I saw the film tonight. Tarentino has the intellect of a 14 year old combined with awesome technical skills. The film is fun. If Mel Brooks can have fun with the Inquisition and the Nazis, I don't see the problem with Django. This film is "Inglorious Basterds" but about slavery, through the medium of the spaghetti Western.
Additional comments interspersed below. On Tue, Jan 1, 2013 at 2:08 PM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/01/hollywoods-nigger-joke/ > Tarantino's "Django: Unchained" > Hollywood’s Nigger Joke > by CECIL BROWN > > . . . > > Ishmael Reed, the novelist, pointed out how the Weinstein Company > promoted an advertising campaign to get a black audience by promoting > Jamie Foxx as the star. In fact, Foxx is only one of the stars, along > with Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio. As Reed points out, Foxx > spends most of his time looking at Mr.Waltz and then looking at Mr. > DiCaprio, with a puzzled look on his face, as if to say, What’s dese > white folks, talkin ‘bout? > > >>> (MBS) This last is utter bullshit. I usually like Reed, by the way. . . . If Jackson had not dominated the Hollywood system in such a sly way, > then his role as Stephen, the master-worshipping house slave to Calvin > Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) would not have its loaded, edgy, uncanny > realism. The plantation is called CandieLand (Candyland) and is meant to > refer to Hollywood itself as a producer of entertainment (Candy). Get it? > > >>> (MBS) More nonsense. There is no Hollywood subtext in the film. None. > . . . > > The plot of Django:Unchainedis: “With the help of his mentor, a > slave-turned bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal > Mississippi plantation owner.” And: “Former dentist, Dr. King Schultz, > buys the freedom of a slave, Django,and trains him with the intent to > make him his deputy bounty hunter. Instead, he is led to the site of > Django’s wife who is in the hands of Calvin Candie a ruthless plantation > owner.” > > >>> (MBS) As plot summary, this is incompetent. > . . . set-up, a pretext. The real text, the underlying message was the > punchline that Blacks in slavery were fools and cowards. > > >>>> (MBS) ditto . . . Where I saw the film, at the AMC theater, in Emeryville California, the > audience was the same one that had voted for Obama. When I waited in the > long line to see the film, people’s faces were glowing with > expectation. The hype about Jamie Foxx and Sam Jackson and Kerry > Washington was like voting for a Black man for President. > > >>> (MBS) Audience in my theater -- mixed audience -- loved the film, applauded when it ended. . . . Would a Jewish American > audience tolerate a film that makes fun of their history and their > holocaust? >>> (MBS) N.B. Mel Brooks, also Tarentino's "Inglorious Basterds." Somebody ought to write diatribes against 'Hollywood,' but there have to be better ones than this.
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