While reviews from critics were a bit mixed, Inglourious Basterds was a resounding hit, and put Quentin Tarantino firmly back on top, grossing even more than his breakthrough film, the classic Pulp Fiction. However, some critics wondered if a pattern wasn't emerging, in which QT would follow up a hit (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill) with a film that underperformed at the box office (Jackie Brown, Grindhouse).
Tarantino was certainly aware of this train of thought and was determined to make his next effort even more of a crowd-pleaser. Of course, in typically atypical thinking, he opted to go with a Western to do it. QT had long circled Western tropes in his work, from the many Mexican standoffs to visual nods to them (i.e. the Bride walking through the desert under the blazing sun, half-dead and covered in dirt; the extreme close-ups of eyes in the same film) to the use of music taken from such films, notably the extensive use of Ennio Morricone, master of the so-called Spaghetti Western.
However, Westerns had long fallen out of favor in Hollywood, to the point that they were all but considered dead in the water. Exactly what was Tarantino going to do to make his take on the Western stand out enough to succeed where many had failed in recent years? Simple: he would make the genre his own.
Work on the script began in 2007, as QT researched a proposed book on filmmaker Sergio Corbucci, perhaps best-known for the film Django, an obvious source of inspiration for this film. Tarantino loved the movie, a raucous Spaghetti Western notorious for its violence, at least at the time it was released back in 1966. However, he thought- wouldn't it be cool if the lead in his version of a Western was an African-American?
This certainly wasn't unprecedented- indeed, there was a black-themed Western dating all the way back to 1937 called Harlem on the Prairie, followed by others in 1938, such as Two-Gun Man from Harlem, and in 1939, Harlem Rides the Range and The Bronze Buckaroo, often made by black directors for black audiences with all-black casts, notably including Herbert Jeffries, aka Herbert Jeffrey.
Since then, other notable Western films with a prominent black cast include: Man & Boy (with Bill Cosby!), Buck & The Preacher, Thomasine & Bushrod, Adiós Amigo, Take a Hard Ride and Posse. Tarantino also took inspiration from, of all things, the goofy, decidedly politically incorrect Western spoof Blazing Saddles, which is hilarious, but could never be made in today's social climate.
Nevertheless, QT pulled no punches in his own script, which combined a gritty tale of a former slave-turned-bounty hunter, with a penchant for killing white folks, dubbing it a "Southern"- as opposed to a "Western." But would anyone want to see such a thing? The content alone risked alienating both white and black audiences alike, especially if it weren't played just right, and it would take a much more careful approach than taken by the likes of Mel Brooks- though, to be fair, he had some help from the brilliant Richard Pryor in crafting his opus.
To that end, Tarantino recruited newly-minted Oscar winner Christoph Waltz as the co-lead, using his character, Dr. King Schultz, as an "in" to white audiences, while seeking to cast someone inherently likable in the lead role of Django. QT's initial choice was none other than Will Smith, who certainly fit that bill, but could he convincingly play someone like Django? Sure, he'd done some gritty action flicks over the years- notably I Am Legend and the Bad Boys series- but was he really right for something this radical?
His agent and manager were thrilled at the prospect, thinking it could reinvent Smith for a new generation, but Smith himself felt he was all wrong for the role, even though Tarantino had written it with him in mind. He also didn't see it as a "true" leading role. Ultimately, he turned it down, which I think was for the best, personally. I don't dislike Smith, but it would be hard to picture him in this particular role, in spite of QT having done so as he wrote it. I think Smith himself felt the same way, and was wise to turn it down.
Others considered for Django include: Chris Tucker, Tyrese Gibson, Terrence Howard, Michael Kenneth Williams and Idris Elba (I'd say that could be interesting, but then we got The Dark Tower, which was DOA, so... maybe not). Ultimately, though, it went to Jamie Foxx, who readily accepted the role. Indeed, he so thoroughly made it his own, it's hard to imagine anyone else as Django.
I think what makes Foxx work in the role was a combination of his already having a gritty sort of image, thanks to his ribald stand-up comedy and a history of edgy roles in movies like Any Given Sunday or Ray, for which he took home an Oscar. In short, it just wasn't as much of a stretch for him as it was for Smith, even though it was still a different sort of role for Foxx overall.
But Foxx wisely approached it with the perfect balance of seriousness and levity to make it work like a charm. He's basically equal parts a Blaxploitation anti-hero, a la Superfly or The Mack, crossed with the slave character Kunta Kinte, of Roots fame. (Elsewhere, there's also a nod to Shaft, via Broomhilda's surname, Von Shaft, indicating an ancestry to the famed Blaxploitation hero.) Armed with Tarantino's razor-sharp dialogue, Foxx knocks it out of the park, in what may well be his best role to date, his impressive turn as Ray Charles notwithstanding.
