Everybody do the Django

Never got around to saying what I thought of Django Unchained. Prolly my favorite Tarantino film next to Kill Bill. So many spectacular scenes. The doctor diffusing potentially lethal situations using his foreigner's understanding of English. Him explaining to Django the myth of Brunhilde. Django going after his first targets in his extravagant valet costume. Him bursting down a door with only the words "d'Artagnan motherfuckers" before shooting. It's all very enjoyable to watch.

Samuel L. Jackson gave his best performance ever, in my opinion. His character was so nuanced, so believable, so real. And he was so bad. An article critical of the movie suggested that it was wrong to think of Steven as a villain because the real villains were the slave owners, not that old uncle tom. But I feel like that assessment misses so much of the juicy details. Steven loved to harass and subjugate black folk at least as much as any white man did. He loved to feel so high above the other black people, which is why he was so astonished when Django showed up as a free man. Steven was an ally and an enabler to the white slave owners, and so especially from Django's perspective this made him among the worst of villains. Steven loved Calvin because Calvin gave him this lofty position of power over the other black people whom he then got to oppress. Steven believed wholeheartedly that it was a black man's place to serve white men. I guess it's hard to explain, but his villainy was quite clear to me. The acting was so good because he communicated so much without having to say anything.

I suppose I was expecting a much more disturbing movie, mostly because of Tarantino's reputation for violence. But over the years I've found that the reputation may not be warranted. Other directors put much worse things in their movies than Tarantino does. Tarantino is all about blood splatters and nervous tension. He never goes with all out torture porn, and the most graphic and brutal scenes of gore are conspicuously not shown on screen. Part of it is out of respect for the sensibilities of his audience, and part of it is that he's skilled enough as a director to know when it's a more powerful choice to leave things to the imagination. Sometimes the anticipation of pain is all it takes to deliver the message.

I'd like to address the accusations of racism. Firstly, anyone who thinks this movie is racist should see it before casting judgment. It might do you well to observe how a lynch mob is portrayed. I'll give you a hint: not intelligently. I don't see why a racist filmmaker would try to make racists look bad in his film. Secondly, Jamie Foxx and Samuel L. Jackson are two of the highest paid black actors in Hollywood. They can afford to be very picky about the movies they choose to be in. If you really think Django Unchained is racist in any way, then good, because that means it will get more publicity.