Movies are seen in places other than movie theaters. Some don't find a proper fanbase until home video, or even television viewing. Word of mouth plays a big part as well. Amistad may not have done well (though for a late period Spielberg piece that's pretty good sales) but most everyone has heard of it. It was a good poignant and powerful movie and people passed that along and as such even people didn't see Amistad usually think of it as a good movie. Box office doesn't mean shit, that just tells how popular something was during ita fifteen minutes of fame, not ita lasting impression.
This was a wacky exploitation movie with nary a whiff of historical accuracy, outside of the fact that yes, slaves existed and yes, they were treated poorly. I have a hard time calling it "important". It never claimed to be.
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What it was was a damn good movie.
Agreed most emphatically on both fronts.
This was a wacky exploitation movie with nary a whiff of historical accuracy, outside of the fact that yes, slaves existed and yes, they were treated poorly. I have a hard time calling it "important". It never claimed to be.
I never claimed that the importance I attribute to the film had sprang forth from its impeccable historical accuracy. A movie can be simultaneously historically inaccurate AND culturally important. Gone with the Wind and The Birth of a Nation are not historically accurate (though one claimed to be a historically accurate fictional story and the other claimed to be an unvarnished historical film), but I would not dispute the cultural importance of either film.
Edited by Reverend JaxTrue.
What is this even about again? That Django is more important, culturally, than Avengers? I guess I agree with that, but I don't think either is particularly important in the first place.
True.
What is this even about again? That Django is more important, culturally, than Avengers? I guess I agree with that, but I don't think either is particularly important in the first place.
Well, do you think it's "important" in the frame of reference of movies? Would you say that movies are never "important?" Can some movies be "important?" How can you tell? Was Philadelphia important for changing some people's attitudes about gay people and AIDS? Was Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? important for changing some people's attitudes about interracial marriage? If a movie can be "important," were there any "important" movies released this year?
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You're right, this should really cut down the pro-slavery demographic.
I am not sure if any of you listen to Fresh Airon NPR, but Quentin Tarantino did a forty minute interview where he discusses the film. You can podcast the interview using iTunes fairly easily. I found it to be a great interview and really worth listening to if you are a fan.
You're right, this should really cut down the pro-slavery demographic.
Jesus Christ, Baytor, take it easy on that straw-man, he's learned his lesson.
yeah ryan, go find a strawman that's important
...for real though i see the point jax is going for here, didn't mean to harp on it so. my cinematic experience =/= everyone else's, didn't mean to step on toes implying otherwise. carry on man.
I do too, I just think it's silly and it's Jax so I would be remiss to not give him shit.
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I just came from seeing The Adventures of Col. Hans Landa on the West Django Unchained and I really liked it. One thing bothered me tough:
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Why anyone didnt noticed earlier that Django and Broomhilda both had Rs in the cheek, and they were somehow related?
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Maybe it was a fairly universal mark for an attempted runaway to be given in the Tarantino-verse.
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Here's what bothered me:
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Why all the hullabaloo with pretending to want a Mandingo fighter? Why not just have Django chill outside, then the Dr. just tells Candie he wants to buy a slave who can speak German? It's a perfectly rational request, and there's no indication that Candie is particularly possessive of her.
And, after shooting Candie, why didn't the Dr. at least make an attempt to shoot the other guy too? He basically just commits suicide and leaves his friend in the middle of a hornet nest. Kind of a dick move.
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It was probably a German thing.
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It fits with his character. Think about it: he could've just went up to that U.S. Marshall and said "Hey, your Sheriff is a wanted criminal, I'm going to shoot him and collect the bounty", same thing with Don Johnson's 3 farm-hands, and again he could've gotten out of the area before the proto-KKK caught up with them but instead he filled his dentist wagon with dynamite and blew it up. He wants to do things theatrically and in a way that shows him to be of superior intellect.
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He could've bought Brunhilda for $1200 but he didn't want to do that, he wanted to buy her for $300 dollars as a side deal to some made-up big offer for a Mandingo fighter so he could feel all smart and superior for making an ass out of Candie. But Candie gets under his skin, not just with his barbaric treatment of his slaves, but by figuring out his grift and making a fool of him. I was under impression that the "Sorry, I just couldn't help my self" was for Django, not Candie's entourage.
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I was under impression that the "Sorry, I just couldn't help my self" was for Django, not Candie's entourage.
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Agreed.
I'll happily accept that answer for my first gripe.
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The second one still stands for me. It's just a loosy goosy way to have something necessary happen.
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One more thing:
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When Django is caught, stripped nude, and hung upside down, when they dress him back up and send him to the mines, why do they give him his first wanted poster? Seems weird.
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None of this ruins the movie or anything, by the way, or even makes it less enjoyable for me.
Maybe they never took it out of his pocket in the first place? The guy that seemed to have custody of him before turning him over to the miners wasn't the brightest of caricatures.
Ah, but he wasn't wearing his original clothes.
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