{"id":760,"date":"2014-07-14T22:49:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T22:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talkinggrid.com\/dev\/?p=760"},"modified":"2015-02-27T12:11:09","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T20:11:09","slug":"authenticity-django-unchained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/authenticity-django-unchained\/","title":{"rendered":"On Authenticity in Django Unchained"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Antebellum blaxploitation spaghetti western… what’s not to like?”
\n<\/em>Lawrence Swan<\/strong>: New York City, Visual Artist<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES: Sunday, February 17, 2013<\/p>\n

In my book, race is mostly a distraction.\u00a0 So, I was planning on avoiding Django Unchained<\/a>, the current controversial film by Quentin Tarantino<\/a>.\u00a0 The film Starring Jamie Foxx<\/span><\/a>, Leonardo DiCaprio<\/span><\/a> pushes the hot button of RACE.\u00a0 Yet, Tarantino delivers a brand of movie that I actually enjoy.\u00a0 He tells stories of revenge. \u00a0Stories, old and mythic in their narrative power. His climatic scenes are tomato ketchup bang ups with as much splatter and drip as in a Jackson Pollack action painting.<\/p>\n

The explosive violence of Tarantino, felt appropriate suddenly as Christopher J. Dorner, 33, former LAPD officer<\/a> was being hunted by increasingly gun-happy force.\u00a0 The accidental shooting of two female delivery truck drivers and a young male surfer were among the news stories circulating during the frightening man-hunt.\u00a0 Dorner<\/a>\u2019s smiling image, in association with his rambling Facebook manifesto, in which he expressed the intention to commit acts of violence coupled his navy reserve past, and stories of youthful altruism in the name of \u201cintegrity,\u201d had everyone nervous, watching, waiting to find out what would be the outcome of the impending show-down.\u00a0 Propelled, perhaps in part by the intensity of this news story, we took refuge in the RAVE<\/a> cinema, movie theater, stopping at the bar, to confer with our favorite bartender.<\/p>\n

\u201cOH!\u201d She said when we told her we were there to see Django Unchained<\/em>.\u00a0 She told us the story of her Christmas Day at the RAVE Cinema, where Tarantino spent the evening grilling movie-goers on their experience of the film.\u00a0 \u201cHe talked to my mom (a mature African American woman),\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cHe wanted to know what she thought of certain parts of the movie.\u00a0 He wanted to know IF she found it, you know<\/em>… racist.\u201d\u00a0 Apparently, not since the lady replied she was sorry to admit she\u2019d fallen asleep during the scenes in question, \u201cIt being Christmas Day and all…\u201d<\/p>\n

\"django5_529_med\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were touched to hear of Tarantino\u2019s commitment to his film and interest in the film\u2019s impact upon viewers.\u00a0 This intense caring about the quality of one\u2019s product is a measure of \u201cintegrity.\u201d\u00a0 The film was true to Tarantino\u2019s storytelling style.\u00a0 It featured, as a number of his films do, the extensive and fluid use of the dreaded, \u201cN-WORD!\u201d\u00a0 This is a word, I have been cautioned NOT to use by people whose intelligence I admire.\u00a0 Thus…<\/p>\n

The controversy can be contained in a nutshell with famed director\u2019s\u00a0 Spike Lee\u2019s published comment, <\/span>He told Vibe magazine, “I can\u2019t speak on it \u2019cause I\u2019m not gonna see it. The only thing I can say is it’s disrespectful to my ancestors, to see that film.”<\/p>\n

The notion that seeing Django Unchained<\/em>, is \u201cdisrespectful,\u201d to anyone\u2019s ancestors is well… silly.\u00a0 The film revolves around the mutual respect and affection between black and white people as much as it turns with the images of horror and savagery among the owners and exploiters of plantation property. Set is in the antebellum south, and telling the story of Django, a high-IQ BLACK man that earns the respect and friendship of a German bounty hunter, movingly played by Christoph Waltz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The movie begins with slaves fettered in a chain gang and being transported by two cruel slave traders from one location to another, \u201csomewhere in Texas,\u201d the film takes OFF with a BANG and before you know it, the German bounty hunter character, a dentist by training, but a professional killer by trade are business partners and treating each other with brotherly affection.\u00a0 The bounty hunter treats the former slave like family, teaching the later to read and training him in a lucrative IF morally suspect profession.<\/p>\n

