I am a lover of stories. Preferably of whimsical tales of yore, or one with turns and twists. I love heroes; I especially love when the underdog wins. I crave a believable, succinct plot.
My need for a story with a plot with no holes in it is why I hate Tyler Perry movies, simply because his plots leave a lot to be desired! Black cinema leaves a lot to be desired period. I don't want a story of black, everyday life drama: the down and out mom, struggling to find love while raising her kids; the gangster tales; the cheating husband; the comedian in drag parading as an old grandma or ghetto chick. Of course, as is the case of "black trailblazers" we pay homage to these movies because they were the firsts of their kinds, and in the case of School Daze, Malcolm X and Boyz in the Hood, masterpieces, but more often than not pandering to what makes money. And while we have had our Tyler Perry and Spike Lee and John Singleton, none has produced that one whimsical, fantasy, tale of a black hero. There has been no tale of adventure, love, struggle and history all wrapped together in one movie sitting told from the black experience. And I have waited, loving instead the stories of Sherlock Holmes and all the others Hollywood has given me instead.
I have finally been given my black hero tale. I have been given all my heart has desired in a movie!
I will be honest. When I first heard of the movie Django, I felt it was going to be a Catcher Freeman-esq film with some slave with super powers and he goes around self-righteously killing white slave owners as far as the eye could see. You Boondocks fans know who Catcher Freeman is, and can identify with my angst. Clearly, a slave hero would be all we need him to be: cunning, strong, manly, compassionate, loving, and fighting for his freedom.
Django is my new hero. He was everything I envisioned a hero slave man to be. He was wise beyond measure; the same wisdom Jim had in Huckleberry: a slave but wise nonetheless. His character was realistic, and outlined the paradox of his existence. And when he chose his royal blue outfit! I believe I could see that being a truthful occurrence! He did everything he could to save his lady love, and had her at the tales end. The plot was so dead on, Django managed to have a foil in Stephen, Sam L. Jackson's version of a head house slave who loves his master. Nothing in the plot was left to chance, and the well placed suspense kept you wondering what was next! A brutal killing, or a laugh. The sarcasm and satire was abundant, even poking fun at the early KKK. The writing was fantastic; the music was well-placed and perfectly selected. There wasn't much this movie lacked.
Jamie Foxx as Django was superb. At first, it was hard for me to accept that he could portray a character of this magnitude, as I keenly remember his stand-up and In Living Color days. Even the Academy Award didn't make me a believer, and he beat out some heavy hitters such as Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Clint Eastwood. Fox is just absolutely gifted as an actor, and I believe this movie solidified his standing. Foxx's D'Jango ousts Downey's Sherlock Holmes, which prior to today, ranked as one of the best performances by an actor to me. I love Heath Leger's Joker, Joaquin Phoenix's Mr. Watson, Kelsey Grammar's Robert Langdon, among other heroes or villains. And boy do I love a good villain! Disney's Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty is by far the most menacing villain in the repertoire. Yes. I have a sick, twisted affinity for villains. Leonardo DiCaprio's Calvin Candie was brilliant. You wanted to hate evvvvvverything about him, but the Southernly Gentleman in him made you slightly forgive him. He was what a young slave owner probably looked like: renegade, above the law, charming, psychotic. The quintessential slaver. Who was Mandingo fighting.... Absolutely brilliant acting. DiCaprio was said to have struggled with the harsh language and some of the scenes, but you would have never known because he was Calvin Candie.
While I could not watch many graphic parts of this film, and the use of the word "nigger" made me flinch several times, it was necessary. Slavery was gruesome and horrible and heartbreaking. Clearly understating this would have been to the detriment of the film.
It is a wonderful slave tale. If you are looking for homage, or a documentary, or something to be entered to the discussion on slave matters, this movie is not it. While people feel this movie is insensitive or disrespects our ancestors, I beg to differ. Every culture has its hero in cinema. None of them has looked like me. Slave culture unfortunately is our culture; how have we gone this long with no slave hero? We have no Don Quixote. No Three Musketeers. No Robin Hood. We now have our Romanticised slave story.
As is expected of Quintin Tarantino, he delivered a Tarantino film. He gave us a romantic fantasy, equipped with the dark humor that is a Tarantino creation. It had its parts where you did not want to laugh (such as the character of Samuel L. Jackson and his ridiculous cursing) but couldn't help it, and parts where you could not laugh. Every emotion imaginable could have been experienced. It was 2 hours and 45 minutes of master cinema.
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