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Looking back, why was Django Unchained so Popular?
Wednesday 5th June 2013 | Alex
I’m haunted by that ‘One Pound Fish’ song. It drops into nothingness and while I can’t bring myself to call it an epiphany, I’ve been apprehended really very quickly and distressingly by the 'Where there’s a melody, there’s a risk' conundrum. ‘One Pound Fish’ gave us nothing so we had nothing to dislike; how did Tarantino manage to give us something and gross $423,000,000?
Well, it managed to be funny – “I count two guns, n**ga” and dismal all at once, but that’s Tarantino’s thing: he gets you to laugh at stuff you shouldn't. Have you heard ‘Television, the drug of a Nation’? There’s a bit in that – we’re a “generation that learns to laugh rather than to abhor the horrrrrooor”, and I think once you’re laughing at racially-aggravated murders there’s not much to be uncomfortable at, really.
Tarantino confiscates 'White Guilt'. I'm white, and I can confirm that.
It’s not like ‘Reservoir Dogs’ – the ear-chopping scene in that was nauseating; now it’s just geysers of water-blood with absurd squelching accompaniment. For something to be popular, it turns out, it’s got to give us nothing or an overdose. And yes, I’ll compare ‘One Pound Fish’ and Django Unchained, if I want to.
Written by Alex Dean - @AlexDean
