DJANGO UNCHAINED

DJANGO UNCHAINED
Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kerry Washington

Dr. King Schultz (referring to the bounty hunter profession): Like slavery, it's a flesh for cash trade.

DJANGO UNCHAINED? More like Tarantino unchained, if you ask me. When watching a Quentin Tarantino movie, there is always a danger that his undeniable genius will fall prey to his also undeniable ego. He often walks the fine line between these two elements with surprising grace and subsequently makes insightful works that are distinctly his style. In DJANGO UNCHAINED though, Tarantino's attempt at a Western / Blaxploitation hybrid, he veers too far off course and ends up losing his edge in the sprawling drawl of the Old West.

DJANGO UNCHAINED is a bounty hunter, buddy western for about an hour and then a hyper violent,  romantic quest for about two hours after that. The two parts did not come together for me but either way, I never felt that Tarantino was ever truly able to make himself fit into these genres. There are moments where his unique style feels perfectly suited to the subject, but it often times felt more forced than anything else. Christophe Waltz, who embodied Tarantino's spirit so perfectly in his Oscar-winning turn in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, is completely miscast here. As a German dentist turned bounty hunter in 1858 Texas, he is more device than character, allowing Tarantino to incorporate his particular brand of dialogue to the period, justified by Waltz being foreign. You may delight in some of the things he has to say but I found it just exposed Tarantino's unease with the period.

Waltz acquires a slave by the name of Django (Jamie Foxx) at the onset of the film. He is sympathetic to the plight of the American slave but that doesn't stop him from purchasing Django for his own gain. When he sees how cruelly Django is treated by the people they encounter, he sets him "free" and the twosome become the biggest, badass bounty hunters around. There is a sense of shock in just how appalling people are towards their black slaves and Tarantino is here to rescue them. In this sense, DJANGO is no more than an extension of what he was going for in BASTERDS. Only instead of the Jews rising up against the Nazis, now Tarantino rewrites the history of the black slaves, giving them a hero to rise up against their oppressors.

Along the way, Waltz and Foxx come across Leonardo DiCaprio, a plantation owner reputed for fighting his slaves to their deaths. This man owns Django's wife (Kerry Washington). And when it comes time for Django to take back what is his (which is a whole other form of slavery, but no matter), everything ends in a seemingly never-ending blood bath, that plays out more like a video game, where the goal is to kill as many white supremacists as possible. It isn't triumphant though, just incessant and relentless. You can almost feel Tarantino's smug sense of satisfaction in the end but it's misguided. You cannot rewrite the wrongs of history by just shooting the crap out of them and thinking yourself a hero for having done so.

312. Django Unchained

312. (19 Dec) Django Unchained (2012, Quentin Tarantino) 75



Coming off the lean, perfectly structured Inglourious Basterds, it's not really a surprise or much a disappointment that Django Unchained isn't on par. Mostly, it's the absence of Sally Menke as film editor that's deeply felt, since this doesn't have the sharpness her collaborations with Tarantino had. But this is nevertheless engaging and exhilarating. To his credit, the substantial runtime isn't felt for a second due to clever scripting that crafts believable relationships and allows on-screen time to pass fluidly.

Christoph Waltz is certainly the standout here, though Leonardo DiCaprio sinks his teeth into a menacing role. Samuel L. Jackson, offering a variation on his same old schtick, is impossibly fun to watch chew scenery. Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington could have been recast midway through the film without anyone noting their absence.

Robert Richardson's cinematography is outstanding, as are the sets and costumes. Oscar nominations for most technical aspects are in order.

It took two viewings of Inglourious Basterds to fully appreciate this, so I have every intention of revisiting Django. It's so dense and thoughtful, full of nuanced arcs, all the while being quite reverential to its genre. There's a great deal to take in on a single go-around, and surely much reward in a second or third attempt.

THE FALL 2012 FILM PREVIEW (part two)

Yesterday, we stopped to admire the changing colours of September and October. Today, let's dive into the harsh rains and rapidly dropping temperatures of November and December ... filmwise, that is.

