Django Unchained (QTR)

JATX

Hey, Strut-

Since there has been much talk about movies as of late, I figured I'd mention the new Tarantino movie coming out this Christmas, Django Unchained. I'm a fan of his movies and I'm looking forward to seeing this. What's the Strut's opinion on Tarantino? Genius, hack, somewhere in between? I can't embed, but a quick google search should take care of that.

I rarely post, but I've been on here for awhile. I'm Jason and I live in Texas. I like records, and, currently I'm big on swimming pools(Texas heat R).

rootlesscosmo

Tarantino is pretty damned good curator of other people's styles/flavors.

he has some turds.

he has some heat.

soulmarcosa

Dude's a genius. Can't even believe this is a debate anymore. Most filmmakers would be lucky to have created even ONE of the films in his oeuvre:

RESERVOIR DOGS
PULP FICTION
JACKIE BROWN
KILL BILL 1 & 2
DEATH PROOF
INGLORIOUS BASTERDS

If he were just a ripoff-artist, every one of these flicks would be a forgettable direct-to-video piece of junk instead of the iconic and influential art they almost all of them are. Like Godard, he uses his knowledge of pop culture not just to rehash it, but to comment, critique, and expand upon it. And though he's an amazing action and setpiece stylist, his real strength (to me) is his strong dialogue and deft Lumet-like handling of actors to get some of the best performances of their careers. Seriously, did Pam Grier, John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, or Robert Forster EVER turn in better performances for a director other than QT? You know the answer.

Besides, his flicks are challenging, controversial, entertaining, smart, stupid, hilarious and just a hell of a good time.

DJANGO UNCHAINED will be a killer flick that - like most of his work - will be a great ride both intellectually and viscerally as well as inspire lots of discussion afterwards, no doubt about it.

pcmr

and he is one of the last directors that makes me go to the cinema

Django is classic so i can't wait to see what he does with the genre

edith head

soulmarcosa said:

Dude's a genius. Can't even believe this is a debate anymore. Most filmmakers would be lucky to have created even ONE of the films in his oeuvre:

RESERVOIR DOGS
PULP FICTION
JACKIE BROWN
KILL BILL 1 & 2
DEATH PROOF
INGLORIOUS BASTERDS.

major cosign

grandpa_shig

i agree that he has established an excellent reputation but im curious to see how much of his films were dependent on his late editor, sally menke. im actually kind of excited to see the results, but i have a feeling she was one of the main reasons why his shit was always so correct.

Hotsauce84

You sure it'll be out by Christmas?? Last I read they hadn't even settled on the Will Smith vs Jamie Foxx vs Stringer Bell role.

dwyhajlo

He's a pretty good director, and I like many of his movies, but I don't think I would really rank anything of his except for Pulp Fiction - and these days I don't even think I would go for that one either. There's usually something really good to like about each of his movies - whether it's a particular scene or piece of dialogue or performance or whatever - but I find that they usually fall down when I consider them as a whole. For example, I really liked most of Pulp Fiction, but I thought that it lost a lot of momentum during the Bruce Willis section.

My favorite thing he ever did was the gay Top Gun monologue from that Sleep With Me movie.

He definitely is one of those directors whose every movie still feels like an "event", though.

grandpa_shig

i think his greatest and most personal achievement was jackie brown. first off it was an homage to the south bay. detailing the lifestyle and landmarks of the backbone of los angeles. if you look close, it has a very provincial style almost in stark contrast to the rest of his movies. and its no secret that upon release it was widely hated, but i think that had a lot to do with his slight departure from an aesthetic he was known for, and expected to continue. but he didnt.

it was a love story first and foremost. a chick flick for men. sure, there are caper elements, but the intimacy of the love narrative is what is truly remarkable. the 2 main actors are really nothing to look at, i mean in the grander scheme of hollywood actors. past their prime, tired and old, yet dealing with crushes and lust and love for the mature set. a movie about 2 old coots that have made all the mistakes possible in love, and have come out the other end so seasoned that a nary a titty nor a kiss need be shown to imply the passion. it was so subtle in all its devices that i think in hindsight a lot of people have warmed up to it. for example take the device of the delfonics. jackie brown loved the delfonics. in time, the dude went to the record shop and picked up a copy. who among us hasnt been so influenced by a woman (or man) to the point that you have done the same. i know i have. she doesnt need the bad motherfucker wallet cuz she is the wallet. such a delicate touch on tarantinos part.

and the ending. part western part final scene of casablanca. forrester has to let her go because this is her world. the overarching theme is about men who understand this. that for such a macho director, to suggest that the woman is always the boss is the true macho archetype. and so contrary to his audience and their expectations. a straight up masterpiece that takes a lot of genres and flips them. rivaling if not besting the most underhanded of french movies. dude killed it. granted, everything else has been high octane in comparison, but this just illustrates his mastery.

BallzDeep

True Romance is my all time favorite movie.

herbacios tweed

i'm not a Q fanboy so i really don't know shit about his upcoming projects. good for him.

was about to poast that Sweet and Lowdown already had Django covered.

soulmarcosa

grandpa_shig said:

i think his greatest and most personal achievement was jackie brown.

