Django Unchained - Part 1

[Grillz]

Just saw the thing a second time and it is fan-freakin'-tastic! Can't add anymore than what has already been said, and yes Warhammer Don was hilarious as "Big Daddy".

 

[Holiday]

Can we acknowledge for a second that Don Johnson was absolutely fantastic in his role? I hope he gets more offers to be in films because of this.

Oh for sure. He was perfect as Big Daddy. The hood scene was hilarious of course but I was crackin' up with him at the plantation explaining how Django was to be treated, ha. He was slimy but funny as hell.

 

[Grillz]

"So you want me to treat him like the white folks?" "NO!"

 

[Project862006]

Can we acknowledge for a second that Don Johnson was absolutely fantastic in his role? I hope he gets more offers to be in films because of this.

where's my nash bridges movie

 

[TheComicbookKid]

I think the usage of the word didn't bother me in the film and that it felt more time appropriate than its usage in contemporary commercial hip hop and some other works. That being said, I don't completely buy the historical context or accuracy defense either.

For one, Tarantino did use contemporary language, even slang in some of the dialogue so it is possible that he could've not used the n-word so much. Also the film wasn't historically accurate in other aspects so it didn't have to be in the usage of the n-word.

Now, some defenders are quick to point out that it's just entertainment, it's not meant to be historically accurate when it comes to certain things, but fall back on the historical accuracy argument on the usage of the n-word. That doesn't gibe with me.

This is a great articulation of the problem.

Tarantino very much wrote this like someone living in 2012 which is fine. He's an artist and exaggeration is a big part of it. So for this argument of "this is how it was" is a huge Ugh to me.

To the modern ear "You n---er." Is mean and racist and vile. Which fits the dark Sergio Leone style of Western he was invoking. But we all know that black people were referred to by many different derogatory names, but "you darky" or "you negro" doesn't have the same bite to the modern ear. It would be like someone calling a black person colored in 2012. You'd just look at them strangely.

So we end up with the n-word used like water.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

where's my nash bridges movie

The world couldn't handle Nash Bridges and his yellow Barracuda in today's world.

 

[Bruce Malone]

This is a great articulation of the problem.

Tarantino very much wrote this like someone living in 2012 which is fine. He's an artist and exaggeration is a big part of it. So for this argument of "this is how it was" is a huge Ugh to me.

To the modern ear "You n---er." Is mean and racist and vile. Which fits the dark Sergio Leone style of Western he was invoking. But we all know that black people were referred to by many different derogatory names, but "you darky" or "you negro" doesn't have the same bite to the modern ear. It would be like someone calling a black person colored in 2012. You'd just look at them strangely.

So we end up with the n-word used like water.

Look at the characters he was depicting on screen though.These were all sleazy guys probably even by the standards of regular slave traders. Reading the script there is actually a scene that was cut out for the movie, where we see broomhilda being bought and brought to a "nice" slave owning family and there they don't refer to her by that word. I can see why that scene was cut though movie was long enough and i beleive jonah hill would have had to accept the role.

Anyways these are bad men why would bad men not use what was actually a relatively acceptable slur back then? This is like asking why do the bad men in quentin's other movies use the f-word so much?

 

[jacobed]

If there was no "controversy" before about the word, I would have never noticed it. Saw this again tonight. Hated it the first time, absolutely loved it this time. Just about everything worked for me this time around. Except the ending, that last 15 minutes is ridiculously unneeded and shouldn't be there.

 

[Holiday]

I don't think it would have had the same impact on a modern audience if the racist characters in this movie predominately used slurs we're not as familiar with and that are not as strong to us as the n word.

 

[DarKush]

Look at the characters he was depicting on screen though.These were all sleazy guys probably even by the standards of regular slave traders. Reading the script there is actually a scene that was cut out for the movie, where we see broomhilda being bought and brought to a "nice" slave owning family and there they don't refer to her by that word. I can see why that scene was cut though movie was long enough and i beleive jonah hill would have had to accept the role.

Anyways these are bad men why would bad men not use what was actually a relatively acceptable slur back then? This is like asking why do the bad men in quentin's other movies use the f-word so much?

Django used the word quite a bit too, as did Schultz (with Schultz it came across that he was at least conflicted or contrite about its usage though, but still he used it). Would you consider them bad men? At least in the context of this movie?

I think The Comic Book Kid makes a good point that there were other racial epithets, less familiar to modern audiences, that would've been just as time appropriate. However, Tarantino likes to shock, to provoke and the n-word does that better. In fact, I can recall only one other racial epithet besides the n-word used, and it was said by Django.

Since this was a fantasy film in many respects, it was a conscious choice-not necessarily guided or at least dictated by history-for him to use the n-word as much. I heard, don't know if it's true, that the original script had even more usage of the word than the film did.

 

[Doctor Jones]

edit.

 

[terry78]

Apparently that scene where

Spoiler

Candie rubs his bloody hand all over Broomhilda's face was ad-libbed as Leo did really cut his hand slamming it down and Kerry Washington had no idea he was going to do that to her.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Yeah I heard about that too. I heard that Leo really smashed his hand on the glass. Jamie Foxx didn't know whether to stop but when he saw Leo keep going, he did the same.

The thing with Leo is that whenever he plays a role, you know it's Leo, but he just inhabits that role completely to the point where you can't believe he played someone like Billy Costigan or Howard Hughes. When I was watching, I couldn't believe this same guy was in The Departed. He really can create a very different kind of character with a very distinct personality. Like Brad Pitt does.

 

[terry78]

I know the cool thing is to want unknowns for every role, but back in the day you had guys like Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck, and what not doing various roles and you always knew it was them in the role, but they brought gravitas.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Yup, there's plenty of room for both character actors and actors like Brad and Leo.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Apparently that scene where

Spoiler

Candie rubs his bloody hand all over Broomhilda's face was ad-libbed as Leo did really cut his hand slamming it down and Kerry Washington had no idea he was going to do that to her.

