi lay dead in a single
plantation house after being summoned by Django’s shooting iron.
Tarantino has a real knack for milking the tension in a scene, but
those scenes sometimes drag on for so long and/or fail to payoff that
the tension doesn’t work on second viewings. He can also write great
dialogue so that he often faces the danger of letting his characters
talk too much at the expense of action or just talk too much after they
have run out of interesting things to say. For both of those reasons I
liked Kill Bill 2 quite a bit at the cinema, but couldn’t make it
through 30 minutes later on Netflix. I haven’t tried Inglorious
Basterds again fearing that I couldn’t make it again through that tavern
scene.
Tarantino is good at the homage and this movie is
full of them beginning with the music from the original 1960s movie,
Django. It’s also full of cameo appearances by people you might
recognize from regular movie viewing and others that you would recognize
from b-movies. Some of them surprised me. I didn’t recognize Tom
Wopat until I saw his name in the credits. Don Johnson was recognizable
despite the great Gaylord accent and a Mark Twain suit. He gives a
fine short comic performance. Leo is quite good with his menacing
southern charm. Sam Jackson is memorable as only he can be in Tarantino
material. No complaints about Jamie Foxx either. I think Foxx was a
better choice than Will Smith for Django because Smith has a hero’s
charm, but he lacks the danger necessary for such a vengeful role.
Mostly I was impressed with Christopher Waltz that went from Nazi heavy
to sympathetic bounty hunter under Tarantino and was the most
interesting character in both movies.
The movie isn’t for all
tastes, but if you like his other material you shouldn’t walk away
disappointed or surprised at the outcomes.
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