Django Unchained ***half

Django Unchained (2012) ***half  165 min   Tarantino's new comic book live action flick.  I always enjoy watching his vibrant quick paced flicks. Here, the central character Django - the quickest gun in the South along side humorous, cultured, dapper German bounty hunter (a little too suave and smart to be doing such kind of job, after all, he seem to not care much about money, no family - how come  he is such a good shot, well read, fine mannered?  Though this is a charismatic character but it is a comic book type character.  I could easily imagine its styled a bit a la Peter O'Toole type - quick witted and cool.  The Django character is all tension, well played, but all on the surface - and of course, comic book characters need go no further for fear of tiring the readers/viewers.  The black actrices are all v gd looking.  The sister, just the right pinch of self restrain, it is hinted that she is interested in the German visitor.  DiCaprio played the evil plantation owner - well, he's a gd actor - but not as impressive as in his earlier roles.  Everything is beautifully stitched together, music, visuals, sounds... but still its an eye candy comic book film.  Spike Lee says he will not see it because its disrespective to his ancestor.  The subject of America's past and how they have stolen black Africans to make into slaves is too heavy a subject to be dealt with via a comic book - yes, this subject has not been dealt with - and doing it comic book style is fundamentally putting on entertainment where it is not amusing if it were your own ancestor.  And I think Spike Lee is right.  This film lacks depth and its inattentive, too quick to glossily this bitter dark cruel inhuman part of American history, and to make this part of history into entertainment is somehow, not enough.   Though i admit, i like the use of music - a smooth canvas for revisiting pop culture, beautiful sounds, warm nostalgic country songs of yester years - use of spaghetti Western fonts - visual and musical history of film/radio itself- these are smooth and slick entertainment action sequences... but this film lacks a certain humanity.  Compare to a film somewhat similar set in colonial/oppression/opportunist/women-as-play-things context - a film for example, like Fitzcarldo of Herzog - which also deals with exploitation of indigene  people to outsider/intruders/profit making opportunists there is a great difference in the orientation of the two films. Both are set in hardship contexts.  One is a comic book set in a dark past history on a very serious subject; the other is also a sort of comic book with much more depth on another part of dark history - but Herzogs hero has a dream and Tarantino's character has only been allowed to wish for reuniting with his wife.   Both these films show visual events in lawless times, how people deal with fear and cruelty, going through a power struggle/personal-against-all-odds-dream-come-true process and when the character is allowed some luxury of existential poetry, it does make a much better movie.