Jarrett Banks thinks the director of Django is better than a Big Kahuna Burger, and here’s why…
Image Credit: The Telegraph
When sitting down to watch a Tarantino film I am always engulfed by the sharp colors that take me back to a childhood of comic books. This blurred line between reality and fiction is then further extenuated by a collection of cool, strange and wonderful characters that are always involved in some haphazard yet complex web of storylines. Awkward camera angles are all part of the experience as you wait for a Tarantino-esque blood fest packed full of violence, blood, martial arts and badass one-liners that leave you wishing you were involved.
Yet more impressive is his personal story. A man without a college degree, a man whose only insight into filmmaking was through working at a local video store, where any spare money was used to fund his own projects. This he attributes as his film school.
In 1992 he had his first flavour of success with the feature film, Reservoir Dogs. After being screened at the Sundance Festival, it paved the way for a fruitful and credible career as he created one highly acclaimed film after another. He won a Palme d’Or for Pulp Fiction shortly after, a film that continued to rack up awards with BAFTA’s, Academy Awards and Golden Globes, often for best original screenplay.
I believe further credit is due for the fact he has been able to carve his name firmly on the furniture within every Westerner’s home, despite being a strong advocate of independent film. Refusing to sell out and conform to the monopoly of Hollywood, he has withheld his integrity by offering his own alternative spins on classic genres. Which I believe is a spur of hope in a fight against the dull, recycled cinema that is omniscient within the film industry of today.
His alternative approach to cinema is never without its critics and his use of violence and racial epithets are continually scrutinized. But who cares? You know what your getting when you sign up for a Tarantino movie, I will nail bitingly wait for his next movie and continue to be enthralled by the spectacle he provides.
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So, you’re a fresher. You’ve got some hi-tops and a nice laptop and you can’t wait to learn about all the wonderful stuff being handed to you for a mere nine grand a year. But what happens when you find yourself having to open your mouth and have a conversation about…gulp…culture and films and art and K-Pop? You might be all up on your Michael Haneke and Paul Thomas Anderson, and that’s great, but if Geordie Shore is more your thing (and who could blame you?), Online Editor Jess O’Kane gives a basic guide on how to avoid looking like a yokel.
Image credit: Collider
1. Django Unchained
Where Pulp Fiction was once the Tarantino reference du jour, Django has proved that the renegade director’s still as fresh as ever. If you missed it, all you need to know is that Jamie Foxx plays the titular slave-cum-badass, freed by a maniacal Christoph Waltz to track and kill ruthless plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio, in fine form), and recapture his estranged wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). The soundtrack is, as ever, a time-bending marvel, featuring Richie Havens, Kanye and Rick Ross. Oh yeah, and it’s gorey…I mean, really, really, gorey.
GOOD CHAT:
What’s with the whole messing up history thing anyway, Quentin? Some might say he’s re-writing the American narrative. Others might just find it annoying (do I even need to mention Inglorious Basterds?)
Jamie Foxx’s blue outfit. Now legendary. Forever cool.
2. Drive
Image Credit: Digital Spy
The breakout film of 2012, on paper Drive really shouldn’t function, but somehow it does – more than that, it soars. Ryan Gosling plays an unnamed stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway chauffeur for some of L.A’s more unsavoury residents. Apparently unable to find other clothes, he performs these bloody tasks wearing a scorpion-embossed jacket and aviators – because who needs anonymity when you’re Ryan Gosling? When a waitress and her young son move in down the hall (beautifully played by the elfin Carey Mulligan), the Driver becomes unwittingly drawn into a dark underbelly of escalating drama and ultimate tragedy.
GOOD CHAT:
The ultimate Drive trivia nugget: the film looks the way it does (high contrast, practically chiaroscuro in places), because director Nicholas Winding Refn is colour blind.
The now-famous jacket has been produced commercially and retails for a cool $160 a pop in the States.
We have to talk about the soundtrack. Synthy, dark, and oozing cool, it’s impossible not to want to hear more. The two signature tracks of the film were produced by little known outfits College and Desire, respectively. Unsurprisingly, they’re now not so little known.
3. Black Books
Image credit: Radio Times
Black Books was the ultimate Britcom of the early 2000s, and essential viewing for anyone who’s ever had wine for breakfast (holla). The series follows alcoholic bookshop owner Bernard Black, played by Dylan Moran, who also co-wrote the show with Graham Linehan. Bernard is a narcissistic, potty-mouthed degenerate who’s only friends are his neighbour Fran (a wonderful Tamsin Grieg), and his servile man-child Manny (Bill Bailey). Together they form a kind of omnishambles secure unit; a quarantine of regret and perpetual wine. Peter Serafinowicz, Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson (creators of the equally essential Spaced) guest star.
GOOD CHAT:
This was back when Channel 4 was cool, right? Why can’t they put stuff like this on nowadays?
Am I the only one that feels a bit sorry for Bernard?
