So I get a call from my girl Shannise and she wants to organize a small
group of people to see Django and
maybe film our reaction afterwards in a short commentary. You can see our
response below.
Tarantino's Django is about a slave turned bounty hunter although I should mention that there was a 1966 film Django about a gunslinger that gets caught in the middle of a feud between the KKK and Mexican bandits.
Typically I have issues with "race" films in Hollywood. They are
typically always done through the lens of the mainstream and usually fall short
in exploring any kind of authentic narrative as it relates to historical race
relations in this country.
When I heard that Tarantino was directing Django I was a bit hesitant.
Then I saw the film and well I definitely had reason to be cautious.
Then to add insult to injury I read about Tarantino's recent comments on Alex
Haley's “Roots.” You may want to take a
shot of Petron before you read this.
“When you look at Roots, nothing about it rings true in the storytelling,
and none of the performances ring true for me either,” said Tarantino. “I
didn’t see it when it first came on, but when I did I couldn’t get over how
oversimplified they made everything about that time. It didn’t move me because
it claimed to be something it wasn’t.”
Hmm, who do I go with on this one? Alex Haley who spent years researching the
lineage and story of his ancestors or Quentin Tarantino who thought taking the atrocities
of slavery and couching that in a spaghetti western would prove more authentic.
Now don't get me wrong "Roots" was just one story from one man’s perspective
but for Tarantino to fix his lips that Django
is a more authentic film is just ridiculous. Just because you have folks in
period costume and some of the most A list actors in Hollywood using the N word
incessantly does not guarantee authenticity.
Tarantino's Django is absolute fantasy and beyond anything
authentic. Jamie Foxx's character would have been beaten, lynched and
killed at the first eye roll or sucking of his teeth much less killing white
people.
And don't get me started with all the other historical inaccuracies like:
all the dark skin folks in the big house; the "chamber maids" being
to comfortable in mix company; Samuel L. Jackson's entire irreverant character and the
worst infraction the "white" woman of the house escorting comfort
girls to her guest.
Most of the hysteria and fear of historical Southern culture was around the
effort to keep the "White" woman pure and chaste. They would never have
subjected her to such spectacles like stripping a black slave woman down at the
dinner table!
So instead of bashing "Roots," Tarantino needs to send the Haley's estate a
muffin basket because without the historical and visual references of "Roots" his
film would not be as provocative.
Django could not seem to find its legs and vacillated between wanting to
be a comedy or serious drama.
Side note, why is it that the historical African-American experience is
allowed to be trivialized?
Tarantino has obviously been influenced by Hip Hop, Blackploitation
films, martial arts films and anime but these are genres. There is no
genre for Black Super Hero slave films? When you look at his body of work he
plays with characters from these genres but they are characters and by default
typically very surface. That does not lend itself to being able to competently
take on a serious narrative on slavery.
He could have easily just done a western with the same plot without slavery
as a backdrop.
I just started gaming and this film felt like a first person shooter video
game. There was a loose narrative that really strung along opportunities for
someone to kill folks or blow things up.
It could have ended about forty minutes earlier.
Another rant, what is it with all of these three hour long movies? Can
we not tell a comprehensive story in an hour and a half anymore? It's called
editing people!
So why are so many people enjoying this film, especially black folks?
My theory is that Tarantino needs to thank BET.
Why?
BET ran
Roots during the holiday’s right before Django's release. I think after
sitting through the "Roots" series, again for some folks and dealing with several
days of hard times and beat downs watching Django for some folks becomes a cinematic, WWF, grudge match, smack
down of revenge an release.
But alas fantasy retaliation was not enough to keep my interest in Django.
Anyway you will have to see it for yourself but much like Birth of a
Nation I only have to see Django once!
Please enjoy our video commentary with Emiene Wright, Alex Wright and
myself. A big shout out to Shannise Jackson-Ndaye for production and editing
and also Glenn Burkins and Q City Metro.
