Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012)

The claws are out… Ennio Morricone crticises Quentin Tarantino for his choice of music placement in Django Unchained and says he won’t work with him again:

[url]http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/italian-composer-morricone-slams-tarantino-428954[/url]

Yeah, I saw this and was pretty surprised, but after thinking about it I shouldn’t have been…who knows what goes on “behind the scenes” of these things…

I didn’t see this particular point covered in my reading of the other replies, but here’s an article I did covering the overlapping themes of the original Django plus two 1970’s blaxploitation westerns that had the same type of premise as Django Unchained.

If anyone considers this spamming please feel free to delete this reply, I’m a legit poster and I love SW conversations, so I’m not looking to get blocked from the forums.

why would anyone block you? thanks for posting the link

Some boards (Not SW, mostly sci-fi people) are overly paranoid about what they consider “spam”, so I figured I should be careful since I’m still new here.

Don’t worry, our only paranoid member is long history … :wink:

Gone, but not forgotten

Was sick with a virus when this hit the cinemas so decided to wait for the DVD release.

Well, what to say without doing a whole essay? I have to say that, on the whole, I enjoyed it and would put it as something of a return to form for QT. (I wasn’t keen on either Inglorious Basterds or Deathproof) Some good set pieces, good actions sequences (shootouts) and a pretty good script. This was all helped along by some excellent work by the entire cast. Foxx makes a badass Blaxploitation Django, Waltz steals the show as usual with his German bounty killer, DiCaprio is just fine as the slave owning bastard and there are enough tantalising cameos from the likes of Bruce Dern and Don Johnson (let alone the real Django himself) to have me coming away wanting more.

Yet, paradoxically, I also came away wanting about a half hour less. For all the good stuff there are some downright baggy scenes (the scene with QT himself in was completely unnecessary for example) and far too many montage sequences with musical backdrops that just go on without taking the story very far forward. Plus, it has to be said, the ending was pretty damn poor (when was the last time QT came up with a decent ending to one of his films?) and that is always a major problem as it’s the last thing you take away from the film and leaves a negative feeling where there could have been a positive one. In fact, for me, he made 3 big errors with the ending when even one could be damaging enough.

This all makes it sound like I am down on the film and, genuinely, for the most part, I’m not. I enjoyed it. But I guess my feeling is that I would have to file this one alongside the Kill Bill films. It contains some of his best stuff but also some of his worst errors and highlights why constant quoting of great moments from other people’s films will often obscure the good stuff of your own that you should be highlighting.

All in all, it is entertaining stuff with some fine highlights but just enough failings to leave me thinking it was still something of a wasted opportunity.

I know what you mean…when I saw it in the theater I came away thinking it was a little too long but it didn’t bother me. When I saw the DVD, I felt the same, but it bugged me the second time. I guess in the future I’ll just have to stop it after DiCaprio wants his hand shook.

This happens alot now…movies tend to have more than one ending (“Lincoln” was the same thing)…wasn’t like that years ago.

I watched the movie for the first time on BluRay last night and must say I’m kind of disappointed.

I mostly agree with Phil:" For all the good stuff there are some downright baggy scenes (the scene with QT himself in was completely unnecessary for example) and far too many montage sequences with musical backdrops that just go on without taking the story very far forward. Plus, it has to be said, the ending was pretty damn poor (when was the last time QT came up with a decent ending to one of his films?) and that is always a major problem as it’s the last thing you take away from the film and leaves a negative feeling where there could have been a positive one. In fact, for me, he made 3 big errors with the ending when even one could be damaging enough."

Of course Waltz is great and I really like the beginning of the movie but from there it kind of goes downstairs for me. The sequenzes in the snow are too few/short and well, I don’t know how to express myself…? Maybe I’ll have to watch it again and maybe my expectations were too high!? What disappoints me the most is the “pretty damn poor” ending.

That doesn’t mean I dislike the movie but it just can’t live up to my expectations :-\

[quote=“Bluntwolf, post:390, topic:2720”]I watched the movie for the first time on BluRay last night and must say I’m kind of disappointed.

I mostly agree with Phil:" For all the good stuff there are some downright baggy scenes (the scene with QT himself in was completely unnecessary for example) and far too many montage sequences with musical backdrops that just go on without taking the story very far forward. Plus, it has to be said, the ending was pretty damn poor (when was the last time QT came up with a decent ending to one of his films?) and that is always a major problem as it’s the last thing you take away from the film and leaves a negative feeling where there could have been a positive one. In fact, for me, he made 3 big errors with the ending when even one could be damaging enough."

Of course Waltz is great and I really like the beginning of the movie but from there it kind of goes downstairs for me. The sequenzes in the snow are too few/short and well, I don’t know how to express myself…? Maybe I’ll have to watch it again and maybe my expectations were too high!? What disappoints me the most is the “pretty damn poor” ending.

That doesn’t mean I dislike the movie but it just can’t live up to my expectations :-[/quote]

I agree, except I would go further. I didn’t like this movie much at all. It is clear that there was some good stuff here, but the movie was unfocused and poorly constructed ~ and it feels like a warmed over retread of what he has done before. Given that expectations were so high, many viewers who are lukewarm on the movie are trying too hard to like it. In a few years I think that this will go down as one of Tarantino’s worst as well as the movie which marked his creative decline.

I have to say I agree too
and I totaly agree with that “Given that expectations were so high”

[quote=““John Welles””]The claws are out… Ennio Morricone crticises Quentin Tarantino for his choice of music placement in Django Unchained and says he won’t work with him again:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/italian-composer-morricone-slams-tarantino-428954[/quote]

Ouch, that must really sting for Tarantino, coming from Morricone. I gotta say the one scene towards the ending shootout where Tarantino decided to put the rap song was pretty ridiculous and out of place.

I liked the movie though and don’t feel any need to judge it past the standards I have when watching spaghs, although I guess perhaps it should be judged on a higher level considering the kind of budget and capabilities Tarantino was working with compared to those predecessors.

I just really enjoyed being able to see a new western at the cinema - saw it twice at the theatre and considered a third time.

that is an age old quote and has since been rebuked as out of context

I wasn’t too keen on it either. I think Tarantino’s decline started with Kill Bill, I tried watching that again recently, it was painful.

that is an age old quote and has since been rebuked as out of context

Ah, I just like the films- don’t care too much about keeping up with the people’s gossip

Not sure that March of 2013 qualifies as age old, though :wink:

I enjoyed the film a lot although it was indeed a trifle too long for its own good and the rap music was annoying when there was such good music from the old sws at hand… Maybe it’s my idea, but the ending showing the girl on the horse smiling all the time was a little stupid… Upon the whole it was a pleasant surprise though.

I watched it yesterday for the first time. I have deliberately waited with watching it until I could watch it for free because I expected it to be bad.
And after watching it I must confess that my expectations were honored.
What a piece of crap it is, it’s even worse than “The inglorious bastards”.

3/10.

I enjoyed it, but I think I liked the script more than the film. The deviations in the movie vs. script are large in their impact, and add only comical exaggerated blood splatter at the cost of characterization. The deviations also serve to undermine the internal logic of the movie to a degree and undercut the whole piece.

Its a piece of crap, watched it at the cinema and don’t want to see it again.