"Defiance", "Django", and "Stranger Things"

I've been binge watching TV on Amazon and Netflix. And I just realized that all three of these are throwbacks. Django is a total throwback to the 70's, Stranger Things the 80's and Defiance has a very 90's feel.

I started watching Defiance and realized  that although it is meant to be like a Western Sci Fi... there are total elemnets of it that feel like Chinatown. Mostly that's because it deals with Alien Immigration where the immigrants are actual Aliens with strange rituals. I'm not saying Chinese people do what is done in the show, but that i feel like that's how Chinese and many other immigrants were perceived. But also the Earth born aliens... I don't know there is a total Jook Sing like thing about them. Anyway I'm hooked on the show. But it isn't the best thing ever. It's just decent. Graham Greene, who was in Twilight and also Dances with wolves is in it. And that was enough for me to continue watching.

The throwback to the 90's is mainly in the music they play, usually a cover, and they make these songs that when I heard them on the radio just seemed like stupid background.. now seem like ancient cultural heritage.... which technically it would be given the time and circumstances of the setting of the show... in a post apocalyptic future earth. It really has me thinking about telling some Chinatown stories in a Sci Fi fashion.

Then Grace really wanted to watch Stranger Things. Which is more than set in the 80's. It looks like it was made in the 80'sand it has all these big time 80's actors... except now when editing, instead of doing it by hand with actual film and tape the cuts are cheaper and easier to do so there are more of them and they are faster. I wanted to say they made an 80's horror film with modern technology except CGI and other trends towards different special effects.. but CGI actually does play a role too, but you barely notice it. I hardly watched horror films growing up, but this one is good. I feel like there are references to Akira, ET and probably a bunch of other teen horror movies I never saw. I mean the music and Title come on and you feel like you have just returned to the 80's

The benefit to doing this type of thing, revisiting old ways of movie making, is you can really do better than the originals if you spend some time on it. Which brings me to Django.


Starting off, right from the theme I loved Django. It is your real classic Cowboy movie. Except with more blood and although everyone is talking about the Slavery aspect of the story... it's really not like that. It just happens to have a black protagonist who of course starts out as a slave. But it doesn't FEEL like a "slave" movie. The truth is that all of these older westerns somehow managed to edit slavery out.

But the movie is very Tarantino in that not only do you see Western references but it feels like references to Anime referencing westerns that were referencing Samurai movies. Tarantino said he thought it was better than Roots. compared to Levar Burton's Roots? I think he might be right. And even compared to the newer one. Now Roots has a bunch of stuff that Django doesn't because it's focus is a dramatization of a historical time, to tell a history.

That's not what Django is. In fact Django is so white I don't really know why people were focusing so much on it being something that White people might not want to watch. That shows being very uncomfortable with your own history.

Django has a very NORSE aspect to it. And it is FUNNY too.

When Django really comes into his own, then you start hearing the hip hop style music as he kills a bunch of people. They way I heard about it on Howard Stern or whatever you hear about it being about Killing a bunch of White People. But it's a Western. He is killing bad guys. Who happen to be white, and because he has to. He isn't indiscriminant. There was more blood then the old time westerns.. but more shooting? Well maybe a higher body count. But if you like Clint Eastwood and Nevada Smith and all that type of stuff... trust me you will like Django. WIll I show it to my kids? Jonah will be scared. But honestly? I may very well show it to them.