Opening Credits

I am a student and cinephile. That is simply the justification for continuing a blog that I established in 2010 when I attended the Cannes Film Festival for my first ever festival experience. Spoiled? Yeah I guess a bit. It's hard for someone as young as I was to get the opportunity to not only attend the festival but also have access to the Film Market. Within a week, seeing over 40 films can change a man. That experience completely shifted my entire perspective on film and the industry as a whole. It's been two years since I attended the Festival in Cannes, and my taste for films has vastly expanded as well as my study of film. I hope that through this blog I can offer up some of my point of view on today's films: the popular, unpopular, beautiful, and dismal.




My most recent trip to the theater was to see the film Django Unchained. Despite all of the controversy that it may have sparked, the film is brilliantly put together both in story and in technique. I was extremely impressed with the depth of character that comes out of Christoph Waltz. Though the audience is privy to very little information about this Dentist turned Gunslinger, there is an intriguing relationship that builds between him and Django that suggests something more to his character. Like Django, Waltz' Dr. Schultz is in absence of a wife or female counter part. Though Django is in search of his lost woman, Schultz seems to have left that behind him. The Western ballad that plays over Schultz as he travels, you know the ones that tell the backstory, is from the perspective of a woman that says, "His name was King, I knew him well." The fact that he is German and feels obligated to help Django find his wife Broomhilda is a nice sentiment, but at the same time it gives the audience a sense that some type of deeper connection is taking place between Schultz and Django. Perhaps Dr. Schultz lost someone very dear to him, and he is not the "psychotic" character that many reviews have come to describe him as.

But the character who I believe is one of the strongest and steals the show more than anyone else, as I am sure many would DISagree, is Samuel L. Jackson's character, Stephen. By far his portrayal of an overseer is a controversial one. In listening to a two hour special on Jamie Foxx's The Foxxhole where Mr. Foxx interviewed Tarantino about his perspective on the film, why he made it, where the story came from, and also his casting choices, I thought by far the most interesting claim came from Tarantino reflecting on a call with Samuel L. Jackson. He said something to the extent of, "When I asked Jackson to play the role he said 'You want me to play the most despicable black role in the 21st century..." But while his character is a despicable man, the story and the actor make this character one of the strongest central characters in the entire film. Without Jackson's character there is nothing to deny Django of his most sought after prize. Were it not for Stephen in the film, then Django and Dr. Schultz would have easily passed unnoticed in their deception. Giving this character with such a lowly held status yet such a strong plot role is usually not paired together. I think that the Stephen character needs another look before he is condemned by all those who see him as a stereotype without any depth.