Logline: With the help of his mentor, a slave turned bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
I read this script 4 times. It's 168 pages and I read it 4 times. Not because I had to, because I wanted to. In short, the words on the page represented a master screenwriter, at the top of his game, firing on all cylinders. In other words, shit just got real. Tarantino has created his masterpiece in cinema.
Synopsis:
We open up to a chain gang of African American slaves being marched barefoot across the wilderness. Our hero, Django, is among them. Their masters ride comfortably on horseback. One night they come across a travelling dentist who has a German accent named Dr. Schultz. It soon becomes apparent that this encounter was no accident. Dr. Schultz is looking for a slave who can identify 3 slave overseers known as the Brittle Brothers. It just so happens that Django was previously owned by the plantation that employed these overseers. When Django's current owners refuse to sell him and threaten Dr. Schultz life, it ends badly for them, but Dr. Schultz still pays a fair price for Django and is on his way.
In due time, we learn that Dr. Schultz no longer practices dentistry. He is currently employed as a bounty hunter and is looking to collect a bounty that has been placed on the heads of the Brittle Brothers. We also learn that Django has been separated from his wife who was also sold, but he doesn't know who she was sold to. We also learn, via flashback that Django and his wife were brutally abused by the Brittle Brothers, both physically and sexually. He is all too eager to help Dr. Schultz. In addition to this, Dr. Schultz, being the good man that he is, offers to train Django and help him find his wife on the condition that he helps him find the Brittle Brothers. As well as setting him free.
It doesn't take them long to track down and kill the Brittle Brothers, who were working at another plantation under false identities. However, this angers the plantation owner, Spencer Bennett, since many of his slaves witnessed Django kill two of the Bennett's overseers. Bennett leads a group of 30 men to chase down the bounty hunters and kill them. This goes badly for Spencer and friends.
Following this, they don't go off to find Django's wife right away. Winter is setting in and Dr. Schultz wants to spend more time training Django. So they partner up collecting bounties for the winter as they prepare to search for Django's wife.
After a montage of training and collecting bounties the quest for Django's wife begins and we are shown a title card that reads, "Broomhilda," the name of Djangos wife. We are given a complete history of what she has been doing in her time separated from Django.
She was bought by a man named Mike Harmony, as a gift for his fat son, Scotty. Now Scotty is a very shy young man and Broomhilda is treated with kindness. He falls in love with her, and for his kindness, it seems that she loves him too. Then one night, he takes her out for a night on the town to a place called the Cleopatra Club. It is here that we first meet the despicable Calvin Candie, this story's main villain.
While Broomhilda has an immediate aversion to Candie, Scotty is soon manipulated into a card game. Broomhilda leaves for bed and it is not long before Scotty is pressured into a wager for the ownership of Broomhilda. Scotty loses to what appears to be a cheat. When he accuses Candie of this, he is promptly challenged to a duel. Scotty doesn't accept the duel, but is promptly shot dead anyway. And now, sweet Broomhilda is in the clutches of Calvin Candie.
Back to Django and Schultz, who are hot on the trail of his long lost wife. They soon locate her and hatch a plan to infiltrate Candie's plantation to save Broomhilda.
Analysis:
I don't even know where to begin, but I'll start by saying that I absolutely loved this screenplay and I wager this will be Tarantino's most successful film to date.
Westerns tend to have tough go at the box office, but this story is executed with such style, that I feel this is sure to be overcome. What I really like about the premise is the fact that Tarantino is walking a fine line in precarious territory. America's history of slavery is something that few film makers have the courage to confront and even fewer can present effectively. The ugly truth of slavery is one that is all too often downplayed, perhaps out of shame. And I will go so far as to say this will be Tarantino's most brutal film.
But it's also likely to be his sweetest film. The reason for this is directly born out of the protagonist's motives. Sure, there's a brief revenge plot-line. But the real story is of a man trying to rescue the love of his life. I can't think of any of this directors other films that was driven by this kind of goal.
Digging deeper, the characterization blows me away. Sure, there are a lot of characters, but they all ring true. They all have their place, their manner of speaking, things that they want, things they want to overcome. Obviously, this is largely a consequence of the dialog, which is just incredible. It seems like every scene holds lines that people will be quoting months after the fact.
Overall, I am enthralled by this screenplay. It humbles me to see a true master of the craft at work.
Rating:
Premise - 9.00
Character - 10.00
Dialog - 10.00
Story - 9.00
Overall - 9.5
No comments:
Post a Comment