NOVEMBER

LIFE OF PI
I have made a promise to myself to read Yann Martel's brilliant novel for a second time before seeing Ang Lee's highly anticipated film version. I've seen the extended previews that everyone is apparently raving about and, while I still have full confidence that if anyone can pull off this near impossible adaptation, it would be Lee, I'm not yet convinced by the footage I've seen. So I want to go back and appreciate the beauty of Martel's brilliance, a story about struggle, strife and spirituality, one more time before letting Lee tell me his version of events. If Lee does succeed though, we could be hearing his name pretty often come awards season.

WRECK-IT RALPH
John C. Reilley voices the main character, Ralph himself, in this new animated feature from the good folks at Disney. Ralph has spent his whole life wrecking stuff and he can no longer deal with everyone hating on him for all the destruction he causes. Perplexed because he is just doing what he knows to do, Ralph decides to abandon the world he knows in search of a more accepting one. Did I mention Ralph is a video game character? The concept is amazingly geeky and the potential for hilarity is abundant. This is especially true knowing Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch and Jack McBrayer voice the rest of the main characters.

LINCOLN
Daniel Day-Lewis's resemblance to the former President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, is a little unnerving when you first see it. That really only makes for incredible possibilities for where Day-Lewis's performance will go in Steven Spielberg's historical drama, LINCOLN, though. Spielberg chooses to focus on the final months of Lincoln's life, as adapted for the screen by playwright, Tony Kushner. After his uneven performance and reception to his two features last year (THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN and WAR HORSE), Spielberg will be looking to remind everyone who's boss with this one. Oh, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt co-stars.

SKYFALL
With the gigantic disappointment that was QUANTUM OF SOLANCE now years behind me, I am ready, no, I am desperate to see a James Bond film worthy to follow the brilliant CASINO ROYALE. The trailers for Sam Mendes's crack at bat look incredibly promising so my hope is bursting now. Daniel Craig returns, in great form it would appear as well, and looks far less depressed then he did last time. This is good because with Javier Bardem stepping into what is sure to be a deliciously evil Bond villain turn, Bond is going to need his wits about him at all times. Still, I'm sure Craig can find time for a quick dip at the beach too.

Also in November ... Robert Zemeckis leaves the world of motion capture animation and returns to live action with FLIGHT, starring Denzel Washington as an alcoholic hero pilot; Jean-Marc Vallee's award winning, festival success, CAFE DE FLORE, finally hits stateside ... And I'm very excited to see Edward and Bella again in TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN PART TWO. I'm mostly excited for this film because it is the last one in the series, until they reboot it in a few years, that is.

DECEMBER

DJANGO UNCHAINED
It doesn't matter to me what Quentin Tarantino is working on, I know that I will be there to see it the moment I can, because he is one of the few directors working today who never ceases to surprise me with new layers of depth to his ability with each film he makes. It doesn't matter to me if the film production is rumoured to be a difficult one at best or that the script was barely adhered to; I'm always certain Tarantino can pull through. It doesn't matter to me that the premise of the film has something to do with a fictionalized account of the slave industry told in spaghetti western style. No, it doesn't even matter to me that Jamie Foxx is starring in it. Tarantino can make a mess into a masterpiece and he's earned the benefit of all our collective doubt. Also, Leonardo DiCaprio stars in it.

THIS IS 40
Remember Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann in KNOCKED UP? Mann played Katherine Heigl's sister who was struggling with her identity as a mother and wife and Rudd played Mann's oblivious husband. Well, they're back in Judd Apatow's unofficial sequel to that film, THIS IS 40. Their characters both turn 40 in the same week and have a series of crises and epiphanies in the process. Apatow has struggled with personal growth and humour before (FUNNY PEOPLE) but I guess I'm feeling terribly charitable today, because I'm willing to let him take another stab too before I start to lose too much faith in his abilities. Besides, Melissa McCarthy and Albert Brookes co-star.

