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Whoah.

Click here to watchalong with me!

Looking forward to your comments! Thanks so much for watching. As this is a longer movie with a gazillion of that word to remove, this won't be on the channel til sometime in February.

Cheers,

✦ KL

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Comments

Tyler Foster

Been awhile since I've seen this and I'm looking forward to rewatching. One sad note, though, is that this was the first Tarantino movie made after the tragic death of one of his most essential collaborators, editor Sally Menke, who had previously cut all of his movies, and died at only 56 when she went hiking and never returned. When her body was found later, coroners determined it was likely a heat related death, as temperatures had climbed to 113 degrees on the day she went missing. As good as the movie is, I can only imagine how much better it might have been with Menke; I have not liked any of the movies Tarantino has made since her death as much as the ones before her passing. He once described Menke as his "only, truly genuine collaborator."

Tyler Foster

I know there's no plans for reactions to movies you've already seen (although I am aware they're considered valid for Reactr requests), but the more you get into Tarantino, the more I would love to know what you feel revisiting Inglourious Basterds, which for me is tied for Tarantino's best movie and probably the one I'd say is the most exhilarating of Tarantino and Menke's collaborations (which would send them out on a high note, as that was her last work for him, although not the last film she edited).

kaiielle

That one is on the pretty small list of movies I have that are "technically not first-time watches but I forget so much that I can justify a reaction to it that people would still enjoy".

Steve Mercier

Love this fucking movie! The acting! The blood squibs! The...N-...word...*cough*...so, yeah, according to Jamie Foxx, Leonardo was having a hard time saying the word on set, when Samuel L. Jackson turned to him and said "Hey, motherfucker, it's just another Tuesday. Fuck these n*****s." And he got over it. I guess when Samuel L. Jackson gives you a pass, you say it, shout cut, and go to lunch already. Also, the scene with the KKK douchebags complaining about the holes in the masks is fucking spectacular.

Tyler Foster

OK, now that I've watched the reaction: • While there are songs for the movie, the track that opens the film, "Django," is from the 1966 movie Django, which of course was part of the inspiration for the movie. "Django" would become a common character in many Westerns, but the 1966 film is the original, and the man who played Django, Franco Nero, has a cameo here as the other man at the first fight whose fighter dies, and who pointedly says "I know" when Django tells him "the D is silent." This is a great movie and I recommend it, but I also highly recommend not looking it up if you can avoid it, as almost every piece of art or still image you're going to get if you Google it (including official DVD cover art and stuff) tragically gives away one of the movie's greatest surprise reveals. • At the first plantation, where Django wore his blue suit, the plantation owner, "Big Daddy," is played by actor Don Johnson, who played Jamie Lee Curtis' unfaithful husband in Knives Out. • In addition to Jonah Hill, you may have noticed (but didn't say anything) that Tarantino himself has two cameos in this. In the first, you can only hear him, as one of the bag-headed men at the attempted retaliation on Dr. King and Django. He appears again at the end of the movie as one of the Australian men that Django frees himself from. • Not to take away from the idea that Dr. Schultz is a great character, because he is, but one thing it's easy to miss is the subtle way in which he talks the talk but cannot walk the walk. As Django himself points out, Dr. Schultz is cool as a cucumber when he has distance and can make the case that morality and ethics are on his side. However, when the good Dr. actually has to get his hands dirty, to an extent, he can't handle it -- even well before Calvin Candie sadistically has a slave killed by dogs in front of him, Schultz is getting cold feet. Schultz knows what goes on and prides himself on being better than someone like Calvin, but he also doesn't have to live through it like Django, so his stomach turns at the things that Django is no doubt inured to. What's more, Dr. King's role in the charade is easier, in the sense that he's playing an average member of white society. Django, meanwhile, is experiencing normal racism on top of the fact that he also has to endure Black people hating his guts as a Black slaver, all while he pretends to have no feelings toward their plight. In the end, even though Django and Broomhilda are literally a few feet from happily ever after, Dr. Schultz "can't help himself" and nearly gets everyone killed simply because he would have to shake Candie's hand -- surely whatever hatred Dr. Schultz feels toward Candie is a fraction of what Django feels, and yet twice he keeps his cool as Candie and Stephen stick in the knife and twist it. I think it's actually a great subtle thing in there that serves as a reminder that as much as Dr. Schultz is doing and believes, he is still protected and privileged in a way that Django is not.

kaiielle

I did notice the Tarantino cameo! I said "Quentin!" out loud at one point. ☺️ Agree on the Dr. Thanks for the info! Looking forward to the LB review.

Onno Smits

What you think happened with the blood is exactly what happened. DiCaprio slapped the table in a scene, it broke a glass and he cut his hand. I don't think it's been confirmed whether the glass was stunt-glass and it was intended to break, or he wasn't meant to break the glass at all. At any rate, his hand was bleeding for real but he continued the scene. At some point they called cut, he got first aid and all is well. It was DiCaprio's idea to add smearing the blood onto Broomhilde. Tarantino liked the idea, and used fake blood for him smearing it on Broomhilde. There is definitely "fake facts" going around that that's his real blood, and that's why Kerry looks so disgusted, but that's definitely not true.

Onno Smits

I fucking love this movie, for all the reasons you mention at the end. I never quite connected that it "feels like a videogame" with the mixture of hilarity and seriousness, but you're absolutely right! Great reaction.

Tyler Foster

Oh, one last thing I forgot: Broomhilda's full name, Broomhilda von Shaft, is a reference to the legendary 1971 Blaxploitation cop thriller Shaft, another film with an iconic theme song.

Nathan Jasper, the Artist Formerly Known as Primary

I have a theory, which Tarantino most likely didn't intend but it exists in my mind. We don't know much about Django's past before his former plantation. So what if he never knew his name? Heard about a daring hero named Django and adopted the name? And when he actually met his hero in Candyland, he didn't actually know what he looked like. Only heard stories. And original Django smiled, figuring out this man had adopted the name, and only acknowledged he knew how to spell it, and went on his way. A bittersweet "never meet your heroes" moment in the sense Foxx's Django never realized he was in fact meeting his hero. Again, probably not what Tarantino intended but I like to connect things lol