Django : Everybody Tryin to Watch This Now

People don't understand I guess, Django Unchained is not a remake of Django, it's like Inglorious Bastards and Inglourious Basterds, not a remake, nothing more than an homage really.

The real shame is that people didn't about know this movie before, yet it is such greatness.

OK, I partially match the description you gave, in as much as it was the Tarantino movie that made me aware of this one in particular, but equally I'm not quite the person you describe because as a movie lover in more general terms, I'm making an effort to cut across all genres and get either a flavour of the way things are in that genre, or to track down those that have been flagged up to me as classic examples.

So, while it was Tarantino that made this specific title stand out to me, that's not to say I wouldn't have found my way here in time otherwise, and either way I approach it with an open and enquiring mind as to it's merits, and what it teaches me about cinema and film history.

There are some Spaghetti's that, to me, count as brilliant films in their own right, not just as an example of their genre. There are others which I find entertaining but not exceptional outside the confines of the genre. And there are still others which I just can't abide, as is the case for any type of film. For me this film falls squarely into the last camp.

I don't pretend to be an expert on the nuances of this style of cinema, and I'm quite prepared to accept that there are things about this that elevate it in the estimation of other viewers, which I may have missed or be unaware of. However, for me, with a pretty wide reaching taste in films, this was not able to trigger many positive reactions at all. While some of the cinematography was pretty striking, I felt that overall, the storyline was pretty good, although not particularly original (even bearing in mind the time that this was made); the acting ranged from weak to dreadful; the direction seemed chaotic; and the characterisation barely merits credibility. The whole thing seems to hang on being impressed by the (admittedly quite striking) image of the man with the coffin, but that start can only take you so far.

Anyway, I think and hope I've been open minded in viewing this, no matter what the trigger for me making time to watch it, but it just misses the mark for me, by quite some distance.

Incidentally, this was the first film I watched on a new channel that popped up on my Freeview box recently - "Movies4Men"! I'm sure that didn't influence my thinking, but I do find the whole concept of that channel to be quite laughable.

You're not alone; this is basically the same situation I found myself in. Young cinephile looking to learn all that I can about film history, saw Tarantino was doing a movie that referenced this one, found a copy of Django to watch etc.

Like you I ended up not really liking Django at all, though I thought the image of the gunslinger dragging the coffin to be striking as well. I actually thought Django 2: Il Grande Ritorno (The only official sequel to the original) was a slightly better movie, but still not exactly a masterpiece.

"An image can say a thousand words, whereas a word cannot show a thousand images." - N.W.R.

I agree, it pays tribute to spaghetti Westerns - one of my fave movie genre and probably Tarantino's as well - what with the opening music from the original Django movie and the closing one from the Trinity movies. Franco Nero, who starred as Django in the 1966 film, makes a cameo appearance in Django Unchained - he's the man who asks Jamie Foxx as Django what his name is.

I hear what you are saying, and I agree completely. However, if it gets more people to see Django or to explore Corbucci's films then I don't see anything wrong with it really.

One of my worst pet peeves would be people who refuse to watch any movie made before a certain date because "it's old".