LES MISERABLES
I am not afraid to say that I do not at all believe Tom Hooper deserved his Oscar for directing THE KING'S SPEECH. He did a fantastic job with it but there were far better works in the category from far more experienced directors; it was not his turn. That said, I'm glad he did win because it gave him the chance to make what looks to be one heck of a masterful musical. LES MISERABLES has been tackled on screen before but never in its musical version and with Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman as the leads, two proven singers, we may be in for a definitive contribution to the genre itself. This should be interesting too; the songs were sung live on set and not pre-recorded so there is nowhere for anyone to hide. I'm talking to you, Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried! (They also star.)

Also in December ... Pater Jackson reveals the first of three more movies about hobbits and the like, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY; Tom Cruise will make his biggest stretch as an actor yet, playing a man who is 6'5' in JACK REACHER (a reach, indeed); and parents everywhere can rejoice. This year there is no new chipmunk movie to sit through. No, instead you get to see the Pixar classic, MONSTERS INC in 3D!

There you have it folks. Be sure to come back mid-week for my TIFF 2012 preview, which basically covers every other movie coming out this fall not already covered here.

Top Ranked Films of Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino
With just 5 titles in the top 1000 (tied for 33 with about 20 others), he is 21st in points with 22,495

Tarantino burst into stardom and an immediate cult following with the ultra-violent crime film Reservoir Dogs, in which a small gang of thieves turns on each other in a bloodbath of paranoia. For some reason, a film with limited imagination built an immediate following for

Wagon Master, The Friends of Eddie Coyle

I hit the gold jackpot in movie watching recently, catching two titles in a row that are the best movies I’ve seen in ages. They both deal with community – one celebrating different groups of outcasts banding together in a temporary truce, while the other is a grim, depressing affair about a beaten man trying to escape a community of criminals.

The films are John Ford’s “Wagon Master” (1950) and Peter Yates’ “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” (1973). Two films that could not be more different, yet both make for thrilling and engaging movie watching.

Wagon Master

“Wagon Master” was supposedly John Ford’s favorite movie. It has an easy rhythm to it; like its wagon train traveling across Utah - it’s not in a hurry to get anywhere. There’s no story per se, but it’s packed with incident. There’s no opening or closing studio logo; the movie just begins. It’s like we’re witnesses to history, a story we just happen to arrive right in the middle of.

No marquee actor like John Wayne, James Stewart or Henry Fonda here, which is likely why it’s not more known. Hopefully the new DVD (a stunning transfer by the way) will go a long way in making the film better known.

Ben Johnson and Harry Carey, Jr. are two horse traders grudgingly convinced by a Mormon elder (Ward Bond) to lead a wagon train to a new settlement. The Mormons are being run out of town, so have no choice but to head across uncharted territory to a new settlement. Johnson and Carey know the way so agree to lead them.

The picture opens by placing us right in the middle of a bank robbery by the Cleggs. Uncle Shiloh (Charles Kemper) is the leader of his four sons (two of which are played by a young James Arness and Ford stock player favorite Hank Worden) who, after shooting an unarmed bank teller in the back, hijack the wagon train and use it to as a cover to hide from a pursuing posse.

Kemper is a revelation as the physically imposing Uncle Shiloh. He’s one of the most memorable bad guys in western film history. I think he has a grudging admiration for the Mormons and their manners, yet won’t hesitate to kill anyone who stands in his way. I was not familiar with Kemper and wondered why he wasn’t better known. It turns out he was killed in a car crash in 1950. His final film, “On Dangerous Ground” (1952) was released posthumously.

In addition to the Cleggs, the wagon train’s community grows with the addition of a medicine show troupe (Alan Mowbray, Joanne Dru and Ruth Clifford). They were also run out of town, so the two outcast groups temporarily join together.

There’s also a very memorable sequence where the Mormons are asked to join the Navajos at a dance. The Navajos like the Mormons, saying they are less corrupt than other white men.

That’s not the only dance in the film. There are several wonderfully staged square dance sequences with accompanying songs performed by the Sons of the Pioneers, a well-known vocal group also utilized by Ford in his other 1950 western “Rio Grande.”

Ford never directed a musical but this is the closest he ever came. Ford had an innate sense of where to place the camera to get the best shot possible at all time. He likely would have been bored by all the rehearsing necessary to film a musical, but watching “Wagon Master” you regret that he never did.

