Tarantino's southern

I think it was fitting that Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars (his second one) for his role in Django Unchained as an eccentric German bounty hunter in the American West. I had qualms about Quentin Tarantino being nominated for best screenplay after hearing reports of gratuitous use of the n-word in the film, but having seen it I can testify that the power of the story-telling overcomes the unpleasantness of hearing it and thus Tarantino is a worthy winner of Best Original Screenplay Oscar (his second).


Jamie Foxx and Leonardo di Caprio give sterling performances, lessons in rough-hewn decency and charming evil respectively, which cannot be said for Tarantino’s presumed Australian – who sounds like a Boer (intentional?) – but at least he goes with a bang. Samuel L. Jackson plays a villainous Uncle Tom who not only hates those of his own skin colour but is an object cause of the final two acts of mass violence. After the language controversy this also comes in for a barrage of criticism but it is so hyper-real and cartoonish, one cannot take it seriously. Echoes of Peckinpah and Woo but the pleasure lies in it being over the top.

I like the way that Tarantino plays with us, setting the opening scene in 1858 “two years before the Civil War.” Well, that jars until you recognise that this is December 1858 and the American Civil War began early in 1861. There is also a hilarious scene of proto-Ku Klux Klan arguing about the size of the eyeholes in the pillow-cases they’re wearing, with one sulking off home after criticism of his wife’s lack of craftsmanship.  The degrading brutality of slavery is not skimped though, with man's inhumanity to fellow man at times exceptionally visceral.  This ‘revenge’ western (or is it ‘southern’) is a wonderful addition to the genre and, despite being a homage to spaghetti westerns, has a unique flavour all its own that shows that Tarantino’s talent is far from flagging.