Django Unchained, Reservoir Dogs, Inside Man and Do the Right Thing

In this piece, I am going to be comparing and analysing two Quentin Tarantino films (Django Unchained and Reservoir Dogs) and two Spike Lee films (Do the Right Thing and Inside Man).

Reservoir Dogs was produced on 15 January, 1993 and it is a crime, drama film directed and written by Quentin Tarantino and produced by Lawrence Bender with Live Entertainment and Dog Eat Dog Productions Inc. Django Unchained is Tarantino’s most recent film and it is a western crime drama, produced on the 18 January, 2013 by Reginald Hudlin and Stacey Sher with Weinstein Company and Columbia Pictures. It is interesting to see how the production companies and producers have changed from Tarantino's first feature film to his most recent one, especially as Lawrence Bender has produced a lot of his films. Spike Lee’s film, Do the Right Thing on the other hand was produced on the 23 June, 1989. It is a crime, drama, comedy, social realism film also written and produced by Spike Lee along with 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks. Inside Man is a slightly more recent film, produced on the 24 March, 2006 by Brian Grazer with 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks. It was written by Russell Gewirtz and it covers the genres of crime, drama and thriller. The name, 40 Acres & A Mule relates strongly to Spike Lee because the phrase was used throughout the South after the American Civil War and it asserts the right of newly freed African Americans to redistributed lands. Lee was brought up as an African American and his ancestors were slaves so the name of his production company is personal to him and also relates to the themes expressed in his films.

These four films share fairly similar genres and crime appears in all of them but it is explored in different ways. Django Unchained is about a freed slave, Django (Jamie Foxx) who is trained by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to become his deputy bounty hunter with the promise that he will help rescue Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from plantation owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). One of the genres is crime because they violently seek revenge on those carrying bounties until they are eventually led to the location of Broomhilda. Very differently, Do the Right Thing is set on the hottest day of the year in Brooklyn, New York. It stars Spike Lee (Mookie), Danny Aiello (Sal), Ossie Davis (Da Mayor), Giancarlo Esposito (Buggin’ out) and Bill Nunn (Radio Raheem). Everyone’s anger and frustration builds up and explodes into violence which brings out the worse in everyone and especially towards the end, various crimes take place which include fights, murders and racial slurs. Reservoir Dogs and Inside Man are very similar regarding concept and genre because they are both about heists, Reservoir Dogs being a jewellery robbery and Inside Man being a bank robbery, which turn out to be more complicated than planned. The robbery in Reservoir Dogs goes completely wrong and only four survive of the six criminals and when they gather together, they begin to suspect that one of them in an undercover police officer. The narrative is non-linear and it stars Harvey Keitel (Mr White), Tim Roth (Mr Orange), Michael Madsen (Mr Blonde), Steve Buscemi (Mr Pink) and Lawrence Tierney (Joe Cabot). The narrative of Inside Man is also non-linear and from a cell, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) tells the audience about his perfectly planned heist which leads into a hostage situation in which the intensity is increased due to the involvement of police detectives Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and Bill Mitchell (Chiwetal Ejiofor), the banks president, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer) and high power broker, Madeleine White (Jodie Foster).

The budgets for the four films definitely differ, with the later films of Django Unchained and Inside Man having the larger budgets due to Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee being more established film makers at this point so could be more confident about making a larger amount of money in the box office. The budget for Django Unchained was the largest at $100,000,000 and it made an incredible $425.4 million in the box office which is much more than Inside Man which made $184.4 million in the box office after having a budget of $45,000,000. Reservoir Dogs and Do the Right Thing of course had lower budgets as they were the earlier films of Tarantino and Spike but as Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino’s first feature film, it did not do as well as Do the Right Thing. RD had a budget of $1,200,000 and it made $2.8 million in the box office whereas DTRT had a budget of $6,500,000 and made $37.3 million in the box office. When comparing these statistics, you can really see how the directors have improved and become more established, especially Quentin Tarantino as he went from $2.8 million to $425.4 million in the space of 20 years, whereas Spike Lee only went from $37.3 million to $45 million in the space of 17 years.

These films have been rated very highly by critics, although I would personally rate them all slightly higher. Django Unchained was given 8.5/10 from IMDb and 88% from Rotten Tomatoes in which the site also gave an audience score of 91%. Los Angeles Times, Betsy Sharkey said: “In "Django," Tarantino is a man unchained, creating his most articulate, intriguing, provoking, appalling, hilarious, exhilarating, scathing and downright entertaining film yet.” However Movieline, Alison Willmore said “The film also comes across like a rough cut that was never looked at as a coherent whole, and some segments that start off as promising become interminable while others feel entirely unnecessary. There's no pressure on or expectation for Tarantino to please anyone other than himself, and the film feels overstuffed with ideas that should have been pruned.” Reservoir Dogs also achieved a high score from IMDb at 8.4/10 and Rotten Tomatoes gave it 92% with an audience reception of 94%. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Rick Groen said: “Reservoir Dogs sizzles - it's dynamite on a short fuse, and you watch it with mesmerized fascination, simultaneously attracted and repelled by the explosion you know will come.” However Wall Street Journal, Julie Salamon said: “The only thing Mr. Tarantino spells out is the violence. I have seen much more blood spilled, yet I felt sickened by the coldness of this picture's visual cruelty.”

Inside Man was given 7.7/10 from IMDb and 86% from Rotten Tomatoes with an audience reception of 85%. The Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt said: “This is the mother lode all action/suspense directors search for and Lee, who usually doesn't work in that genre, has hit it.” However Dallas Observer, Michael Atkinson said: “Inside Man is irrelevant, another semi-high-tech mega-heist movie, the rhythms and tropes of which we are all as familiar with as we are with the wallpaper facing our toilets.” Do the Right Thing was given 7.9/10 from IMDb and 92% from Rotten Tomatoes with an audience reception of 90%. The Chicago Sun-Times, Sheila Benson said: “It comes closer to reflecting the current state of race relations in America than any other movie of our time.” However Time, Richard Corliss said: “To accept the film, though, one must first understand its point of view, and that is maddeningly difficult. All we know for certain is that Do the Right Thing is not naturalistic.”

Django Unchained definitely shares many similarities with Inglorious Basterds in terms of revenge and extreme violence. In both, the protagonist/s brutally defeats their antagonist to result in a somewhat happy ending for them. Reservoir Dogs shares the intense secrecy that IB uses and the idea of ‘going behind someone’s back’ so to conclude, Quentin Tarantino’s films are easily recognisable. When compared to Miracle at St. Anna, Inside Man is completely different and does not necessarily explore deep and meaningful issues that revolve around race unlike Do the Right Thing, which explores racial stereotypes. However, I have noticed that Spike Lee’s films use black protagonists which make his films much more personal to him and he is constantly taking a patriotic approach.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed each of these four films because they had strong themes, gripping narratives and well developed characters so I would definitely recommend them to someone. I was already a fan of Tarantino’s work so had high expectations for Reservoir Dogs and Django Unchained which were met but I was pleasantly surprised by Do the Right Thing and Inside Man because I did not expect to enjoy them as much as I did so I have warmed to the work of Spike Lee. Overall however, my favourite film of the four was by far Django Unchained because the performances were absolutely incredible, especially Christoph Waltz who is a main antagonist in Inglorious Basterds, and the intriguing narrative was enhanced by the extreme violence, a common trademark of Tarantino’s films.  

Quentin Tarantino VS Spike Lee

Quentin Tarantino 


Who is he?

Quentin Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, producer and actor, born in Knoxville, Tennessee on 27 March, 1963. He was born to nurse, Connie and an Italian-American actor and musician, Tony Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino has had a love for films from a young age and he grew up in South Los Angeles with his Mother who took him to the cinema from the age of around 6. He saw films such as Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, The Wild Bunch, Carnal Knowledge and Deliverance which were all inspirations for him, especially Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. 

Where did he train?

Quentin Tarantino studied at Narbonne High School and Alexander Fleming Middle School however, he hated his time in education and would easily choose watching films over studying. When Tarantino was aged 22, he got a job at the Video Archives in Manhattan Beach in which he wrote the scripts for True Romance (in 1987) and Natural Born Killers (in 1988). In 1990, he made $50,000 for the True Romance script and he used this money to make the script for Reservoir Dogs with his friends as the main characters. Soon after, Tarantino left the Video Archives and he met Lawrence Bender (who now is often the producer for Tarantino's films) when doing rewrites for a small Hollywood production company called CineTel. Lawrence knew Harvey Keitel who saw and was impressed by the Reservoir Dogs script so raised more finance for it as well as helping Tarantino with casting. The film was then released in 1992 and then after the release and immense success of Pulp Fiction in 1994, Tarantino went on to be a major figure in the film industry.

What films has he made? What are his main values and themes?

Tarantino has 23 writing credits, 30 acting credits, 20 producer credits, 16 director credits and 2 cinematography credits. Popular films he has directed include: Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003), Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004), Death Proof (2007), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012) and he is currently working on The Hateful Eight. His films are best known for their extreme violence, a lot of which is suggested off screen which increases the intensity because the audience are given the opportunity to have gruesome imagery in their minds. He also makes references to cult movies and television and makes use of non-linear narratives in some of his films including Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Smaller trademarks in his films include long lasting scenes, a scene at the beginning of the film before the main titles are shown, restaurant scenes and his protagonists are often violent tempered and will overcome the antagonist using brutality. The major theme expressed in most of Tarantino's films is revenge and 'repaying evil with evil' and other common themes are: violence, secrecy, hatred, trust, betrayal, friendship, murder and death. 

What awards has he won? 

Quentin Tarantino has won 122 awards and has received 103 nominations. These awards include 2 Oscars for best writing and original screenplay for both Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained, 2 Golden Globes for best screenplay again for both Pulp and Django, and 2 BAFTA awards for best original screenplay (Pulp and Django). 

Controversy between Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee: 

There has been some major controversy between Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee, firstly as Lee is strongly against Tarantino's incorporation of the n-word in a lot of his films and in Jackie Brown, Lee calculated his use of the word to be 38 times. However, it is Django Unchained, which is based around slavery, that caused the largest amount of controversy between the two men. Lee claimed that he would never watch the film because it would be disrespectful to his ancestors and he expressed his hatred towards the film on twitter by writing: "American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them." 

Spike Lee 


Who is he?

Spike Lee is an African-American film director, producer, writer and actor born in Atlanta, Georgia on 20 March, 1957. He was born to Jacqueline Carroll, a teacher of arts and black literature and William James Edward Lee III, a jazz musician and composer. 

Where did he train?

Spike Lee studied at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn then after enrolled at Morehouse College which is a historically black college. It was here he completed his first student film called Last Hustle in Brooklyn and he graduated with a BA in mass communication whilst taking film classes at Clark Atlanta University. In 1982, he earnt a Master of Fine Arts in film and television at New York University Film School and he won a Student Academy Award for his thesis film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. 

What films has he made? What are his main values and themes?

Spike Lee has 61 directing credits, 58 producing credits, 16 writing credits and 16 acting credits. Popular films he has directed include: She's gotta have it (1986), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1993), Get on the Bus (1996), He Got Game (1998), Bamboozled (2000), 25th Hour (2002), Inside Man (2006), Miracle at st. Anna (2008), Oldboy (2013) and Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014). His production company is called 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks and it has produced over 35 films since 1983. Lee's films are deep and meaningful and they explore themes that relate to him including: race relations, colorism in the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty and more political issues. Common trademarks of Lee include: he frequently casts himself, he makes use of direct mode of address within his characters (they stare directly into the camera) and he makes his characters look as if they are floating or gliding by placing them on dollies, sometimes with the camera as well. 

