2. WHAT IS POSTMODERNISM?
Postmodernism could best be described as an
abundance of hybrid genres that take semiotic raids
on media texts.
The influx of postmodern thinking started after the
modernist movement in the 1900s showing an
incredulity towards meta narratives – such as
religion, philosophy and art.
Some features of postmodernity include hyper
realism (which is the idea of breaking the illusion of
fantasy and realty, heavily featuring in this
film), intertextuality and pastiche.
3. FACTS ABOUT THE FILM
Django Unchained (2012)
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Leonardo Dicaprio, Kerry
Washington and Samuel L Jackson.
IMDB Synopsis: With the help of a German bounty
hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife
from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner
Tagline: The D is silent. But payback won’t be
Genres: Adventure, Drama, Western
Directed by: Quentin Tarrantino
Grossed:
Opening Weekend: :$30,122,888
Worldwide: $425,368,238
4. TARRANTINO AS A DIRECTOR
Abstract films written and directed by Quentin
Tarantino between 1991 and 2012 have been
variously admired for their styles, visual and verbal
wit, three-dimensional characterization and
character development and unique narrative
structure. His ability to skillfully involve postmodern
elements, unique characterization and non-linear
narrative structures in comprehensive, original and
effective ways is a mark of his adeptness as both a
writer and director.
5. WHY IS IT POSTMODERN?
Django Unchained (2012) is a film often seen as
controversial, due to the frequent use of the n-word in
the script which viewers found offensive. Quentin
Tarantino is all about effect and will hold nothing back
in his brutal exposition of the wild west, regardless of
how badly his audience may react. Leading this boycott
due to its strong and apparently suggestible racial
themes was director Spike Lee, who often claimed
Tarantino is a racist for using the n-word frequently in his
films.
Spike Lee said he refused to see Django Unchained
and the film was racist due to it’s intense use of the nword and depiction of slaves, not in spite of that.
However, if we delve deeper underneath the suave cool
exterior of Django, we can find some true exposition
about race and culture.
6. EXAMPLES OF POSTMODERNITY (1):
HYRBRIZATION (COMEDY WITH WESTERN)
The plight and burden of the black man is not one well
covered in the western genre, regardless of it’s deep historical
roots. Or, on a more larger scale, is not a huge concern of the
genre’s topics and tropes other than the occasional revisionist
western about native Americans in a very subversive manner.
I think some of the backlash regarding Django Unchained is
simply because it wasn’t a harrowing sad tale of exploitation.
It was an exhilarating celebration of freedom.
It’s because Tarantino used the terrible exploitation of the past
and rehashed them into an entertaining popular culture film,
which some people don’t respect on that level of ideology and
symbolism purely because it’s so sleek and stylized. Maybe it
doesn’t have the elegance and sympathetic tones of Roots, or
as much mourning because Django Unchained is about
Django’s (Jamie Foxx) empowerment and his fight to become
and be respected as equal.
7. EXAMPLES OF POSTMODERNITY(2)
Now it’s not exactly hard to say the man who enjoys making
black people fight to death for his amusement is racist. But
some of the more subtle elements of scenes containing Calvin
(Leonardo DiCaprio) depict him as corrupt, and not just his
actions. While he may play the dapper gentleman in his suits
surrounded by high luxury and decorum, nothing can hide his
buck yellow teeth, a traditional mise-en-scene sign that
someone is of amoral values.
Not to mention the literal sense in his name relating to this:
candy, sweets, decay, etc. He’s also quite intolerant, as he
likes to be addressed by Monsieur Candie. Yet Mr. Mogli
deters King Schultz from speaking French to Candie as it will
anger him and make him feel stupid. The dessert they have
after the entree? ’White cake’. Symbolism doesn’t get much
more evident than that. In addition it was Stephen who saw
the ruse of King’s plan, as Calvin had completely believed
them. Calvin maybe put on a show, but ultimately he’s nothing
without the power of slavery.
8. EXAMPLES OF POSTMODERNITY(3): INTERTEXUAL
ANALYSIS
The score of Django is a very pop-culture mash of many
genres, time periods and so forth. However when you apply
thoughts of race and culture in analysis of the film’s theatrical
score and soundtrack, it certainly has more gumption in it’s
overall role. It has a lot of country and western music as you’d
expect and the music of the deep south, the setting of the film.
But in addition it has Rap, in addition to soul featuring a rather
potent appearance of the track ‘Unchained,’ a remix of James
Brown and 2Pac. The appearance of two of the biggest
names in Soul and Rap, often referred to as the very zenith of
black musical culture is not a sheer coincidence. The
soundtrack represents the ideological clash, the culture of the
uncultured redneck and the oppressive white man, juxtaposed
with black contemporary culture which is quite an
empowerment in Django’s minor elements.
9. FILM REVIEW FROM THE METRO:
Film review: Quentin Tarantino’s much-hyped spaghetti western Django Unchained
arrives in the UK trailing controversy in its wake – but away from the furore, it’s a
thrilling yarn.
Quentin Tarantino’s multi-award-nominated latest finally arrives trailing more than the usual
clouds of controversy.
Set in a pre-Civil War Deep South, it sees a black slave called Django (a dignified Jamie
Foxx) freed by a hilariously loquacious white German dentist (Golden Globe-winning Christoph
Waltz) in order to bag a big-bucks bounty. The two men then join forces to find Django’s lost
wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), enslaved on the notorious Candieland plantation ruled
over by Leonardo DiCaprio’s effete sadist and his eye-rollingly evil head butler (Samuel L
Jackson).
It may boast 104 uses of the ‘n’ word but is this reinvented spaghetti western/slavevengeance fantasy racist, as Spike Lee slammed it? No, I say: it’s an intelligently
provocative, massively entertaining exercise in postmodern revisionism, highlighting how
shamefully few movies Hollywood has ever made about slavery.
Sure, it’s a Tom and Jerry view of the conflict: the white Americans, also including Don ‘Miami
Vice’ Johnson, here given a late-career boost (à la John Travolta in Pulp Fiction) as Big
Daddy, are all boo-hiss baddies. And the whoop-inspiring gore is often equally cartoonish: an
awesome, blood-splattered finale is visually akin to a 15m Santa entirely made from strawberry
jam, exploding with delight. But that sensationally tasty style is here slathered on real
substance.
This is the mature work Tarantino fans have been praying for. As ever, the director is as much
into the verbal as the violence and though, given the 165-minute run time, his
sophisticated, action-halting dialogue could have easily been trimmed, the sole unforgiveable
indulgence is the Kill Bill auteur’s own cringeworthy cameo.
Django Unchained is, above all, a film that feels thrillingly alive.
http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/18/django-unchained-sees-quentin-tarantino-back-to-his-thrilling-best-3356391/