Agreed, for all the points you stated so well. JB is seriously underrated and hands-down my favorite QT flick.

Sebastian Haff

Herm said:

You sure it'll be out by Christmas?? Last I read they hadn't even settled on the Will Smith vs Jamie Foxx vs Stringer Bell role.

Yeah it's due out next Christmas not this one.

JATX

My mistake on the date, sorry.

Jacki Brown is my favorite. Tarantino said he made Jacki Brown after Pulp Fiction to show he's not all style over substance, as some have criticized him for.

I was watching True Romance with Tarantino's commentary the other night. Pretty interesting to listen to, as he details the struggles he went through to sell TR to anybody with money(he mentions having sold TR to an exploitation movie company before Tony Scott took interest). The first three scripts he wrote would be enough to make any screen writer envious:

True Romance
Natural Born Killers
Reservoir Dogs

edith head

There are a lot of things I like about QT but one thing that is consistent with all his movies is that he seems to be a good actor's director and makes movies and characters that draw out great performances from actors I would normally be meh about, like bruce willis or daryl hannah off the top of my head.

also, i love the way his movies look

CousinLarry

edith head said:

There are a lot of things I like about QT but one thing that is consistent with all his movies is that he seems to be a good actor's director and makes movies and characters that draw out great performances from actors I would normally be meh about, like bruce willis or daryl hannah off the top of my head.

Too true, I re-watched Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs recently. Having not seen PF in about 10 years, it was the performances that really got me this time around. Travolta and Thurman really play off each other and so many things are said between them without any dialog.

I remember really enjoying Jackie Brown when I saw it and I need to watch it again soon. Rum Punch, the book he based it on is great, and you can tell QT is strongly influenced by Elmore Leonard.

grandpa_shig

im telling you dudes, its really hard to collaborate let alone find someone with whom to collaborate. the dude has always conceded to her importance.





sally menke rip

JATX

Shig-

I agree it will hard to replace Sally Menke. Not to take anything away from her at all, but I'm pretty sure Tarantino was next to her the whole time she cut his movies.

grandpa_shig

oh no, im not tryng to take anything away from tarantino. these are his movies afterall. but a true collaborative process isnt something that comes easy or often. and i think his movies will be profoundly affected by her absence. the amount of effort tarantino put in to include her in the process (hi sally reels) and the stories of countless arguments and fights with her only allude to how much he rightfully valued her input and discretion. when you look back at the "auteurs" of cinema, its not the director/dp relationship that matters as much as it is the director/editor. a lot of times its the directors spouse that cuts it all together because, who's opinion is more trusted than the one you love? i think in one of those clips he even goes as far as to equate it to a marriage.

edith head

Martin said:

those not mentioning inglorious as one of his best are just batshit crazy.

Who's doing that? I LOVE LOVE LOVE that movie.

edith head

CousinLarry said:

Too true, I re-watched Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs recently. Having not seen PF in about 10 years, it was the performances that really got me this time around. Travolta and Thurman really play off each other and so many things are said between them without any dialog.

Yep.



I see a QT marathon happening in my near future

Junior

Apologies in advance but I didn't like Inglorious Basterds. I feel his films have been getting worse in quality since Jackie Brown ( I still greatly enjoyed a lot of Kill Bill but think it would have been even better cropped into one 2/2 and a half hour film).
Maybe it's just my tastes changing but his films seem more pastiche than content these days and to me it felt like Inglorious in particular really didn't gel as an actual movie. There was one great scene in the bar which I thought was fantastic but the rest of it left me cold and disinterested with scenes that seemed composed because he'd heard a song rather than for any actual content.

Perhaps I'm looking for the wrong things in his films but Jackie Brown felt like he was taking the snappy dialogue, great handling of characters, etc from his earlier films and adding depth to them (agree that even outside that film he's definitely inspired by Leonard) but since then he seems to have regressed ever more so you end up with something like Death Proof where the characters sit in the car talking stylised dialogue for what seems like an age without any purpose beyond QT getting off on it.

I loved that stuff back when Pulp Fiction came out and remember coming out of the cinema a fresh faced 17 year old thinking that I had found my new film god but that was 16 years ago and I'd kind of hoped he had more tricks. I feel like the Weinsteins are too happy to leave him to do what he does and a little bit of direction and control would really help at this stage in his career.

Also, Death Proof was really, really, boring.

leon

Junior said:

Apologies in advance but I didn't like Inglorious Basterds. I feel his films have been getting worse in quality since Jackie Brown ( I still greatly enjoyed a lot of Kill Bill but think it would have been even better cropped into one 2/2 and a half hour film).
Maybe it's just my tastes changing but his films seem more pastiche than content these days and to me it felt like Inglorious in particular really didn't gel as an actual movie. There was one great scene in the bar which I thought was fantastic but the rest of it left me cold and disinterested with scenes that seemed composed because he'd heard a song rather than for any actual content.

Perhaps I'm looking for the wrong things in his films but Jackie Brown felt like he was taking the snappy dialogue, great handling of characters, etc from his earlier films and adding depth to them (agree that even outside that film he's definitely inspired by Leonard) but since then he seems to have regressed ever more so you end up with something like Death Proof where the characters sit in the car talking stylised dialogue for what seems like an age without any purpose beyond QT getting off on it.

I loved that stuff back when Pulp Fiction came out and remember coming out of the cinema a fresh faced 17 year old thinking that I had found my new film god but that was 16 years ago and I'd kind of hoped he had more tricks. I feel like the Weinsteins are too happy to leave him to do what he does and a little bit of direction and control would really help at this stage in his career.

Also, Death Proof was really, really, boring.

I haven't seen Death Proof, but i didn't think Inglorious Basterds was a great film, too. Another genre getting the pastiche treatment by QT. This opinion spawned a lot of debate with friends tho, which i enjoyed. Pulp fiction was pinnacle post-modern tho. That said, i'm really looking forward to his new film.

Electrode

I ride. Although I don't feel an overwhelming need to revisit any one of them for a third time any time soon, RD, JB, PF and KB are very clever. He's "one of us" on the record/movie collecting obscurophile tip. He also helped keep the New Beverly Theater in LA going. And whoever said that his films are like "events" hit it dead center. So yeah, I am a fan.

That said, he has plenty of corny moments. I would much rather hear an interview with Martin Scorsese or Robert Osbourne, for example, talking about their favorite offbeat films than see one with him, rocking back and forth in his chair and going off on tangents about how Elizabeth Allen's bare feet were the subject of his first wet dream or something like that. Also, I hate when other directors feel the need to add "Tarantino-esque" moments (characters watching movies that vaguely parallel the situations at hand, inane dialogue, etc) to their films, although that's not really his fault.

BallzDeep

i don't like the ending to Inglorious, but the opening scene is amazing.
everything in between ranges from ok to good.

parallax

DocMcCoy

grandpa_shig said:

i think his greatest and most personal achievement was jackie brown. first off it was an homage to the south bay. detailing the lifestyle and landmarks of the backbone of los angeles. if you look close, it has a very provincial style almost in stark contrast to the rest of his movies. and its no secret that upon release it was widely hated, but i think that had a lot to do with his slight departure from an aesthetic he was known for, and expected to continue. but he didnt.

it was a love story first and foremost. a chick flick for men. sure, there are caper elements, but the intimacy of the love narrative is what is truly remarkable. the 2 main actors are really nothing to look at, i mean in the grander scheme of hollywood actors. past their prime, tired and old, yet dealing with crushes and lust and love for the mature set. a movie about 2 old coots that have made all the mistakes possible in love, and have come out the other end so seasoned that a nary a titty nor a kiss need be shown to imply the passion. it was so subtle in all its devices that i think in hindsight a lot of people have warmed up to it. for example take the device of the delfonics. jackie brown loved the delfonics. in time, the dude went to the record shop and picked up a copy. who among us hasnt been so influenced by a woman (or man) to the point that you have done the same. i know i have. she doesnt need the bad motherfucker wallet cuz she is the wallet. such a delicate touch on tarantinos part.

and the ending. part western part final scene of casablanca. forrester has to let her go because this is her world. the overarching theme is about men who understand this. that for such a macho director, to suggest that the woman is always the boss is the true macho archetype. and so contrary to his audience and their expectations. a straight up masterpiece that takes a lot of genres and flips them. rivaling if not besting the most underhanded of french movies. dude killed it. granted, everything else has been high octane in comparison, but this just illustrates his mastery.

How the fuck did I miss this? Beautiful stuff.

I've always considered Jackie Brown to be his masterpiece, and I agree that many people just didn't get it at the time. Me & my girl have watched it countless times, more than any of his other flicks. and it actually improves with repeat viewing in a way that his more celebrated movies perhaps don't. I read the ending in a different, more conventionally romantic way to you, but I nevertheless think it's a beautifully directed and played scene, probably my favourite cinematic moment of the last twenty years.

SIRUS

God, what house put this trailer together? "Django is off the chain!" UGH

Lamont

Checked the trailer and browsed over the leaked script for Django but I can't see this being top 5 material. Eyecandy and styling made Bill rise above the B-Movie made with A budget concept but this looks too OTT.

Plantweed

Basterds works fine on a surface level, but to fully appreciate the subtleties it helps to have some deep knowledge of war films and their tropes. The only reviewer I've seen that really picked up on this was Savant. Check this out, he gets it:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s3082bast.html

JATX

Anybody watch Django, yet? I saw it on Christmas Day and I loved it. Foxx is dope, Leo is dope, Waltz steals it again. I read a review that said Waltz is pretty much playing his Basterds character, only set in a different time period. Tarantino did this with Sam Jackson in Pulp Ficiton and Jackie Brown. Certain people say his dialogue a certain way, and when Tarantino finds someone who can do this, he uses to it for all it's worth. it works IMO.

I read he may be comleting his trilogy after Django with a movie called "Killer Crow." It was supposed to be in Basterds when it was originally written as a tv mini-series. It's about African-American soldiers in WW2 doing essentially what the Basterds were doing but against white American g.i.s. I'm waiting for Kill Bill 3, personally.