4. Treme
Image credit: Independent
The wildcard choice: you may even have a few hipsters quaking in their reclaimed military boots with this. Pronounced treh-may like the historic district,Treme is David Simon and Eric Overmyer’s first major project since The Wire. Like that most unflinching portrayal of Baltimore, the show charts post-Katrina New Orleans in minute detail, inspired by the real musicians, writers, chefs, bums and hangers-on living in the shadow of its destruction. And yet, at the same time Treme shows a city with a healthy heart: the hurricane is offhandedly referred to as “the storm”; restaurants are full; jazz clubs thump at 4am. It’s a treat for the ears too – the soundtrack is sourced from and performed by local musicians, many of whom inspired the show’s characters.
GOOD CHAT:
Man, I wish I could play the tuba/horn/sax/piano/drums
Conspiracy theory o’clock: was the hurricane a man-made disaster as English Professor and season 1 character Creighton Burnette claims?
Quentin Tarantino’s latest blockbuster hit Django Unchained tracks the story of one slave turned bountyhunter as he searches for his wife and seeks revenge for the injustices that were brought upon them. The film may have been a cinematic success, with five Academy Award nominations and counting, but its plot comes from darker and more sinister sources. Olivia Johnson looks at the literary heritage of Django Unchained and the tradition of slave narratives that have influenced its style…
Poster for Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”
The cinematic power in Tarantino’s Django Unchained comes from its realistic and savage depiction of slavery in 19th century America. Brutality, powerlessness, even self-racism – themes which pervade the film – are so moving and believable to audiences because they stem from authentic sources. Such difficulties are highlighted in the narratives of the slaves. Anyone moved by the film should also take the time to read some of the literature contemporary to the slave movement. The biographical slave narratives are the true testaments to a bloody and horrific culture and convey the raw pain of servitude.
Django’s rise from oppression is the crux of the film. At the beginning of the film, he is physically unchained by a man, Dr. King Schultz, who Django soon joins as his fellow bounty hunter. Yet, more appealing is Django’s retribution, which comes at the climax of the film. One man against several, he successfully defends himself using logic and skill in marksmanship, until he is forced to stop by threats made against his wife. At the very end, he once again relies on intelligence to revenge the death of his mentor and escape a free man.
The underlying theme, which is so attractive to audiences, is that physical strength and prowess in fighting is the ultimate tool to beating oppression. In many ways this was true; often, brute strength was the only means to power in a savage world. In the narrative of Frederick Douglass, the man is also forced to undergo a similar feat, beating his master in physical combat when he attempted to assault him. Such basic, savage acts draw the admiration of the reader because it is drenched in imagery of good versus bad. It is once again David against Goliath – though both may be matched in strength, prejudice against Douglass, as a slave, weighs him down considerably. When Douglass wins, the victory is as poignant and powerful to the readers as it must have been to the man himself.
The tragic and ironic depiction of self-racism is another powerful element in the film. Samuel L. Jackson’s portrayal of Stephen, the loyal house slave to plantation owner Calvin J. Candie reflects another, far more disturbing motif. Stephen is a visual manifestation of an “Uncle Tom”, an epithet which has come to depict a person who is excessively subservient to figures of authority, even to the extent that they become an active participant in the oppression of their own group. In the film, Stephen as an “Uncle Tom” serves his master to the detriment of Django and the household slaves; he condemns the slave Broomhilda’s attempts to escape, encourages her horrific punishment and is key in Django’s capture. The “Uncle Tom” stereotype came from spin-off works from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Yet, ironically, the original character of Uncle Tom is very different.
Harriet Beecher Stowe: “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the titular character is in fact show to be a martyr, who died by refusing to reveal the whereabouts of two women who escaped from slavery; an ironic reversal from the film’s depiction. Like the film, the book also depicts the savagery of slavery – the slaves are cruelly beaten, stripped of almost any identity and even forced to turn on each other. Yet, while Django Unchained conveys scenes of violence against, and between slaves, the protagonist is liberated from oppression, acting as his own agent for most of the film. The book contains the realistic horror of lives confined within claustrophobic quarters. However, the book’s conclusion does satisfy a modern audience to a certain extent. Tom is killed, life goes on, and the readers are filled with a grim acknowledgement of the transience of life in a world where the death of a slave is a common, justifiable occurrence. However, with the journey of two of the characters, Cassy and Emmeline, into Canada, the reader is left with a certain amount of hope and the certainty that Tom’s sacrifice was not in vain.
It is essential that each of us remember the horrors of slavery, which happened not too long ago, so that we do not repeat them. In the same sense, it is important to remember and mourn for a series of lost generations, as well as to acknowledge, even admire, the attempts by individuals like Frederick Douglass to overcome oppression. However, in terms of enjoyment, it has to be said that DjangoUnchained is far more satisfying as a form of entertainment than many of the slave narratives because it provides us with something they cannot; a cathartic, albeit unrealistic, ending. Tarantino forces us to uncover and remember the brutal past, yet with the victory of the protagonist at the end of the film, exorcises those shadows.
To see what Exeposé Online Screen made of Django Unchained, follow this link:
By Olivia Johnson – Exeposé Online Books Editor Ed. by Georgina Holland – Exeposé Online Books Editor
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