The D Is Silent

I just came back from seeing Django Unchained and my original plan was to pen something about how the movie made me feel, but I got sidelined by the discovery that there's apparently a lot of negative reaction to the film. I must have been living under a rock, because I had no idea. Sifting through all of the cursing and self-righteousness, I've found a handful of coherent arguments that accuse Tarantino of making a half-hearted, Hollywood, white-washed depiction of slavery.

These people obviously haven't seen the film. I'll admit, when I saw the trailer back in the summer I shook my head thinking "really?" I've seen all of his movies except Grindhouse and I expected some kind of tongue-in-cheek, dialogue-heavy film. I like those kinds of films, so I figured, why not. What I got, was a hell of a ride.

I've seen enough superhero movies in my time to be all to familiar with the buildup of tension throughout a film and I've become quite numb to the eventual payouts. While Django is anything but a superhero film, the formula is about the same. Step 1, show the horros of slavery. Step 2, introduce an unlikely hero. Step 3, the hero saves the day.

You know what though? All of the accusations of the writer/director doing a half-assed job of showing the horrors of slavery are unfounded in my opinion. Granted, the movie didn't show every aspect of the physical, psychological and cultural damage of slavery, but no movie can. Slavery was the backdrop, not the subject of the film. Still, what he did show was enough to drive the point home. And trust me, it wasn't white-washed at all.

Without spoiling anything, I'll say that there were scenes where even I found myself looking away. I love gory, kill-em-up films, but there were some moments in this one where emotion took over. Those people getting the hell beat out of them look like me and the only reason they're getting maimed is because they look like me. Cue Jamie Foxx, the superhero.

Yeah, it's not a superhero movie, but like I said, the formula is the same. Only this time, I'm not engaged because there's some monster trying to destroy a city. I'm fully on board because I just spent the last hour and a half watching people being treated like animals and I've never hated a fictional character as much as I do the people the screen right now. So when Django rides in on his horse, I get excited.

His costume is the indignation that 21st century me carries around. It's the dignity and self respect that I've been taught to exemplify my entire life, because, for centuries, some people did their best to beat it out of us. The feeling I get is akin to what I felt whenever I used to wrap a towel around my neck as a child and pretend to be flying around with Superman on the screen. I see a former slave ride into a plantation and do what so many of us claim we'd do "if I were alive back then."

Was it the best movie of all time? Absolutely not. It's not even my favorite Tarantino film. But I came away entertained and I stood and clapped more times than I'd like to admit. And I wasn't alone in doing so. No one walked out of that theater thinking "slavery wasn't that bad." If anything, people walked out feeling bad that Django wasn't real.