Preview: "Django Unchained" (2012)

When asked what movie I’m most excited to see in 2012, several come to mind. However, one stands above the rest, and given my ambivalence concerning most of Tarantino's work, my choice surprises even myself. 

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained has a cast, a one-sentence plot summary, and a surprisingly hushed and rumored following that makes the film impossible to resist. How can it even be possible to keep this a secret? A Tarantino film starring Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Kurt Russell? And that’s just the highlight of the cast. Moreover, consider that Foxx is playing the hero, DiCaprio the villain.

And just listen to this plot line: ’With the help of his mentor, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.’ 

Maybe its my unceasing devotion to the South, but I think it’s more than that. Tarantino has made a living unabashedly rewriting history. And yet, he does it in such a way as to highlight the true subtext of that history. Yes, we all know that Inglourious Basterds has no historical footing, no factual leg to stand upon. But has anyone considered how honestly, albeit derisively, Tarantino exposes his audience to the true horror and violence of war (and the implied goal of war being ‘just killing’ - if there is such a thing)? Basterds may be a joke to historians, but to sociologists and literary theorists, Tarantino’s take on World War II is a brutally honest account of the nature of warfare. And as our good old post-colonialist friends would remind us, how reliable is history anyway? Written by the victors, isn’t it? 

So sure, Tarantino doesn’t worry himself over basing his stories in any true sense of the physical or historical world. They’re a bit detached from any reality we experience. Still, the subtext - the story beneath the story, the psychology beyond the facts - of his films are right on the money. 

If he approaches a historical tale about the Antebellum South with this same vision as a filmmaker, then I think there is more than sufficient reason to be excited. Southerners may be wary about it, and rightfully so. Don’t let anyone tell you the scars of slavery and the War have healed; not even close. And yet, if anyone can suspend our fact-based notion of our own history and expose us to the vulnerable, cathartic truths of our past, I think it might need to be someone irreverent, out-of-line, talented. I’m not a big Tarantino fan, but based on those three descriptions, he’s the first that comes to mind. 

So, between the cast and the plot summary, I’m excited enough. But in an era of extreme Hollywood marketing, forcing films to wait 12-14 months between completion and release simply in service of advertising, Django Unchained has somehow slipped under most of the radars (hasn’t it slipped under yours?). The IMDb page has very little information; not even a photograph. No trailer, no interviews. I realize it’s still 10 months off, but still, with that cast and that director and today’s market, how is that possible? The answer, I would wager, is relatively simple: it’s Tarantino. He’s just weird enough, counter-cultural enough, to fly the bird at the studios and backers, if he allowed their involvement in the first place. I mean, the guy’s weird (look at him biting Waltz’s ear inexplicably). 

For those three reasons, I think Django Unchained is the film I’m most excited to see in 2012. Again, I’m not a big Tarantino fan. Pulp Fiction is an incredible movie, but for me, is an exception in Tarantino’s catalogue. Maybe Django will be, as well.

And it’s worth mentioning: obviously the film title calls to mind the 1966 spaghetti western, Django. Originally filmed in Italian, dubbed in English, it is now tagged as “the movie that spawned a genre.” As per Tarantino’s normal approach, he has chosen a genre to engage, to inspire, to problematize even. A genre that celebrates violence, that is rooted in inflated hero-worshipping, and overly-simplistic notions of justice. Come on, tell me Tarantino won’t have a field day with this film - and this genre. 

Interesting that Django Unchained is due out the same day as Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby (also starring DiCaprio). Needless to say, it looks like a big year for DiCaprio (and Joseph Gordon-Levitt while we’re at it). Not only does Gordon-Levitt have several films lined up, he also just landed his first directing gig.

Perhaps after so many disappointments, you’d expect that I'd learn to be reserved and distant, like a good critic who never walks into a theatre with expectations. Never enters a year with excitement in his tone. But no, I think 2012 is going to be a great year, I feel it. So whether my optimism is ill-advised or not, it’s still there. I think we’re in for a good one.

Stay tuned.