Holy crap it thats true that makes Leo an even more awesome actor! But I would also give credit to Kerry too, I don't think I could continue to act and have REAL blood on my face. The smell of blood makes my stomach queazy lol.

 

[Matt Mortem]

Apparently that scene where

Spoiler

Candie rubs his bloody hand all over Broomhilda's face was ad-libbed as Leo did really cut his hand slamming it down and Kerry Washington had no idea he was going to do that to her.

I had a feeling that was improvised. It came out of nowhere and Kerry seemed genuinely shocked by it.

 

[Holiday]

I remember wondering during the movie what he cut his hand on and thinking it was probably an accident, not meant to be in the film. Pretty cool.

 

[RKO]

It's because the way it was edited. I remember thinking the same too, his hand cut came out of nowhere.

 

[Bruce Malone]

Django used the word quite a bit too, as did Schultz (with Schultz it came across that he was at least conflicted or contrite about its usage though, but still he used it). Would you consider them bad men? At least in the context of this movie?

I think The Comic Book Kid makes a good point that there were other racial epithets, less familiar to modern audiences, that would've been just as time appropriate. However, Tarantino likes to shock, to provoke and the n-word does that better. In fact, I can recall only one other racial epithet besides the n-word used, and it was said by Django.

Since this was a fantasy film in many respects, it was a conscious choice-not necessarily guided or at least dictated by history-for him to use the n-word as much. I heard, don't know if it's true, that the original script had even more usage of the word than the film did.

For your examples of django and schultz using it. Django was a dejected slave who was most likely very used to hearing that word. As a slave he was supposed to be kept mentally weak and slave masters were notorious for breaking the spirits of their slaves. It would not be surprising that was the word django heard himself being called the most.

As for schultz he was playing a role talking to these guy he had to appear on their level, he bottled his true feelings remember that scene where he kept having flashbacks to the dog ripping scene?

I was skeptical over how much the word was really used back then so i did my own research and yes it was used a great great deal back then. Words like "colored" and "negro" actually became the pc words of their time at the turn of the 20th century. Read Huck Finn by mark twain and see how much that word was used. Twain actually used it more times than Tarantino!

Yeah tarantino likes to shock but when depicting slavery he didn't have to go far from actual history. The only thing he really exaggerated was the "mandingo fighting" which scholars have not been able to prove existed on much of a scale at all. He based that from the 70's movie of the same name.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

It's because the way it was edited. I remember thinking the same too, his hand cut came out of nowhere.

I didn't think it did. He slammed his hand, and then you start to notice the blood. So I thought it was clear where it came from.

 

[DarKush]

For your examples of django and schultz using it. Django was a dejected slave who was most likely very used to hearing that word. As a slave he was supposed to be kept mentally weak and slave masters were notorious for breaking the spirits of their slaves. It would not be surprising that was the word django heard himself being called the most.

As for schultz he was playing a role talking to these guy he had to appear on their level, he bottled his true feelings remember that scene where he kept having flashbacks to the dog ripping scene?

I was skeptical over how much the word was really used back then so i did my own research and yes it was used a great great deal back then. Words like "colored" and "negro" actually became the pc words of their time at the turn of the 20th century. Read Huck Finn by mark twain and see how much that word was used. Twain actually used it more times than Tarantino!

Yeah tarantino likes to shock but when depicting slavery he didn't have to go far from actual history. The only thing he really exaggerated was the "mandingo fighting" which scholars have not been able to prove existed on much of a scale at all. He based that from the 70's movie of the same name.

I think the time period gave Tarantino the leeway to use the n-word with near abandon. However, there were other racial epithets that could've also been used, and Django did use one. Why couldn't he have used others? Though that could've led to another round of criticism, though it could've illuminated the depths that slave owners and other racists whites went to dehumanize blacks in word, as well as deed. But this film stuck with the n-word, a word that Tarantino has been criticized for using in past films that were not antebellum pieces. And he used not-time appropriate language in other dialogue so why the desire to be so historically accurate with the usage of the n-word? I think Tarantino used it so much because he knew he could. He wants to be seen, IMO, as a renegade, outsider, bad ass director and liberal use of the n-word is one way to do that. In a sense, he is similar to some gangsta rappers in using offensive language to shock, provoke, and show how 'down' they are.

I'm pleased that Tarantino at least showed some of the brutality of the slave system, even if he took historical license with Mandingo fighting.

 

[terry78]

QT has a massive hard on for black culture, he always has.

 

[Bruce Malone]

The thing is with Tarantino and he's admitted this is he writes as his characters not himself. So he thinks how they would speak not how he would.

So when he's writing black gangsters or any gangsters he writes from their point of view. Not Quinton Tarantino the white director. Spike lee's used the n-word just about as much as tarrantino has in his movies but he feels that him being black makes it okay which is hypocritical when it comes to art. Again quinton is not writing what he would have said but what his characters would.

And for django we have to take off our 2012 perspective goggles. With these characters he's portraying these slavers, who have no respect for their slaves why would they use anything but the worst word/s to call them. If you have a character willing to let dogs rip apart a slave you think he's gonna spare the worst words for them? Quinton could have pulled back on the language but then he could have pulled back on the violence and pretty much everything else that made these guys so despicable.

 

[gwynplaine]

I loved it and I'm going to see it again tomorrow.
I wish Tarantino had shaved some of the fat off though and worked on making the end of the film more unforgettable, which for me would have been the difference between a great movie and a masterpiece.
But like I said I love the film and I think QT is a genius, so it's all goodt: