DJANGO UNCHAINED

"My good man, I'm simply trying to ascertain..." "Speak English, goddammit!"--DJANGO UNCHAINED

Today I saw Quentin Tarantino's slave revenge saga DJANGO UNCHAINED at the Empress Walk.  It was pretty fun but way too long.  (On top of my sitting through almost three hours, the TTC had a problem so I was an hour getting home!)

Directed in Tarantino's customary Jacobean cartoon style, it borrows from spaghetti westerns and '70s blaxploitation like Fred Williamson in THE LEGEND OF NIGGER CHARLEY. (Think Tarantino uses the N-word a lot?  Back then they put it in TITLES!) Even the dentist's wagon with the giant tooth is borrowed from Erich Von Stroheim's silent classic GREED.

I like many of Tarantino's movies, though they can be off-putting.  INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS left a rather bad taste in the mouth for all its brilliant elements. (Brad Pitt was a hoot, especially his tin-eared "Bon giorno.") Maybe it's just that some scenes were so real and convincing--especially the beginning-- and others so over the top, that they didn't go together.

On the subject of slavery dramas, I've always thought the '70s miniseries ROOTS to be overrated.  It struck me as cheesy and relentlessly obvious, with scene after scene played to the rafters.  Sure, several of the black performances were impressive, but Maya Angelou and OJ Simpson gave embarrassing performances even for non-actors, and the white cast was mostly weak. (Edward Asner, normally a superb actor, played the slave ship captain as if he had a severe hangover.) For a truly great miniseries, see Larry McMurtry's LONESOME DOVE.