The sale of flesh\u2026 Prostitution, Bounty Hunting, and \u00a0Slavery… \u00a0The HORROR The Horror of American History is one which I have steadfastly avoided, lest it besmirch my cultivated LOVE of our country. I see the world as full of opportunity and America as a place where the dream becomes reality. \u00a0Our president’s story is unique to this nation long divided and yet united in the potential for change. \u00a0America is the nation most flexible and progressive in the construction of new opportunities for alternate histories to flourish and provide images that elevate the HORROR of history into the song of victory.<\/p>\n

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Jamie Foxx is majestic in his representation of the anti-hero avenger.\u00a0 Waltz, the Austrian-German actor, nominated for an Oscar award for his performance as dentist turned bounty hunter and true friend to Django, is the ideal of the German town dweller unfettered by nationalist propaganda and committed to ideas of autonomy and self-determination.\u00a0 Samuel Jackson<\/a> is spot-on as the evil head of the Candy-Land domestics.\u00a0 His paternal intimacy with Calvin Candy, Leonardo D\u2019Caprio\u2019s character, calling the later into the library for, \u201ca talk,\u201d over cognac.<\/p>\n

Kerry Washington<\/a>, effectively plays Broomhilda Von Shaft, (Conceived as the great-great-great grandmother of the 1970\u2018s blaxpoiltation<\/a> films). \u00a0 German speaking love-object propelling Django forward into the Heart of Darkness, the epicenter of evil, Candy-Land plantation.\u00a0 Washington\u2019s Afro-Angelic beauty shines as the movie hero\u2019s trophy, his holy grail, in the film.\u00a0 She, alone, among the films protagonists remains unblemished by the blight of committing violence. \u00a0 We know from previous Tarantino films that he has no issue with portraying females as violent. \u00a0(See: Invisibility in Django Unchained: Broomhilda in Chains <\/a>by Eisa Nefertari Ule at EisaUlen.com<\/a> for another perspective on this issue.) \u00a0Yet, Broomhilda is rescued rather than dispensing retribution.\u00a0 She applauds, her man\u2019s prowess, and rides off into the night at his side, at the film\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

This female prize is NEW to film in that African American women are just now arriving at being the LOVE OBJECT! \u00a0Film history is NOT replete with women of color represented as trophy wives, worth the FIGHT. \u00a0The diminutive Washington is a powerhouse actress. \u00a0Watching her hold her own among the BIGGER than LIFE macho men that made this film, in the video of the press conference<\/a> for this film. \u00a0“She took a beating!” Says Tarantino of the actress’s dedication to film veracity. \u00a0She withstood DiCaprio’s pummeling grip for two days of shooting in order to accurately transmit the horror the horror of the American \u00a0slave experience.<\/p>\n

The complaint that Django fails to provide a “Authentic,” African American personal is the theme of “Still too Good, Too Bad or Invisible<\/a>,” by Nelson George, filmmaker and author of “Blackface: Reflections on African Americans and the Movies.” \u00a0My feeling is that Hollywood is in the business of taking us where we WISH reality might GO! \u00a0The films are about ESCAPE and like a runaway slave, I am branded by the LOVE of a good yarn, well spun, and told by master storyteller like Homer and perhaps, \u00a0Tarantino’s Django Unchained<\/a> is the new Odyssey<\/a>\u00a0for a NEW WILD WEST, mythology unfolding and ALIVE.<\/p>\n

Dorner<\/a>, the former officer gone mental, \u00a0a raging murderer, was identified as toast in a cabin north of Los Angeles, near Big Bear<\/a>. \u00a0He didn’t, I presume, get to make contact with Charlie Sheen<\/a> in time to prevent being fried for pointing the finger at the LAPD. \u00a0 I’m not sure I believe Dorner was fighting for a true cause. \u00a0His mission, ultimately, would have been better served by civic activism, rather than violence.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, the film stands \u00a0a great American film, a LOVE story of explosive\u00a0alternative\u00a0historical potential. \u00a0In other words, “BANG! Bang! BANG!” Django Unchained<\/em> is a HIT in my little black book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Antebellum blaxploitation spaghetti western… what’s not to like?” Lawrence Swan: New York City, Visual Artist LOS ANGELES: Sunday, February 17, 2013 In my book, race is mostly a distraction.\u00a0 So, I was planning on avoiding Django Unchained, the current controversial film by Quentin Tarantino.\u00a0 The film Starring Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio pushes the hot button […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cinema-hollywood","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/547255_475766299184143_1564419964_n.png?fit=851%2C315&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2346,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions\/2346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}