A New Perspective Of Condemning Slavery

I love watching Quentin Tarantino's movies because they are like cartoons with real-life people in it. They are always extravagant, violent, ultra-creative and extremely funny. I guess this sums up his new movie Django Unchained as well - brilliantly original, skillfully crafted, hilariously funny, wildly entertaining and cooler than Jay-Z!

The director's eighth movie took him 130 days to shoot with some of the wild, wild West scenes (taking place in the south, rather than the West) filmed in California, Wyoming and at the National Historic Landmark Evergreen Plantation in Wallace, Louisana, just outside of New Orleans. That's why Candyland looks stunning in the movie - the ultimate castle for all evil white men!

Every Tarantino film has a key message - for Django Unchained, the message is loud and clear: slavery and racial discrimination are despicable and abominable, and should be avenged! Tarantino decided to drive home this message via a Spaghetti-Western genre - his first attempt ever! And it's such an original masterpiece!

As a long-time Tarantino fan (I've seen and loved all his movies), I've come to expect a couple of things when I go experience his works of art: original creativity, clever screenplay, stylish execution, the use of quirky but aptly-selected music, and so much violence that it becomes super comical. All these attributes exist in Django Unchained again. Even then, Tarantino sensitively postponed the worldwide screening of the movie after the horrible Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Connecticut.

The cast is outstanding and each of them deserves an Academy Award for either Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor. I can't even imagine how Will Smith (Tarantino wrote the entire story with Smith in mind for the role of Django Freeman) could have done a better job than Jamie Foxx who rode his own horse Cheetah in the movie and, for his equestrian skills alone, I can go see this film one more time. Although both Leonardo Di Caprio and Christoph Waltz are nominated for a Gloden Globe as Best Supporting Actor, I think this should be given to the latter who manages to outshine everybody else once again or to Samuel L. Jackson who has a powerful, albeit minor role in the film.

I read somewhere that director Spike Lee refused to see the movie because he thought Tarantino misused the 'n' word too many times and that Lee claimed that he respects his ancestors too much to watch such a 'ridiculous' movie. Well, I'm not going to repeat how Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson defended the movie, but to the diehard group of Tarantino's followers and fans, most of whom are young men, the movie is a different and less serious way to condemn black slavery than Roots, Lincoln or The Help.

Tarantino first made his fame in La La Land as a screen writer, so it's not surprising that he's not only up for a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay, but also as Best Director and Best Movie. Let's hope it's not going to be beaten by the very boring Lincoln!