The Sons of the Pioneers also perform several songs throughout the movie written by Stan Jones. Wonderful songs they are too. If the movie was better known, the songs would be too.

The beauties of Monument Valley, Ford’s favorite local, are stunningly captured by Bert Glennon’s camera in beautiful black and white. There’s hardly any action until the end, but it’s as quick and violent a shootout as a 1950 western would allow.

The movie ends with a wonderful montage of wagon crossing, dancing and romantic stories tied up. We do get a title card that reads “The End’, but it really doesn’t. The film continues for another 15 seconds or so after “The End” title card disappears, as we see the wagon train a herd of horses cross a river, with a new young foal in the lead. Life goes on, and the community presses onward. There’s no end cast list and no end studio logo. The picture ends like it began – an ongoing story that will continue on long after the audience leaves.

“Wagon Master” only runs 85 minutes but each minute is a jewel. I enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to sharing it with others.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Much of the praise lavished on Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” mentions the brilliant opening dialogue sequence at a French farmhouse between a French farmer harboring Jewish neighbors and self-proclaimed Nazi killer Col. Hans Landa. Tarantino shows how intense well-written and delivered dialogue sequences can be, as thrilling as any large-scale action set piece. Viewers who thrilled to Tarantino’s movie would also likely enjoy “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” which is a whole series of beautifully written and performed meetings between criminals, undercover cops, informers and suppliers. It’s riveting from beginning to end.

Sporting a dead-on Boston accent, Robert Mitchum is Eddie Coyle, a beaten, low-level hood who is looking at jail time after being busted for smuggling illegal booze over the Canadian border. He’s willing to do anything to stay out of jail so his wife and kids won’t have to go on welfare. He’s even willing to turn informer, albeit reluctantly. His cop contact (Richard Jordan) wants more dirt than Eddie is willing to deliver. His friend (Alex Rocco) heads a bank robbery gang who look to Eddie to supply their guns. Eddie’s gun supplier (Steven Keats) also has a deal with some rebel Army kids to steal machine guns from the local Army base. His best friend (Peter Boyle) is a bartender who is also a stoolie for the cops. There’s no criminal code of honor on display here. Everyone is out to get whatever they can from each other.

All this is played out in a series of meetings in parking lots, cafeterias and all night restaurants in late autumn in Boston. The air of regret, lost hopes and dead avenues permeates every frame of this movie.

Eddie Coyle is one of Mitchum’s very best performances and that’s saying something, as he has delivered many seriously great performances. (Admittedly, Mitchum slept walk through just as many films if the project or role didn’t interest him. Have you ever seen him in the TV miniseries “The Winds of War” (1983)? He’s positively catatonic in that).

I’m sure Quentin Tarantino is a huge fan of this film. The gun runner’s name is Jackie Brown. When Tarantino adapted Elmore Leonard’s novel “Rum Punch” he changed the name of the character from Jackie Burke to Jackie Brown. It can’t be a coincidence.

Here’s sample of the dialogue, beautifully delivered by Mitchum when Jackie Brown tells Eddie he can’t make good on a gun delivery Eddie wants.

Coyle: All you got to know is I told the man that he could depend on me because you told me I could depend on you. Now one of us is gonna have a bit fat problem. Another thing I learned. If anybody’s gonna have a problem, you’re gonna be the one.

Brown: You finished?

Coyle: No, I am not finished. Look. I’m gettin’ old, you hear? I spent most of my life hanging around crummy joints with a buncha punks drinkin’ the beer, eatin’ the hash and the hot dogs and watching the other people go off to Florida while I’m sweatin’ out how I’m gonna pay the plumber. I done time and I stood up but I can’t take no more chances. Next time, it’s gonna be me goin’ to Florida.

This is 1970s cinema in the very best way, eschewing Hollywood glamour and stereotypes. It will stick with me for a long time.

