First a confession. This is not really a blog. It is more of a thought that I am sharing.
Kim and I watch all of the films nominated for best picture. I finally saw Django Unchained Thursday night. I only have two more to go (Argo and Amour). Don’t worry, I will post full blogs about the films later, after I have seen all of them just like I did last year.
Last Year’s Oscar Films Part One
Last Year’s Oscar Films Part Two
Last Year’s Oscar Films Part Three
But that is not what I am blogging about today. I will tell you my thoughts about Django later. But for now, I want to tell you what I have decided. I have decided that Django Unchained has the same plot as Star Wars (Episode IV, which to me, will always be just, Star Wars).
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
Do not read any further if you have not seen the film and want to be surprised.
Django is Luke Skywalker. He is freed from the shackles holding him back–in Django these are real manacles, for Luke they are metaphors.
They both find a mentor–the same one who frees them–a mentor with a white beard and a funny accent (Obi Wan is English, Dr. Schultz is German).
In Django, the mentor serves as both Obi Wan and Han Solo, “Come with me kid, you’re not too bad in a fight.”
The basic plan is to break into the bad guys territory (Plantation=Death Star).
Leonardo DiCaprio is Darth Vader.
Slavery (The Old South) is identical to the evil Galactic Empire.
Princess Leia is tortured. So is Broomhilda.
The mentor figure fights the bad guy and dies doing it.
There is a final battle.
Django blows up the plantation with dynamite. Luke blows up the Death Star with a torpedo.
Kerry Washington even looks a little like Princess Leia at the end.
When George Lucas made the original Star Wars, he said it was like an old western set in outer space. In Django, the outer space story has now become the western.
7 responses to “DJANGO AND LUKE SKYWALKER”
That would have never occur to me, but you may be right. Though I don’t think that Tarantino was looking for inspriation in Star Wars. The plot of Star Wars has become a setting stone for many movies. It is not too complicated, it can happen under many different circumstances and it is appealing to wide audience.
Jay B.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
I agree, the original Star Wars plot is not rocket science complicated. However, what interests me is how those same basic elements, as you say, are now the formula for most movies–especially those that aspire to be epic. Before Star Wars the plot of most movies was either the lone wolf (bogart, eastwood) or the buddy films with the occasional journey plotline thrown in.. but after star wars, and now with people who grew up on that film, the main plot is mentor/rescue/blow up. and you are equally right in that i in no way think QT intended it or as copycating.
again, thanks for reading!
[…] Django Unchained–I almost did not go see this one because of my aversion to Quentin Tarantino. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The movie is good and it does a spectacular job of portraying the awful and disgusting inhumanity of slavery in the antebellum American South. Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz are great together and Samuel L. Jackson is chilling in an almost Hannibal Lecter kind of way. However, Kerry Washington is wasted and the story is cartoonized (think I just invented that word–cartoonized) in Tarantino’s hands. This is a good movie, but in the hands of a better director it could have been a great movie. I am still at a loss as to how it was nominated for best picture, though. […]
[…] far as I am concerned, anyone of those three could win and I would be happy. If Amour, Beasts, or Django win I will be writing a strongly worded letter to […]
[…] Murphy’s law,” I said in a wise Obi Wan Kenobi voice, “is the adage that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. So if you think about […]
“Slavery (The Old South) is identical to the evil Galactic Empire.”
I’ll buy that.
And then my fifteen year old daughter comes in and says, “But of course, it’s the Hero’s Journey”.
I’m glad she’s around to explain this stuff to me….
your daughter is wise beyond her years, and you are even wiser for having taught her such wonderful concepts!
thanks for reading and commenting.