Ray and I went with friends today out to lunch and then to the movies for Ray’s birthday. We saw Django Unchained. We are both back home now, exhausted from the movie, but happy we went. It is grueling at times to watch, but well worth the effort. The story of slavery – if told truly – is an awful one and this was no exception. The good part was Django’s role as an avenger of countless wrongs and a hero to his tortured wife. Yes, this made the movie well worth seeing.
Christopher Waltz was superb in his role of bounty hunter/friend to Django, certainly deserving of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and the screenplay – all 2 3/4 hours of it – was engaging, intriguing, inventive, and darkly funny (in parts), as well as violent and disturbing. Certainly all good reasons why Quentin Tarantino deserved the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Samuel L. Jackson’s role was totally detestable, which was exactly as it was meant to be. The ending is extremely satisfying.
All of the hoopla about the n-word falls on deaf eyes at least for me. Writing a story about slavery in America 2 years before the Civil War and trying to avoid the n-word would be ludicrous. Politically correct language would destroy the credibility of the movie, at least from my point of view. Overall, I thought the movie and its message were excellent and created a level of discomfort that is appropriate given that horrific time in American history. It is not bad for any of us to be reminded of the evil of human beings owning other human beings, and the abject abuse that occurred.
So, not the lightest movie ever for a birthday celebration, but one that Ray and I are both glad we saw.
If you haven’t seen Django Unchained, I would urge you to see it. It is somehow entertaining while forcing the audience to really “see” slavery for the horror that it was. There is a real love story in it, as well, between a man and a woman as well as between two unlikely friends. Well worth seeing, indeed.
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