As per usual, Tarantino fills out the rest of the film with a host of excellent character actors and former big stars. In addition to regular QT production cast members like Samuel L. Jackson (playing a role that even he hated, an Uncle Tom- type butler), Zoë Bell, Michael Bowen, Tom Savini, David Steen, Laura Cayouette, and Michael and James Parks, there's also plenty of new recruits, notably superstar Leonardo DiCaprio, cast decidedly against type as the nefarious plantation owner Calvin Candie.
Other supporting actors include: Tom Wopat (TV's The Dukes of Hazzard), James Russo (Once Upon a Time in America, Bad Girls), Don Stroud (Coogan's Bluff, Joe Kidd), M.C. Gainey (Con Air, Justified), Cooper Huckabee (The Funhouse, Urban Cowboy), Lee Horsley (The Sword and the Sorcerer, Matt Houston), Rex Linn (Breakdown, CSI: Miami), Robert Carradine (The Cowboys, Revenge of the Nerds), Ted Neeley (Jesus Christ Superstar), John Jarratt (Wolf Creek) and Russ Tamblyn (West Side Story, Twin Peaks) and his daughter Amber (Joan of Arcadia, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants).
In slightly bigger roles, Tarantino's comeback kid of the movie was undeniably actor Don Johnson, who memorably played Big Daddy, a plantation owner that doesn't take too kindly to Django shooting up some of his employees. Johnson got his start doing some oddball cult films, including the musical western Zachariah and the quirky A Boy and His Dog, before hitting the big time with TV's enormously popular Miami Vice and, later on, Nash Bridges.
His career cooled in the early 2000's before QT pal Robert Rodriguez cast him in his Grindhouse off-shoot Machete, which led to a recurring role on HBO's Eastbound & Down. He's worked steadily since, notably on RR's From Dusk Till Dawn TV series, and the shows Blood & Oil and A Series of Unfortunate Events. He's next scheduled to star in the HBO series adaptation of Alan Moore's classic graphic novel Watchmen.
The film also stars Kerry Washington as slave Broomhilda, aka Django's beloved wife, right as she broke through big on the massively successful hit TV show Scandal the same year. Washington had been kicking around Hollywood for years at the time, with somewhat thankless roles in the likes of Save the Last Dance, Bad Company, Against the Ropes, She Hate Me, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Fantastic Four, before finally getting people's attention alongside Foxx in Ray as his first wife.
That led to a juicier role in the Oscar-winning Idi Amin historical drama The Last King of Scotland, as one of Amin's wives. More high-profile gigs followed, including working with Samuel L. Jackson in the tense thriller Lakeview Terrace and the drama Mother & Child, a solid turn in the somewhat self-explanatory drama Life is Hot in Cracktown, Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls, and the acclaimed TV film Confirmation, in which she played Anita Hill.
As Candie's lawyer and overall right-hand man, Leonide "Leo" Moguy, there's Dennis Christopher, one of the more underrated actors of the late 70's and 80's. His big break came, appropriately enough, with the movie Breaking Away, a coming-of-age drama that also made stars out of Dennis Quaid and Daniel Stern. He followed that up with the even more classic Chariots of Fire.
However, horror fans probably know him best for his turn as the classic movie loving psycho Eric Binford in Fade to Black and as one of the leads in the original TV miniseries version of Stephen King's IT. Other notable credits include The Falling (aka Alien Predators), Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II, Jake Speed and prominent roles in the TV shows Profiler (he was the serial killer "Jack of All Trades") and Deadwood.
Tarantino is a massive fan who rewrote the role especially for Christopher and informed him upon his arrival on the set that he'd seen every one of his films the week they'd been released! Humbled by the reception, Christopher later said this was the happiest experience he'd ever had working on a film. While he's mostly laid low since, save a recurring gig on the show Graves, hopefully Tarantino will write something for him in the future, as he's really great here.
Another solid character actor is James Remar, who plays not one, but two roles in the film, as both Ace Speck and James Pooch. Remar is best-known for playing the villainous Ajax in the cult classic The Warriors and Albert Ganz in 48 Hrs, both from director Walter Hill. Other notable roles include "Dutch" Schultz in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, a memorable bit in another classic Western, The Long Riders (also by Hill), the villain Quill in The Phantom and Raiden in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
He also had interesting roles in Drugstore Cowboy, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Boys on the Side, The Quest, Hellraiser: Inferno, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Fear X, Blade: Trinity, The Girl Next Door, The Unborn, X-Men: First Class, Arena (also with Jackson), The Blackcoat's Daughter and the TV shows Sex in the City, Jericho, Dexter, Grey's Anatomy, The Shannarah Chronicles, Gotham, The Path, Black Lightning and City on a Hill.