Inglourious Basterds

I deliberately did not read anything about “Inglourious Basterds” and initial impressions were based solely on the trailer. So imagine my surprise when director Quentin Tarantino’s latest is nothing like I expected it to be. While a tad disappointing in some ways, it’s also far better than what I was expecting. I really liked it and think I will like it even more when I see it a second time. High praise from me, as this is one of the very few movies I’ve seen in the theaters this year that I would consider seeing a second time.

I won’t go into specifics so as to not spoil the surprises in store. All I’ll say is I was expecting a movie detailing the experts of a group of men on a dangerous mission, ala “The Guns of Navarone” (1961), “Where Eagles Dare” (1967) or “The Dirty Dozen” (1967). We get that, but it’s not the central part of the film, and for a film titled “Inglourious Basterds”, the title characters do not dominate the film.

Who does dominate the film is Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, who plays Col. Hans Landa, an SS colonel who can be charming, sly, witty, clever, brutal and treacherous in the blink of an eye. It’s a standout performance, and Waltz is sure to be remembered at Oscar time.

Waltz shines in all his scenes, especially in the film’s tense opening sequence when, early in the war, Landa and his men come to a farmhouse in the French countryside looking for Jewish refugees. It’s all dialogue, but written and acted so well that, in its own satisfying way, it’s the best action scene in the film. The way Landa relishes his glass of milk in this scene is unforgettable.

Shoshanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), one of the refugees, escapes from Landa and makes her way to Paris. Several years later, she’s operating a cinema in Paris, where she will again unexpectedly cross paths with Landa.

Waltz is so good (deservedly so) and is garnering so much attention, that I hope Brad Pitt isn’t overlooked.

Pitt plays the Basterds’ leader, Lt. Aldo Raine (one of the films many homages) and I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a performance so much. Pitt gives us what has sorely been lacking from movie screens of late, and that’s a real joy of performance. I’m so tired of contemporary actors being so serious all the time, muttering their lines in a sorry attempt to convey importance, and striving ever so hard to get to the “truth” of a character. Yawn.

Of course that’s important, but it also means we’ve missed the joy of actors giving us larger than life performances. Pitt does so here, and thank you very much. I missed the Lt. Aldo Raine character every second he was off screen, and if there should be a sequel, I hope Tarantino gives us more of this character.

The Basterds are on a mission and that mission is simple – to kill Nazis. Raine goes better and asks each men in his squad to deliver 100 Nazi scalps.

A big disappointment in the film is the lack of characterization given to the Basterds. We only get to know a couple of them, with prominence given to “Hostel” director Eli Roth as Sgt. Donowitz. Roth is a simply terrible actor and sinks every scene he’s in.

I also intensely disliked a cameo appearance by Mike Myers as a British general. He wears this stupid grin throughout, as if he’s Austin Powers impersonating a British officer. If Myers wants to be taken seriously, he has to learn to play his roles straight. Fortunately, in that scene we get a cameo from the great Rod Taylor as Winston Churchill. He’s only in the film a few minutes, but if I had known Rod Taylor was in it, I may have gone opening night. I truly appreciate that Tarantino has such a healthy apprecaition of cinema's past.

But such appreciation can be carried too far. I wish that Tarantino would stop raiding his LP and CD collections in compiling scores for his movies. In interviews, Tarantino has said he’s very protective of his films and doesn’t want to turn them over to a composer who may put a completely different spin on his movie. So instead of an original score, we get lots of cues here from the likes of Ennio Morricone and Charles Bernstein, not to mention the head-scratching inclusion of Dimitri Tiomkin’s great “The Green Leaves of Summer” from “The Alamo” (1960).

While I appreciate Tarantino the Film Nut in rescuing great neglected film music, these cues came from films where the directors were likely very appreciative of the extra dimension the composers provided for their films. Would Tarantino’s beloved Sergio Leone be the revered figure he is today without the original scores from Ennio Morricone? Not likely.

There’s not as much action as I thought, and it’s much more dialogue-driven than I expected, but “Inglourious Basterds” is still an absolute winner, despite my small reservations. There was a lot of applause at the Saturday afternoon matinee screening I saw, and it’s been a long time since I heard that. I can’t wait to see it again.