Django Unchained (2012, Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio): SPOILER Episode 39

“The D is silent”

This week we’re watching Quentin Tarantino’s revisionist western ‘Django Unchained’ starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio and the team are in two minds about its uncomfortable mixture of tones. While Paul wonders if presenting Spoiler has made him extra-sensitive, Rachael discusses her differing reactions to cartoonish splatter and realistic brutality, while Andy feels that the film merely uses slavery as a catalyst to stoke the flames of the audience’s bloodlust. While Rachael cringes at Tarantino’s decision to include jarring modern music on the soundtrack when he had access to the supreme Ennio Morricone, Andy suggests that Tarantino’s penchant for homage may undermine his own unique voice. Paul explains the etiquette of watching violent 18 rated films in coffee shops and the team discuss whether revenge films are morally acceptable in a society that is perhaps too in love with violence already. On the plus side, everyone adores Christoph Waltz. And is Quentin Tarantino really comparable to J.K. Rowling?

Elsewhere, Andy explores whether real life tragedy can ever be successfully combined with fiction, with reference to the ‘X-Men’ films, ‘Quantum Leap’ and Jerry Lewis’s lost item of cult obsession ‘The Day the Clown Cried’.

This week’s scale: Taranti-no or Taranti-yes