A casual approach to slavery is offensive, IMO. I really don't see how you can argue against this.
I haven't read the script yet, so I can't really comment.
However, there are very few movies about slavery to begin with. It's all about representation. when you make a film about a topic that is rarely talked about or shown (especially in an accurate way), whatever version you make has the risk of becoming 'the accurate portrayal.'
I'm not saying that people will watch QT's version and think: this is an authentic representation of what slavery was like. But they might certainly trivialize the experience, which is just bad. I certainly don't want to see that.
for the record, I liked Inglorious Basterds. I thought it was quite fresh. It was a restrained QT in a way. Restraint is key to making this work.
A casual approach to slavery is offensive, IMO. I really don't see how you can argue against this.
I haven't read the script yet, so I can't really comment.
However, there are very few movies about slavery to begin with. It's all about representation. when you make a film about a topic that is rarely talked about or shown (especially in an accurate way), whatever version you make has the risk of becoming 'the accurate portrayal.'
I'm not saying that people will watch QT's version and think: this is an authentic representation of what slavery was like. But they might certainly trivialize the experience, which is just bad. I certainly don't want to see that.
for the record, I liked Inglorious Basterds. I thought it was quite fresh. It was a restrained QT in a way. Restraint is key to making this work.
Not to hijack but IB was along with Jackie Brown one of my least favorite movies. Casting of Aldo and Bear Jew were off, tone was campy and better as a thriller like it read on the page. I liked QT's earlier work when it was raw, tense and full of energy: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, True Romance (though it was altered by Tony Scott). Since Kill Bill 1 (which I still loved), and vol 2 and Death Proof which I loathed, his movies to me falls into the "lesser" derivative category.
I thought this script was terrific. What you have to keep in mind though while reading or watching a Tarantino flick is that it is less a reflection of reality, less informed by the real world and completely exists as a movie. Tarantino is writing movies about movies and the experience of film, not the experience of life itself. It is as if Quentin's entire view of life, history and existence in general is seen only through the filter of cinema.
The movie isn't about slavery and racism, its about slavery and racism in movies. And I felt that it was very empowering to African Americans, moreso than a serious movie like Roots or Amistad. It takes the piss out of racism and slave owners just like Inglourious Basterds took the piss out of Nazis.
Did anyone else think that the scene with a lynch mob having trouble keeping their hoods on and screwing with their eyeholes read like a homage to Blazing Saddles? It's brilliant. That section of dialog made me laugh so hard I nearly peed myself. I think I actually peed two drops of pee.
And that's how the movie functions. Just like Hogans Heroes and the Producers took the piss out of the Nazis, and Blazing Saddles and All In the Family took the piss out of bigotry, I think that's how Tarantino's movies Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained function.
I'm curious, do you all feel reading the script before the movie ruins the movie-going experience for you? I typically wait to read until after I've seen the flick.
I'm curious, do you all feel reading the script before the movie ruins the movie-going experience for you? I typically wait to read until after I've seen the flick.
Never has for me, especially for a QT movie. I read Kill Bill, Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds and by the time I was ass in seat, the viseral experience of the movie made me completely forget the experience of reading the words. Its a Tarantio movie, its about the experience -- sitting in a loaded theater. HE works like John Cage that way, orchestrating the audience. I know that there were a few missing parts that I lamented, in both Kill Bill and Basterds, but the impact of the image on the screen made me forget that beautiful, white ... ahem.
I cannot stop thinking about this script. The second act ending had me physically shaking and the ending showdown (its not a spoiler, its a spaghetti western of course there is a showdown) had me giggling like a schoolgirl. It is going to be a fan-freaking-tastic movie.
Comment