DJANGO UNCHAINED: A Revenge Fantasy by Tarantino

I was so pleased to watch Django two days ago, probably at the same time the film was rolling in theaters in the US. I can't remember the first Tarantino film I watched in the last decade; was it Pulp Fiction? -that bizarre mixed-bag compilation of unwarranted gore and pedantic dialogues that might either recreate or parody old films from diverse genres. It is really so hard to describe the feeling movie-goers have after watching Kill Bill, Death Proof, Jackie Brown. I'd rather call Tarantino a master of manipulation when it comes to your personal viewer experience. It is true that he borrows a lot from other films; a practice that poses a real question as to the director's creativeness and sense of genuine ownership of his material, yet that it is precisely what Tarantino is great at. He is simply a master of the postmodernist technique of pastiche. And after all, this does not need genius to work flawlessly: if you like the seventies as a time period  and as a cultural embryo for art-as-pleasure, then you'll like everything that Tarantino does. "Legendary" is simply the word for the seventies: Kung Fu, Disco, Soul, Punk, Sun Glasses, beast sports cars, Spaghetti westerns are icons which reappear often and again in Tarantino's films. Manipulation happens when those iconic references are inserted into the film at such times that seem fortuitous for others but deeply meaningful for you as a seventies lover. This behind-the-scenes dialogue between you and the director is cryptic and complicitous. This looks like Tarantino is a cook serving you the exotic dishes you like but in different locals, different stories. It is true that the historical narrative of slavery in america might be too sensitive to trifle with, hence the decision of Spike Lee not to watch the film is understood, but I personally don't see that the director misrepresented or twisted any history. His game is simply not representation; this is a silly artistic fantasy that draws satisfaction in the watcher from the sight of an impossibly-perfect revenge taking place. Shakespeare understood that in his tragedies, but we are lucky we have Tarantino to put it on screen.