Schadenfreude for Abolitionists
I have a theory about film. The theory goes that there are three different types of films: Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3. Type 1 films are your traditional films. They have a discernible beginning, middle, and end. Once you are finished with the film you may have a hard time remembering specific scenes in the film, but you understand it as a whole. Type 2 films are the opposite, you remember the film mostly as a loose collection of scenes. Several scenes are memorable, but they don't always go together as a whole. Type 3 films are those films that can marry both: great overall plot and great individual scenes.
Type 1 films come predominantly from your summer blockbuster, big idea films. They are all high concept. The best of them can be Type 3, but only the best.
Type 2 films come predominantly from your auteurs, your indie scene, and specific filmmakers. Quentin Tarantino is one of those filmmakers.
Type 3 films come from the greats: your James Camerons, your Stanley Kubricks, David Fincher, etc. Type 3 films reach my Canon. That group of films that are enshrined in my Hall of Fame. In many instances they merge the high concept plot with memorable scenes.
Now Django Unchained is kind of an odd duck as it seems to have Tarantino going against type. Here we have in actuality a Type 1 film, with a very easily defined plot (a revenge film and romance). When I recall Tarantino's filmography, I recall many films with a lot of great individuals scenes but damned if I can remember the overarching plot of many of them. Django is different. Having just seen the film, I am having trouble pulling together in my mind any scenes that I thought were particularly memorable or great when compared to Tarantino's other works. This is definitely a Type 1 film.
As a Type 1 film, how is it? It is decent. The performances from Leo, Christophe, and Jackson are the high points. Jamie Foxx is playing his usual self, with a little less flair in some parts. I see a lot of Collateral in here, it feels like the same character he played in that film, but I thought his performance there was better. In the end the film just feels like catharsis for the atrocities that occurred in that period in our history. Apart from that I cannot recommend this film as I really never understood the point of the film, its attempts at emotion were either not genuine or ill-attempted. At the end of the day it is just a feel-good film about killing some racist white-folk and I guess that is OK, but hardly inspiring for an almost 3 hour epic.