This film also marks Tarantino's first collaboration with actor Walton Goggins, who would go onto co-star in his next film, The Hateful Eight. Goggins is from Birmingham, Alabama, where I currently reside, so that's kind of cool. I first saw Goggins in FX's excellent gritty cop drama The Shield and he later went onto an Emmy-nominated turn in the Elmore Leonard-inspired FX show Justified, whose leading star, Timothy Olyphant, would crop up in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, so it's safe to say QT was a fan of that show.
Other notable credits include: The Next Karate Kid, The Apostle, Switchback, The Crow: Salvation, Shanghai Noon, Daddy and Them, Joy Ride, The Bourne Identity, House of 1000 Corpses, The World's Fastest Indian, Miracle at St. Anna (also with Washington), Predators, Cowboys & Aliens, Straw Dogs, Lincoln, GI Joe: Retaliation, Machete Kills, American Ultra, Diablo, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Tomb Raider, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Them That Follow and the TV shows Sons of Anarchy, Vice Principals, Six and Deep State.
And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the cameo appearance by Franco Nero, the original Django himself, as Amerigo Vessepi, the man who approaches Django at the bar and asks his name. "The 'D' is silent," says Django. "Yes, I know," says Amerigo, stopping short of a wink. Nero was the star of two Django films, the self-titled one in 1966 and Django Strikes Again in 1987, but there have been over thirty in all, albeit not necessarily the same character, just the same name.
Some such films don't even have the character, even though they use his name in the title! Obviously, it was purely to capitalize on the popularity of the character in Italy. Only the two I just mentioned are "official," as it were. Writer/director John Sayles is reportedly working on a third with Nero once again in the lead. Nero has hardly let his association with the role pigeonhole him, however.
Other notable credits include: The Bible: In the Beginning, Camelot, The Mercenary, Tristana, Confessions of a Police Captain, Keoma, Hitch-Hike (aka The Naked Prey), Force 10 from Navarone, Enter the Ninja, Die Hard 2, Letters to Juliet, Bathory: Countess of Blood, John Wick: Chapter 2 and The Time of Their Lives, plus over 100 more where that came from, most of them from his native Italy. He has been married to the legendary Vanessa Redgrave since 2006, with whom he has often co-starred in films, though their relationship began long ago, back when they met on the set of Camelot.
One could also call the impressive soundtrack a character unto itself, like most of QT's "scores." As fans know by now, Tarantino doesn't really use a composer for the music in his films, The Hateful Eight notwithstanding. The music is typically a mixture of often obscure older tracks and score music taken from other films, typically genre fare like horror movies, war movies and yes, westerns.
For this film, Tarantino once again sought out the elusive composer Ennio Morricone to do the score, best-known for his Spaghetti Western scores, such as the ones for A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and Once Upon a Time in the West. Though Morricone ultimately declined, he did contribute one piece of music, the song "Ancora Qui," featuring singer Elisa, but QT couldn't stop himself from using a few other cuts, including pieces from Two Mules for Sister Sara and The Hellbenders.
He would later grumble about Tarantino using his music out of context and in short, brief spurts, and claimed he would never work with the director again, but QT was undeterred, and would continue to pursue Morricone, finally roping him in to compose the score for The Hateful Eight. As it stands, I don't think it's understating the matter to say that Tarantino has likely introduced more people to Morricone's music than anyone else since the composer's heyday in the 60's and 70's. (His stuff also crops up on the Kill Bill, Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds soundtracks.)
In addition, several other tracks were produced especially for the film, a rarity in the QT canon. The songs are rapper Rick Ross' "100 Black Coffins" (featuring Jamie Foxx), John Legend's "Who Did That to You?" and Anthony Hamilton and Elayna Boynton's "Freedom." Frank Ocean also composed the song "Wiseman" for the film, but Tarantino couldn't find a place for it, so Ocean ended up putting the song out himself.
QT rounds out the soundtrack with some great folk music tracks (Jim Croce's "I Got a Name," Richie Havens' "Freedom"), a cool country remix track (Johnny Cash's "Ain't No Grave"), an excellent funk/rap mash-up (James Brown and 2Pac's "Unchained (The Payback/Untouchable)") and a nifty rap-adjacent track from Kill Bill collaborator and erstwhile Wu Tang Clan member RZA ("Ode to Django (The 'D' is Silent"). There's also the theme song, "Django," cribbed from the original film.
Please note: not all of these songs are on the soundtrack proper, but are readily available. You can get a complete list of the tracks used in the film here. Most of them are available on iTunes, but all are featured on YouTube, last I checked, if you just want to listen to them. It's worth noting that almost every Tarantino film features music in them that are NOT on the soundtrack. All are worth seeking out, IMHO, and most of them are listed in full on Wikipedia.
