#41
Mike Nelson here.
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snipe
#42
Mike Nelson here.
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gyrofry posted:

#43
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#44
Mike Nelson here.
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brad pitt almost signed on to play john galt in atlas shrugged because he loves ayn rand
#45
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http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/03/201332510121757700.html


Powerful women are introducing a new form of feminism devoid of social justice, argues Rottenberg.
#46
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In Django Unchained, evil slaveowner Leonardo DiCaprio asks a question. Sorry, back up: why does everyone call him an evil slaveowner? As far as I can tell, he was a pretty average slaveowner, I'd even say he was "kind", in the sense that all his slaves "like" him, and he rarely "tortures" anyone and by the use of quotes you can see I'm hedging, my point here is how quickly people have to broadcast their indignancy. "He's evil." So what you're saying is you're against slavery? Thanks for clarifying.

This explains the near-universal anxiety over the movie's frequent use of the word nigger, and someone asked Tarantino if he thought he had used it too much in the movie, and his response was perfect: "too much, in comparison to how much it was used back then?" Nigger, and the violence, was all anyone was upset about. Terry Gross, NPR's mental Fleshlight, asked Tarantino her typically insightful and nuanced questions: "do you enjoy violent movies less after what happened at Sandy Hook?" Sigh. So there's the Terry Gross checklist for reviewing Django: gun=bad and saying nigger=bad. Check and check. You know what no one thought badworthy? When the white guy asked to have a certain slave sent to his room to try out her ample vagina, and the prim white lady of the house happily escorted her up. "Go on, do what you're told, girl."

I'd venture that Terry Gross and and the gang at HuffPoWo would rather be whipped than be-- that's rape, right?-- but that scene didn't light up their amygdalas, only hearing "nigger" did. I find that highly suspicious, or astoundingly obtuse, or both.

Anyway, perfectly ordinary slaveowner DiCaprio asks a rhetorical question, a fundamental question, that has occurred to every 7th grade white boy and about 10% of 7th grade white girls, and the profound question he asked was: "Why don't they just rise up?"

Kneel down, Quentin Tarantino is a genius. That question should properly come from the mouth of the German dentist: this isn't his country, he doesn't really have an instinctive feel for the system, so it's completely legitimate for a guy who doesn't know the score to ask this question, which is why 7th grade boys ask it; they themselves haven't yet felt the crushing weight of the system, so immediately you should ask, how early have girls been crushed that they don't think to ask this? But Tarantino puts this question in the mouth of the power, it is spoken by the very lips of that system; because of course the reason they don't rise up is that he-- that system-- taught them not to. When the system tells you what to do, you have no choice but to obey.

If "the system tells you what to do" doesn't seem very compelling, remember that the movie you are watching is Django UNCHAINED. Why did Django rise up? He went from whipped slave to stylish gunman in 15 minutes. How come Django was so quickly freed not just from physical slavery, but from the 40 years of repeated psychological oppression that still keeps every other slave in self-check? Did he swallow the Red Pill? How did he suddenly acquire the emotional courage to kill white people?

"The dentist freed him." So? Lots of free blacks in the South, no uprisings. "He's 'one in ten thousand'?" Everybody is 1 in 10000, check a chart. "He got a gun?" Doesn't help, even today there are gun owners all over America who feel that they aren't free. No. You should read this next sentence, get yourself a drink, and consider your own slavery: the system told Django that he was allowed to. He was given a document that said he was a bounty hunter, and as an agent of the system, he was allowed to kill white people. That his new job happened to coincide with the trappings of power is 100% an accident, the system decided what he was worth and what he could do with his life. His powers were on loan, he wasn't even a vassal, he was a tool.

This is not to minimize the individual accomplishment of a Django becoming a free man. But for the other slaves, what is the significance?

Of course Tarantino knew that the evil slaveowner's question has a hidden, repressed dark side: DiCaprio is a third generation slave owner, he doesn't own slaves because he hates blacks, he owns them because that's the system; so powerful is that system that he spends his free time not on coke or hookers but on researching scientific justifications for the slavery-- trying to rationalize what he is doing. That is not the behavior of a man at peace with himself, regardless of how much he thinks he likes white cake, it is the behavior of a man in conflict, who suspects he is not free; who realizes, somehow, that the fact that his job happens to coincide with the trappings of power is 100% an accident... do you see? "Why don't they just rise up?" is revealed to be a symptom of the question that has been repressed: "why do the whites own slaves? Why don't they just... stop?" And it never occurs to 7th graders to ask this question because they are too young, yet every adult thinks if he lived back then, he would have been the exception. 1 in 10000, I guess. And here we see how repression always leaves behind a signal of what's been repressed-- how else do you explain the modern need to add the qualifier "evil" to "slaveowner" if not for the deeply buried suspicion that, in fact, you would have been a slaveowner back then? "But at least I wouldn't be evil." Keep telling yourself that. And if some guy in a Tardis showed up and asked, what's up with you and all the slaves, seems like a lot? You'd say what everybody says, "look wildman, don't ask me, that's just the system. Can't change it. Want to rape a black chick?"
#47
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You guys read way too much into these silly quentin tarantino movies.
#48
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tarantino is Good
#49
Bloomington, Indiana
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As an octaroon I enjoyed the 'Django' movie because of all the whites getting killed, but I don't think it was particularly good. If I had to write a review I'd keep it a lot shorter than these heaps of text and just say, "Solid action, interesting characters, unbelievable movie."
#50
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tarantino is Bad. he only made three good movies Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, the rest is trash.
#51
[account deactivated]
#52
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Jack_Balls_McDinkface posted:

As an octaroon



hahahah

#53
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did anyone fucking notice this dude referred to himself as an octaroon?

also rly tho the only two good tarantino movies are deathproof and jackie brown
#54
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gonna read the shit out of this...soon
#55
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its kind of weird that he starts out going in on mass culture critique and how mass culture is inherently worthless and bad, which is fine and cool, but then writes a whole essay about how these mass culture commodity entertainment product thingies aren't communist enough and if they were people could REALLY understand ideology or what the fuck ever
#56
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if you think american studies and pop culture studies and shit like that is bullshit and invalid, good for you, why are you writing a billion words analyzing stupid fucking hollywood movies exactly like them instead of expanding your critique of the whole thing in the first place

"ha you think these movies are good WATCH ME EXPLAIN WHY NOT by doing a fucking goony ass close reading using tvtropes" and then stick out ur tongue. Adorno is proud of u!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#57
UNUSUALY COOL
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hey gentlemen, whats goig on in this thread
#58
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someone cares about the holocaust and tarantino
#59
Not Your S.H.I.E.L.D.
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piss posted: