LION KING – a movie and value review by Gary Smolker

Bullying

The new Disney movie “Lion King” is about bullying, a weak man, and a strong woman.

It is subtly a feminist diatribe.

My Favorite Character

My favorite character is a warthog.

Throughout the story the warthog is easy going, doesn’t care about anything, UNTIL hungry hyenas start talking about him.

The hungry hyenas loudly tell each other – in his presence – that he is fat and would make a juicy delicious meal.

His response, is to say he can’t stand being made fun of by anyone.

While this conversation is going on, the Lion King is being attacked by an overwhelming number of hyenas.

The provoked warthog responds to being called “fat” by attacking the hyenas talking about him.

After killing them the warthog goes attacks the hyenas attacking the lion king.

The warthog’s attack is so fierce that all surviving hyenas beat a hasty retreat, saving the outnumbered lion king.

The Lion King is saved by the warthog.

The Lion King Is A Weak Man

Until the very end of the movie, until the final scenes of the movie, the Lion King runs away from his problems.

Feminism

Feminist believe: “Women have to scrounge around the edges for our share, and let the men think they’re so far above us, we’re just happy to be along for the ride. It won’t always be that way, but it’s the way it is now.”

That isn’t their psychology education talking.

That is their common sense talking.

That is the conclusion they come to from living in this world.

That conclusion, that world view, is supported by Disney’s newly released movie LION KING.

In the new Disney movie, women just hang around until a female lioness, Nala, takes control of a horrible situation.

A Strong Woman

The strongest, bravest, most noble character in the movie is Nala.

Throughout the movie, Nala knows she is part of something bigger.

Nala is raised to know she is destined to be the queen; she will become the queen when her fellow cub, the lion cub Simba, becomes the new king.

Dramatic Tension

After Simba’s father dies – he was murdered by his brother evil brother SCAR – the dead king’s evil brother SCAR becomes king.

Through mismanagement the lands ruled by SCAR goes to ruin.

Dramatic Tension Builds

Nala realizes the end is near for everyone if SCAR remains in control.

Nala stops hanging around with the other lioness, she goes out to find help, she goes out from her den to find someone to overthrow SCAR.

Nala travels far away from her home, travels far away from the den where she hung out with all the other females in her tribe.

Nala finds Simba living haphazardly in a paradise far far away.

Nala convinces Samba to come back home to claim his kingship.

Posturing

The “Lion King” postures as being about the circle of life, teaching the audience the meaning of life and death.

“Lion King” is actually a politically correct feminist movie about how men need a smart woman; it is about how weak and silly men are.

Swahili

If you speak Swahili you know Simba is a boy’s name that means “Lion.”

“A Boy Named Sue”

“A Boy Named Sue” is a Johnny Cash song about a boy whose father named him Sue.

The father named his son Sue so that he would grow up strong.

The father knew a boy named Sue would be picked on, would learn to fight to survive, and because of being ceaselessly picked on would become strong, smart and sensitive.

If you are a Johnny Cash fan, you know the “Lion King” isn’t Johnny Cash signing “A Boy Named Sue.”

Being Politically Correct

Names are important.

At a deeply linguistic intellectual level, “Lion King” teaches us a Swahili name “SIMBA.”

CONCLUSION: If a girl is named Simba it is for no other reason than her parents don’t know Swahili or her parents are idiots.

 

Copyright © 2019 by Gary Smolker, All Rights Reserved

 

“Living Life Fully” by Gary S. Smolker

5:10 a.m. (PST), January 24, 2015

A Request to the Readers of this Post

Check out the latest posts on my blog at http://www.garysmolker.wordpress.com, leave comments and see note below (which is a copy of actual correspondence between myself and my friend Patrick Gisler) about living life fully, taking risks and recognizing danger.

I also invite your comments on the discussion below of living the sybaritic way of life, the best chocolate in the world, and what you would chose or do or recommend other people do if given a choice between eating chocolate or having sex.

Thanks,

Gary

Gary S. Smolker, Publisher
Gary S. Smolker Idea Exchange Blog
http://www.garysmolker.wordpress.com

Read On:

Sent: Sun, Jan 24, 2016 4:52 am
Subject: # 2 Re: Snakes

 

Patrick

Thanks for the note (copy below).

I BELIEVE LIFE IS ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT.

You sending me the note below is another example of how one of my big themes/a theory/a proposition that physical distance is not emotional distance plays out.

When I started to write this note/response to your note below it was 4:00 a.m.

I had been up since 3:00 a.m. – trying to go back to sleep.

I had so many memories of the “lovers” in my life — women who had broken my heart — and thoughts about those memories that I was thinking about [probably provoked by watching “The Big Short” last night and watching “Brooklyn” a few nights before with Bob Balocca and afterwards discussing those movies with Bob] that I wanted to write about, that I couldn’t go back to sleep.

Although you and I are physically hundreds of miles apart, emotionally/mentally we are at the same place.

By the way, I told Bob about the picture of you holding a “Rattle Snake.”

Bob told me you probably couldn’t hit a rattlesnake with a shovel hard enough to only stun it; more likely if you hit a rattlesnake on the head with a shovel you would kill it.  Bob believes more likely than not you killed the rattlesnake you thought you had stunned.

I got out of bed at 4:00 a.m. to write about (1) why the movie “Brooklyn” touched me, (2) why the movie “The Big Short” touched me, and (3) to write about my thoughts about the on-going current protests about lack of black people being nominated for Academy Awards  and (4) my thoughts about the Board of Directors reaction to that – calling for steps to be taken to increase the “diversity” of its membership.

Thanks for sending me the note below.

It is now 4:45 a.m.

Writing this note to you has probably prepared me and “made” me ready to try to go back to sleep, again.

By the way, last night Bob and I discussed — maybe argued about — why the heroine in “Brooklyn” put the letters she received from her husband in a drawer instead of reading and responding to them.

At the time, the heroine in “Brooklyn” was in Ireland with the heroine’s grieving mother — the heroine’s mother was now all alone.

Her mother was all alone because the mother’s eldest daughter had died while her younger daughter (the heroine in the movie) was living in America, in Brooklyn.

The heroine was not able to get back to Ireland in time to attend the funeral, because the only way to get to Ireland from America was by boat.

The heroine had married her boyfriend the day she left him to go “home” to Ireland to be with her mother.

The boyfriend had asked her to marry him the night before because he knew she was going to Ireland and [my speculation] he wanted to know she would come back to him.

The heroine’s mother had no idea that her daughter (the heroine) was married when the heroine arrived in Ireland.

For whatever reason the heroine did not tell her mother that she was now married when she arrived back “home” in Ireland.

One thing after another happens next.

Such is life, the sweetness of life, the temptation to break commitments and the nature of commitments one makes in life.

It doesn’t amaze me that you and I have been friends for more than 50 years or surprise me that you would hold a “stunned” alive rattlesnake in your hand or that you would tell me there is a thin line between bravery and stupidity and that you try to not put all ten toes over that line.

Our lives are full because we live them fully.

Your “brilliance”, “eloquence”, and love of living life fully is probably what has kept the fire of our friendship burning bright all these years.

Good morning, and/or good night — I have no idea of the difference between the two.

“Living Life Fully” is something the “faint of heart” more likely than not would not understand.

It is now 4:58 a.m. (PST).

By the way, the other day I “discovered” that two of the most important women in my life prefer salty foods over sweets.Gary

—–Original Message—–
From: Patrick Gisler
To: Gary Smolker <gsmolker@aol.com>
Sent: Sat, Jan 23, 2016 10:39 pm
Subject: Re: Snakes

Gary, the snake I was holding is only a four foot long rattlesnake.  I let the 6 foot one live as it was not by the house.  I did not try to pick it up.  A six foot snake can strike about four feet, which makes it very dangerous to approach, dead or alive.  Also, the larger the snake, the larger the poison glands and the longer the fangs.  While any rattlesnake bite is a problem, the more poison injected and the deeper the injection, the greater the tissue damage and risk of permanent injury and death.  The larger snakes are too dangerous to get around.

best,pg

On Friday, January 15, 2016 7:20 AM, Gary Smolker <gsmolker@aol.com> wrote:

Patrick

Thanks for the lovely photograph of Reece holding your dog.

Please send me photo of you holding the six foot rattle snake in your hand [after you knocked it out with your shovel], showing the full length of the approximately six foot snake hanging down from your hand.

Thanks.

Gary

—–Original Message—–
From: Patrick
To: Gary Smolker <GSmolker@aol.com>
Sent: Thu, Jan 14, 2016 9:21 pm
Subject: Snakes

If this dog was in your back yard, you would kill all the rattlesnakes that came in, too!
Sent from my iPhone

You Can’t Tell A Book by Its Cover

By the way, I love the cheerfulness of the philosophy expressed in the Italian saying si non e vero, e ben trovato (“even if it’s not true, it’s a good one”).

I believe life is about being cheerful and conveying likability.

Below is a photograph of my good friend Jason Fane taken on December 31, 2015 at a New Year’s Party at Jason’s apartment on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

This is a photo of Jason and Les Steiner at that New Year’s Party.

Jason and Patrick are both brilliant and eloquent.

They both love life and live life fully.

They both enjoy critical thinking.

Critical thinking is an effort and is challenging.

Neither Patrick nor Jason is lazy.

They are both critical thinkers.

They both like to think.

They are both big time risk takers.

Jason has been my good friend for over 45 years.

Jason and I met in an elevator in Ithaca, New York in 1967.

At the time, we were both graduate students at Cornell University.

Jason had a car.  I didn’t.

By the time we got out of the elevator Jason had given me the keys to his Mercedes Benz and told me to use it.

By the way, I stayed in the Chaz Yorkville while I attended the 40th Annual Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto in September, 2015.

Below is a picture taken of me one year before, in September, 2014, before I had shaved off my beard and mustache.

The Chaz Yorkville

The Chaz Yorkville is a one of a kind 53 story residential building located at 45 Charles Street, in Toronto, Canada, developed by my friend Jason Fane, as sole owner and developer.

Below is a picture I took from the Sports Club on the 32nd floor of the Chaz Yorkville while I was attending the 40th Annual Toronto International Film Festival.

Compare the above photograph of my good friend Jason Fane, taken at a New Year’s Eve Party in his apartment on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on December 31, 2015 to the recent photograph below of my good friend Patrick Gisler and to the picture below of me taken in September, 2014 and to the pictures below taken of me while I was cooking dinner on New Year’s Eve on December 31, 2015.

Appearances can be deceiving.

Jason, Patrick and I “look” very different from one another, and I look different in a t-shirt in September 2014 at my local Starbucks than I look while in a kitchen cooking dinner on New Year’s Eve December 31, 2015,  but each one of us has much in common with each other and I was the “same” person in September 2014 as I was on December 31, 2015 which each of the above pictures of me were taken.

You can’t tell a book by its cover.

By the way, I don’t believe in complaining about anything.

“The Big Short”

Patrick and Jason remind me of that scene in the “The Big Short” where the Rabbi is telling Mark Baum’s mother that the Rabbi is concerned about Mark.

The Rabbi: “I’m concerned about Mark.”

Mother: “Isn’t Mark studying hard and getting good grades?”

Rabbi: “Yes.  That is not what I am concerned about?”

Mother: “What are you concerned about?”

Rabbi:  “I am concerned about why Mark is studying so hard.”

Mother: “Why are you concerned about why Mark is studying so hard?”

Rabbi: “Mark is studying so hard because Mark is trying to find inconsistencies in the words of G-d. 

“Mark is studying so hard because he is trying to find inconsistencies in the Talmud and the Torah; he is trying to find inconsistencies in the Bible.”

Like the portrayal of “Mark Baum” in “The Big Short”, Jason and Patrick question everything.

If You Are Given A Choice Between Chocolate and Sex Which Should You Choose?

Definition of Sybaritic

Sybaritic – adj. pertaining to or characterized by loving luxury or sensuous pleasure.

Definition of Sybarite

Sybarite – n. a person devoted to luxury and pleasure.

Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate

It is my understanding that Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate, grown on the Island of Hawaii, is considered the finest chocolate in the world by a coterie of chocolate connoisseurs.

The sublime substance (chocolate) produced from the criollo cacao beans harvested in Kona (on the dry western part of the Island) has a fruity taste quality, while the chocolate produced from beans harvested from Keaau (near Hilo, on the rain-soaked east side of the Island) have an earthy flavor.

The final product consists of round, flat “pistoles,” each the size of an American quarter, which are sold to the pastry chefs of the finest restaurants of the United States.

It has been reported that by 1994 Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate was selling at a price that was nearly two dollars per pound higher than Valrhona chocolate.

At one time the French firm Valrhona, founded in 1925, with headquarters in Tain-l’Hermitage, about one hour south of the culinary capital of Lyon, had working for it a full-time jury of ten who did nothing but sit and eat chocolate all day, testing new products.

At one time, Valrhona produced chocolate only for professionals, who melted it down, molded it, and packaged the chocolates as their own.

Those Dietary Villains Responsible for Chocolate’s Undeserved Reputation As A Fattening, Tooth-Rotting, Addictive Indulgence

In a 1991 interview, Chantal Coady (the leader of England’s “The Chocolate Society”) stated that “chocoholics” are not addicted to chocolate they are addicted to sugar and thus suffer an eating disorder.

According to Ms. Coady, the only necessary ingredients for good chocolate are pure, unadulterated “cocoa solids” (the higher the proportion the better), blended with a little cacao butter and a small amount of sugar.

According to Ms. Coady, the principal ingredients of commercial chocolate are sugar, solid vegetable fat, and powdered milk.

According to Valrhona’s marketing director, Alphonse Daudet one can forget any chocolate that is less than 50 percent “cocoa solids” – to him that is not even chocolate.

In the United States most of the chocolate sold and eaten is less than 43 percent “cocoa solids” because sugar is a lot cheaper than cacao.

Valrhona’s “Guanaja 1502” has 70 percent “cocoa solids”, a world record during the 1980s – but only one tenth the calories of the typical mass-produced chocolate.

Switzerland: Land of Cows and Chocolate

The words “Swiss” and chocolate are inseparable.

Swiss citizens are the number one consumers of chocolate.

In 1990 – 1991, the annual per capita consumption of chocolate in Switzerland was 5.09 kg, or 11 lb, compared with the puny 2.24 kg, or 5 lb, eaten by the individual American.

The inventions of milk chocolate and of the milk chocolate candy bar were a collaboration between two men: Henri Nestle (1814-90), a Swiss chemist and Daniel Peter (1836-1919), a Swiss chocolate manufacturer.

As a result of their collaboration, in 1879, the first milk chocolate bar was produced.

Suffice it to say that was a lucrative collaboration, the Nestle company grew into what was/is perhaps the world’s largest food corporation.

 

 

Copyright © 2016 by Gary S. Smolker, All Rights Reserved

“Django Unchained and Quentin Tarantino Interview in December 2012 PLAYBOY” — a movie review with social commentary by Gary S. Smolker

“Django Unchained and Quentin Tarantino Interview in December 2012 PLAYBOY” 

-A Movie Review with Social Commentary by Gary S. Smolker –

(January 2, 2013)

QUENTIN TARANTINO’S AGENDA

Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed the recently released movie Django Unchained.

In his PLAYBOY interview, published in the December 2012 issue of PLAYBOY, Tarantino said he has an agenda about history that he wanted to get across in this movie.  He was interested in the business aspect of slavery (the use and approval of the use of humans as chattel, humans who could be bought and sold) and he wanted to get across how horrible slavery is.

Tarantino’s movie is a sociological psychodrama that compels viewers to think about sociological, economic and political issues.

Tarantino may have set out to get across how terrible slavery was, but what Tarantino actually does in Django Unchained is to make a movie which tells a story about the mind set of people in the deep South before the Civil War.

The story Tarantino tells will compel many viewers to reflect upon and explore the validity of their racial and economic stereotypes, as well as to think about their opinion on the pros and cons of the workings of an unregulated purely market based economic system, their opinion of the value of human life, their concept of property and human rights, and the sociological, economic and political quagmire the United States finds itself in today as well as the role and the impact of the rule of law in society and how social strata and entrepreneurship work in real life today.

To the acute observer, Tarantino’s movie will (a) explain why Barack Obama was re-elected President of the United States, (b) why Mitt Rommney  sincerely believes he is entitled to be President of the United States, (c) why the NAACP is challenging New York City’s exclusive use of an applicant’s test score on a standard test as the sole basis to gain admission to New York City’s academically elite selective high schools and (d) why the Mayor of New York City, Richard Bloomberg, adamantly refuses to change  use of the applicant’s test score as the only admission criteria to those schools.

The way Tarantino tells the story told in Django Unchained is an excellent example of how to make an argument with powerful impact.

I predict that Tarantino’s film will have significant effect on judicial decisions, jury decisions,the votes on delicate issues that politicians will make in the future,  and on politician’s political careers and the voting public’s political decisions going forward.

TARANTINO’S IMPACTFULL POWERFULLY TOLD STORY

Tarantino’s movie Django Unchained tells a very compelling story.

In the first scene of Django Unchained, Django (played by Jammie Foxx) is in chains.  It is winter.  Django is tied to other slaves, all of whom are walking along inadequately clothed for the winter weather, being herded by two slave traders.

The line is stopped by a bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz played by Christopher Waltz.

Dr. Schultz asks Django if Django can identify two men.  Django replies: “Yes.”

Dr. Schultz tries to purchase Django from the slave traders.

The slave traders refuse to sell Django and unsuccessfully try to kill bounty hunter Schultz.

Dr. Schultz kills one of the slave traders and fatally wounds the other who is trapped under his fallen horse who has been shot by Dr. Schultz in a “shoot-out” in self-defense.

Instantaneously, Dr. Schultz enlists Django to help Schultz hunt and kill the two men Django tells Schultz he can identify.

Django tells Dr. Schultz he will assist Dr. Schultz in his quest to kill those two men for the reward (bounty) offered to bring them “in dead or alive” whereupon Dr. Schultz unchains Django after Django.

Dr. Schultz and Django make a “deal” — Django agrees to identify the two men being hunted by bounty hunter Schultz and to be Schultz’s partner in the bounty hunting business throughout the winter.

The two men Django has been asked to identify had abused Django and Django’s wife while they were slaves working on a plantation under the control of those two.

Schultz agrees to pay one third of the bounty collected for killing men they hunt and to help Django find and rescue Django’s wife Broomhilda von Shaft (played by Kerry Washington) — who is a plantation slave desperately in need of being rescued — after the winter snow melts.

Dr. Schultz is a refined educated man, a dentist who went into the bounty hunting business because being a bounty hunter (being paid a “reward” for each person brought in dead or alive) is more lucrative then being a dentist.

When Dr. Schultz meets Django, Django is an ignorant slave, who can’t read or write.  Django is a man who never chose or owned his own clothes, and who never held a gun or rode on a horse.  That all changes after Django partners up with Dr. Schultz.

Dr. Schultz explains to Django that Broomhilda is the name of a Queen in German legend who is won by Sigfried.

Dr. Schultz teaches Django how to shoot a gun and how to ride a horse.

Dr. Schultz buys new clothes for Django which are chosen by Django for Django.

The two partners (Dr. King and Django) are a case study in relational effectiveness.  They have a very effective and efficient humane relationship.

After a winter of successful bounty hunting — consisting of killing white men then bringing them in dead for a reward (bounty) — Django and Dr. King go to the slave market in Mississippi where Broomhilda was sold to her current master in order to find out, from an inspection of sales records, where Broomhilda is now.

Dr. King determines from an inspection of sales records that Broomhilda has been sold to Calvin Candi, the owner of a cotton plantation known as Candi land.

Calvin Candi is played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Calvin Candi is a young boy Emperor.  He owns everything in sight at Candi land.

Candi land is a self-contained money making machine, which takes care of itself.

Calvin Candi was born into this.

Calvin Candi’s father and Calvin’s father’s father before him owned Candi land.

Calvin’s passion is not raising cotton.  Calvin’s passion is Mandingo fighting — two black men fight each other to the death.

Dr. King and Django decide and hatch a plan on how to purchase Broomhilda from Calvin Candi.

They decide they will pose as being sportsmen in the Mandingo fighting business and will get to see Calvin Candi under the pretext of wanting to purchase one of Calvin Candi’s Mandingo fighters.

There are many memorable dramatic (and surprising to me) scenes in Django Unchained.

1. In one scene: Dr. King, Django and Calvin Candi are all together watching a Mandingo fight. Calvin’s Mandingo is fighting another slave owner’s Mandingo slave at a gentleman’s club.
2. At the end of the fight, Calvin orders his “victorious Mandingo slave” to “finish off” the other Mandingo slave:  Calvin’s Mandingo slave has beat up the other slave.  Calvin’s slave is given a hammer and told to hammer the other slave’s head in.  He reluctantly does so.
3. When Dr. King and Django first arrive at Candi land, they are told by Calvin Candi, when he learns that Dr. King speaks German, that he has a German speaking woman house slave.
4. Django is riding a horse when Dr. King and Django arrive at Candi land.  At Candi land no-one had ever seen a black man on a horse before.
5. Calvin Candi tells his head black slave, a man who runs the household, played by Samuel L. Jackson, to prepare a room for Django in the main house.
6. The slave who runs the house complains that they will have to burn the sheets and covers if Django sleeps in a room in the main house.
7. Calvin Candi petulantly replies that the sheets, covers and blankets that will be touched by Django belong to him (Mr. Candi) and he (Mr. Candi) can do whatever he wants with them.
8. Calvin orders his men to bring the German speaking slave (Broomhilda) to speak to Dr. King in German.
9. The men fetch Broomhilda.
10. Movie viewers are shown Broomhilda imprisoned in an partially underground metal “hot box” the size of a coffin as a punishment for trying to run away.
11. In another scene the viewers are shown the victorious Mandingo fighter up in a tree surrounded by barking dogs.  It turns out the Mandingo fighter had tried to run away and had been tracked by those dogs who are now trying to eat the Mandingo fighter. The fighter explains to Mr. Candi that he doesn’t want to fight anyone anymore.  Mr. Candi replies that he (Mr. Candi) paid $500 for the Mandingo fighter, that the fighter has fought on three fights and Mr. Candi should get at least five fights for his $500.00
12. The Mandingo fighter comes down out of the tree.  The dogs are let loose.  They grab the fighter and tear him apart and then eat him while he is still alive.
13. In another scene Mr. Candi explains to Dr. Schultz and to Django that blacks are naturally servile and a mentally inferior specie of human being.
14. Mr. Candi pulls out a skull he keeps of a deceased black man. He cuts the skull open and points to the part of the interior of the skull against which the brain would lay.
15. There are some ridges on the skull at that portion of the interior of the skull. Mr. Candi explains that the presence of those ridges prove that black people are servile have low mental capacity.
16. Prior to this demonstration, viewers have been told, several times throughout the movie, that Calvin Candi does not speak any foreign languages.
17. Shortly after that demonstration, Dr. King asks Mr. Candi how it came about that Mr. Candi gave the names Mr. Candi gave to his Mandingo fighters.
18. Mr. Candi explains that he got the names he gave his Mandingo slaves from novels written by Alexander Dumas.  He further explains that Alexander Dumas is his favorite author.
19. Dr. Schultz then asks if Mr. Candi is aware that Alexander Dumas was a black man?
20. Prior to that happening, Mr. Candi and the head of his household agree that Broomhilda is worth $300 or $350.  Immediately after that, Mr. Candi told Dr. King that Mr. Candi would crush Broomhilda’s skull if Dr. King did not pay Mr. Candi $12,000 to purchase Broomhilda.  Things get violent after that.

One would have to be very dense to not notice that Mr. Candi was not as intelligent as the black man in charge of Mr. Candi’s house/household staff, the black man played by Samuel L. Jackson.

At all times during the movie, Django acted in an intelligent and appropriate matter and exhibited a high degree of reasoning power as did his wife Broomhilda.

ALEXANDER DUMAS

Mr. Tarantino did not have Dr. Schultz mention to Mr. Candi anything about Alexander Dumas other than the fact that Alexander Dumas was black.

In real life, Alexander Dumas’ father Alex Dumas was born to a black slave mother and a white fugitive French nobleman in present day Haiti.

Alex Dumas was sold into bondage but made his way to Paris, where he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy.

When the Revolution broke out, he joined the army at the lowest rank – yet quickly rose, through a series of legendary feats, to command more than 50,000 men.

Because of his success and unwavering principles, he ultimately became a threat to Napoleon himself.

Alex Dumas’ story is a story which took place in the modern world’s first multiracial society.

The stories in Alexander Dumas’ books The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers are based on the life led by his father Alex Dumas.

Alex Dumas fearlessly lived up to his beliefs.  Fear did not stop him from doing anything.

THE BEST ACTORS WANT TO WORK IN MR. TARANTINO’S FILMS

Some of the best actors and actresses want to work in Mr. Tarantino’s films because they agree with Mr. Tarantino’s values, respect Mr. Tarantino’s honesty, respect his bravery and want to be one of the messengers who deliver the message in his films.

In Django Unchained, the actors understood every ideological aspect of what the movie is about, agreed with the powerfully presented message that the institution of slavery in the United States was awful and wanted to join Mr. Tarantino in delivering a powerfully delivered message that blacks are not genetically stupid, that given an opportunity they have as much ability to acquire knowledge through study or experience as any other race of people.

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

In the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, 150 years ago this week, President Lincoln freed the slaves only where he had no power – inside the Confederacy where slavery was legal and protected by the Confederate Army.

Slavery existed because of state laws, and the president had no power to declare a state law unconstitutional. Nothing in the Constitution as it existed in 1863 made slavery unconstitutional.

President Lincoln based his issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on the grant of war powers to the president in the Constitution.

President Lincoln claimed that slavery was enabling the rebels of the South to carry out their war, he maintained that abolition was “warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity” to save the government.

A key part of the Emancipation Proclamation was its invitation to freed slaves and other African American men to enlist in the Union Army.

More than 180,000 black men served in the Union Army, the great majority of them emancipated slaves.

More than one-fifth of the nation’s adult male black population younger than 45 fought for the Union, about 10% of the entire Union Army.

QUENTIN TARANTINO’S MINDSET AND AMBITION

In the interview published in the December 2012 issue of PLAYBOY, Tarantino said he is always trying to prove that he belongs in Hollywood.

He is always trying to top himself.

He is trying to make big, bold, vital movies that move his artistic journey forward.

He would like to be thought of as one of the premier directors of his time, at the height of his powers, with his talents at his fingertips, with something to say, something to prove, trying to be the best he can be.

QUENTIN TARANTINO’S ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: DO BLACK PEOPLE GENETICALLY LACK INTELLIGENCE?

If one defines intelligence as the ability to acquire knowledge through study and experience, the message unambiguously delivered in Django Unchained is that black people are highly intelligent.

The message Tarantino, and all the actors in this movie, deliver(s) is that “intelligence” is not a genetic trait.

EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL REACTIONS TO DJANGO UNCHAINED

I like Django Unchained because, whether I agree with the message/information/argument communicated by Tarantino, Django Unchained will provoke public discussion of difficult current subjects such as the value of human life, whether government regulation of social conduct and providing social welfare is a good idea and whether government regulation of our theoretically free market economy is necessary.

In its own way, Django Unchained speaks to the issue of whether affirmative action makes sense.

I like Django Unchained because watching Django Unchained will cause some people to examine their unexamined assumptions.

In that regard, Django Unchained will cause many people to think about the validity of their assumptions about ownership of property, property rights and human rights.

Django Unchained will influence people’s state of minds on social issues such as the proper role and size of government and the regulation of business and social conduct by government.

Django Unchained will provoke discussion about the existence of racial stereotypes and about what people believe about racial stereotypes.

Django Unchained will inevitably cause some people to examine their racial biases if they have any.

THE AMERICAN DREAM

The “American Dream” is a state of mind.

The “American Dream” is about freedom and opportunity, opportunity and freedom for everybody.

The “American Dream” does not demonize success or endorse the grant of special favors or special “entitlements” to special groups based on ancestry, ethnicity, race or color.

The widespread viewing of Tarantino’s Django Unchained will accelerate society’s realization of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream that someday all children will be treated the same regardless of the color of their skin and we will someday live in a world where people will not be judged on the basis of the color of their skin but instead will be judged on the content of their character.

CONCEPTS OF THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE, HUMAN RIGHTS, PROPERTY, OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO HAVE A LAISSEZ FAIRE FREE MARKET ECONOMY, AND HOLDING PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE AND PREPARING PEOPLE FOR THE REAL WORLD

The commonly held belief of the characters in Django Unchained is that nobody has the right to tell you what to do with your own property or to tell you what you can and cannot do with your own property.

As a result, in Django Unchained, Calvin Candi, without any compulsion, asked his Mandingo fighter to bash in the head of the other Mandingo fighter with a hammer without anyone questioning Mr. Candi’s right to do so.

Mr. Candi had a young beautiful black slave woman whipped and put in a metal box the size of a coffin as a punishment for trying to run away, without anyone questioning Mr. Candi’s right to do so because she is his property.

Mr. Candi had his dogs tear apart the flesh of a black slave and ate that slave alive, without anyone questioning Mr. Candi’s right to do so because the black slave is Mr. Candi’s property.

At the beginning of the movie, shortly after Dr. Schultz has “freed” Django, Dr. Schultz asks Django if Django would like to join Dr. Schultz in the business of bounty hunting.

Django asks Dr. Schultz to explain bounty hunting, to tell him what bounty hunting is.

Dr. Schultz tells Django that bounty hunting is like the “slave trade” — money for flesh — except in the slave trade money is paid for alive black people and in the bounty hunting trade money is paid for dead white people who have been shot and killed by bounty hunters who will collect a cash reward for having done so.

After hearing this explanation, Django replies “Being paid for killing white people, what’s not to be liked about that.”

All of the violence and inhumanity portrayed in Django Unchained makes sense in the context of the story being told because Django Unchained is a satire.

Django Unchained is a satire created by a master of the film making art in which shockingly dramatically memorable graphic scenes are employed to create a visualization of a way of life.

This visualization of a “way of life” is presented to viewers for the purpose of compelling to consider their own mind sets about the value of human life, human rights, property rights and government regulation.

After viewing Django Unchained, when, and if, people think about the value of human life, the concept of ownership of property and whether it is appropriate for government to interfere (regulate through the promulgation and enforcement of regulations) in the functioning of a so “market” economy in society they will have inscribed in their minds the graphic horrific scenes of what happens in the unfettered free market economy portrayed in Django Unchained.

In Django Unchained, Tarantino evokes raw emotions about the sense of entitlement Calvin Candi has obtained through the process of being born into wealth and privilege which allows him to take “advantage” of the existing social and economic system without any compassion and without putting any value on human life or dignity.

The emotions people have in response to the despicable conduct of Calvin Candi  explains and demonstrates how off-putting it is to many people for anyone to act as if they are better than someone else, whether they believe they are entitled to be President of the United States as a birthright because of the “stature” of their family or believe that they are entitled to be admitted to a particular high school or to be admitted to a college or university or to be given a particular job or promotion as a birthright they are entitled to because of the color of their skin.

Django Unchained highlights in it’s graphic gritty scenes the American dream that merit will be rewarded.

Copyright (c) 2013 Gary S. Smolker