Django Unchained returned Tarantino to his Jackie Brown release date of Christmas Day, and, as with that film, I went to see it on opening night, while the rest of my family went to see some animated film or another. It was packed and I found myself sitting next to an African-American couple, which is fine, naturally, at least until QT started dropping the "N"-word left and right, in which case, I got a little uncomfortable, admittedly. (The film literally holds the record for most "N"-words dropped, at the time of this writing, at least.)
But after a certain point, it became clear that it was fine to laugh, at least when it was appropriate. I think an important turning point was the bit with Big Daddy, especially the aftermath of Dr. Schultz and Django's visit, in which the hooded men, led by Big Daddy, argue about the eye holes in their hoods, with a cameo from Jonah Hill (who was slated for a bigger role in the film but had to bow out due to prior commitments).
It was hard not to laugh under the circumstances, and, in a way, it gave everyone permission to lighten up and have a good time. After that, I think everyone relaxed a bit, once it was established that we were laughing AT the racist characters, not WITH them, as it were. (Not everyone was laughing, though- see here and here.)
Remember, mind you, I live in the heart of the South, where there is a prominent black population, and such was the case with this screening, which was a good half-and-half, divided between blacks and whites, with maybe a few Latinos thrown in for good measure.
Truth be told, I actually prefer such a mixed audience, as it makes for a more fun viewing, at least when it's appropriate. For example, I remember once going to see the oddball Bug when the latest Harry Potter movie was sold out, and there were a lot of unhappy people in that screening, which made it hard to enjoy the movie, from all the complaining.
That said, it also resulted in one of the single funniest reactions I've ever heard in a theatre, when, after the film ended abruptly, leaving a fair bit of plot unresolved, an unamused black man stood up defiantly and cried: "Oh, hell, no!" and stormed out. It remains one of the best off-the-cuff reviews of an iffy movie I've ever heard, to this day, lol. 😄
Anyway, Tarantino, I must say, did a great job of walking the fine line between amusing and offensive, and rarely, if ever, landed on the latter. By the time the film reached its bloody, violent conclusion, everyone was firmly on-board and right behind Django in getting his revenge and saving his wife from the clutches of the evil Candie crew.
Interestingly, QT admitted that, even though he got an "R"-rating from the MPAA on the first try, he actually ended up editing down the violent content himself, feeling that he'd actually gone too far in a few instances and fearing he'd lose the audience in the process, wanting to entertain them, not traumatize them. It was a smart move, as the film ended up being pretty violent, but not quite too over the top, like, say, the ending of Scarface.
And, lest we forget, the film came out on Christmas, so, yeah, probably a smart move. (For the record, it grossed $15 million on Christmas alone.) Whatever the case, the film was a resounding success, even managing to top QT's career-high success of Inglourious Basterds, grossing a worldwide total of a whopping $425 million to that film's already considerable $321 million. It grossed $162 million in the US and Canada, but was an even bigger hit overseas, where it grossed some $262 million. To date, it remains his high-grossing film.
TBH, I was not traditionally a huge Western movie fan in the past. I like them in general more than war movies, to be sure, but growing up, my dad used to force them on me all the time, and to me, it seemed like the same movie over and over. The irony of my favorite subgenre at the time being slasher movies was not lost on me in retrospect, as those films are basically the same movie over and over again as well.
Since then, though, I have gotten into some Western movies, and I must admit, the genre has grown on me. I especially like Clint Eastwood's stuff, especially the so-called "Man with No Name" trilogy, and Sergio Leone's stuff in general. I was always a fan of Blazing Saddles, so it was cool to see QT take unlikely inspiration from that film in nailing down the overall tone he was going for. I continue to watch the occasional classic Western, and I've been mulling over watching Deadwood, in light of the current movie, and the fact that it features a lot of actors I like.
Django Unchained has a lot of great moments, with some of my favorites being the opening scene, the bit where Django picks out his outfit (and the subsequent reaction of the townspeople afterwards), the tense scene at the dinner table with Candie (DiCaprio really cut his hand in the scene- QT naturally left it in- and they went back and added the bit with him wiping blood on Washington's face later... with fake blood, of course) and the aftermath in the signing room, and of course, the action-packed finale. Overall, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of my favorite Westerns ever, as faint praise as that might have been until fairly recently.
Tarantino also must have had a good time with it, as he chose to stay within the confines of the genre for his next film, the oddball The Hateful Eight, which combines Westerns with "locked-door" murder mysteries, a la Agatha Christie. Join me next time when I take a look at the extended Netflix cut of that film and see if it improves upon the original version. Thanks, as always, for reading! 😉
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