{"id":31934,"date":"2013-01-09T08:00:40","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=31934"},"modified":"2013-01-09T08:15:08","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T14:15:08","slug":"christmas-unchained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/01\/christmas-unchained\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Unchained"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"django\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There was a time when I wouldn\u2019t dare miss a new Quentin Tarantino film.<\/p>\n

I was in middle school when Pulp Fiction was released in theatres and, \u00a0as a teenage boy, I was fascinated by Tarantino\u2019s violent, vulgar and verbose underground universe. \u00a0Soon after, I gorged myself on the complete Tarantino catalog, watching True Romance, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction time and time again. \u00a0\u00a0As the years went by, I have rarely missed a theatrical release of a Tarantino film – Four Rooms, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill<\/em> (Vol. 1 & 2) – each served as a guilty entertainment pleasure. \u00a0That is, until Inglorioius Basterds<\/em>, Tarantino\u2019s revenge-fueled World War II film in which a group of American soldiers is sent to kill Nazis in the most brutal ways possible to rattle the psyche of the Germans. \u00a0I missed that one in theatres but eventually rented it from Netflix. The little red envelope sat in my house for about six weeks before I decided to send it back unwatched.<\/p>\n

This year, Tarantino came back with Django Unchained<\/em>, just in time for the celebration of the birth of Christ (sarcasm intended). \u00a0Django, starring Jamie Foxx, Leonardo Dicaprio and others, is the story of a freed slave turned bounty hunter set on the task of freeing his wife from a plantation owner who is known for turning male slaves into sport fighters and female slaves into prostitutes. \u00a0The film was directed as an over-the-top spaghetti western and, in typical Tarantino fashion, a huge body count and wake of human carnage is sure to be left in Django\u2019s wake. \u00a0And, once again, I find myself with little to no desire to see the latest creation of my once-favorite director.<\/p>\n

This leads me to ask – what changed? Tarantino, or me?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be the first to admit that, since I had kids (our oldest is now seven), I\u2019ve been more sensitive to violence on the screen. \u00a0Obviously, I avoid watching violent films with the children, but I\u2019ve also found myself to be more violence-averse in my personal viewing. \u00a0It has become difficult to cheer on protagonists slashing their ways through conflict. \u00a0I\u2019ve lost respect for directors who seem to revel in brutality (even Peter Jackson, to some degree, for the excessive number of beheadings in The Hobbit).<\/p>\n

But, I don\u2019t think that my aversion to violence is solely to blame.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something that strikes me wrong about Tarantino\u2019s decision to project his brand of filmmaking on the Holocaust of the Nazis and slavery of the American south. \u00a0These two events, more than almost any others in recent history, embody the height of dehumanization and the brutal after-effects thereof. Why then, take two historical events already imbued with the height of human violence and hatred and project over-the-top, cartoonish Tarantino violence upon them?<\/p>\n

Dana Stevens, movie critic at Slate.com, summed up her experience<\/a> of the film like this:<\/p>\n

Tarantino\u2019s intent may have been to showcase the horrors of slavery, but there\u2019s something about his directorial delectation in all these acts of racial violence that left me not just physically but morally queasy. His fascination with repeated acts of graphic retribution puts the viewer in the position of Calvin J. Candie, watching with a cigarette holder and a coconut drink in hand as the mandingoes fight it out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whether or not we\u2019re willing to admit it, watching extreme acts of violence in the imagery of films or video games desensitizes us and calls us into the act of dehumanizing others. \u00a0Celebrating and reveling in violence is never a good thing for us to do. \u00a0And that\u2019s why Tarantino\u2019s set pieces of recent history seem so wrong to me. \u00a0It\u2019s like he\u2019s trying, in some little way, to right the wrongs of dehumanizing history by having a violent protagonist tear through history\u2019s villains with avengeance. \u00a0But Tarantino is calling another generation into the act of dehumanizing others. \u00a0And that\u2019s where I have to get off the Tarantino train.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll miss the obscure pop culture references and dark humor but rest assured that the myth of redemptive violence will, at least to some degree, die in this human heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a time when I wouldn\u2019t dare miss a new Quentin Tarantino film. I was in middle school when Pulp Fiction was released in theatres and, \u00a0as a teenage boy, I was fascinated by Tarantino\u2019s violent, vulgar and verbose underground universe. \u00a0Soon after, I gorged myself on the complete Tarantino catalog, watching True Romance,… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,90],"tags":[55,1298,1299,1300,327,508],"class_list":["post-31934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-blog","category-faith-blog","tag-catholic-2","tag-django","tag-django-unchained","tag-quentin-tarantino-christmas","tag-slavery","tag-violence","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t