What awards has he won?

Spike Lee has won 39 awards and has received 53 nominations. These awards include a BAFTA special award, an Innovator award at the American Black Film Festival, a Black Movie Award for the best director in Inside Man and a Prize of the Ecumenical Jury- Special Mention award for Jungle Fever at Cannes Film Festival. 

Compare and Contrast: IB & MASA

The two films I am going to be comparing and contrasting in this analysis are Inglourious Basterds and Miracle at St. Anna. Inglorious Basterds was directed and written by Quentin Tarantino and produced in 2009 by Lawrence Bender whereas Miracle at St. Anna was directed by Spike Lee, written by James McBride and produced a year earlier in 2008 by Roberto Cicutto, Spike Lee and Luigi Musini. They both have different production companies, the ones for IB being The Weinstein Company, Universal Pictures and A Band Apart and the ones for MASA being 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks, On My Own, Rai Cinema and Touchstone Pictures. The budget for IB ($75 million) was significantly larger than that for MASA ($45 million) and this may be because Quentin Tarantino is a very successful director whose film has A-list actors such as Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz so the box office returns are expected to be higher therefore meaning the film is given a larger budget. These expectations were correct and the box office for IB was $321.5 million whereas for MASA, the box office was lower than the budget and it came to $9.3 million which shows the production companies expected it to be much more popular than it turned out to be.  

Quentin Tarantino 

The work of Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee definitely contrasts however, one of the main similarities I noticed within the films they have directed is their embedded themes, especially the themes of crime and violence and this is shown in many of their previous films. For example: in 1989, Spike Lee directed ‘Do the Right Thing’ which is about a hot summer’s day in Brooklyn in which a simple complaint at a restaurant causes racial violence to take place, resulting in the worse being brought out in everyone. He also directed ‘Inside Man’ in 2006 in which the narrative revolves around crimes, heists and hostage situations. In 1992, Quentin Tarantino directed ‘Reservoir Dogs’ which is about a jewellery heist that goes wrong and the surviving criminals suspect that one of them is an undercover cop. Tarantino additionally directed Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003) and Vol.2 (2004) in which ‘The Bride’ awakens from a coma after four years to discover her baby is gone so seeks revenge on a team of assassins who betrayed her and Vol.2 continues her quest. All of these films strongly explore the themes of crime and violence which shows it is something both directors like to embed into their work which they can then go on to re-present to their audiences based on their own perspectives. Of course, there are many differences between the work of Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee. Tarantino’s films make very strong use of graphic violence, sometimes mixed with humour, blood and gore with a key theme of human suffering running throughout the majority of them whereas, Lee’s films deal with controversial social and political issues such as race relations, urban crime and violence. There has been a large controversy between Lee and Tarantino regarding Tarantino’s most recent film, Django Unchained (2012) in which Lee said he would not be watching it because it would be disrespectful to his ancestors and he quotes: “My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will Honor Them.”

 Spike Lee 

The shared genres for Inglourious Basterds and Miracle at St. Anna are adventure, drama, war, action and crime with IB having the additional genre of black comedy. Both films are set in World War II during a German-occupied Europe however they are based in different countries with IB being in France and MASA being in Italy. The narrative of Inglourious Basterds could be described as ‘fantasy like’ because it allows the Jews to get their own back on the Nazis which provides the audience with their desired outcomes to war. The film is split into chapters and it begins with “Once upon a time- in a Nazi occupied France” which I believe shows that Tarantino wants people to know that IB will be a fantasy film with WWII iconography. It is made up of two narrative strands which are taking place at the same time. Firstly, a group of 8 Jewish-American soldiers plan to sneak into France as civilians to kill Nazi leaders and carve a swastika into the heads of those they do not kill; one of the male protagonists, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) orders each of the eight soldiers to owe him one hundred scalps of dead Nazis. Secondly, a young Jewish refugee, Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) witnesses the killing of her family by the antagonist, Col Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and makes a tight escape at the beginning of the film. Four years later, she plans her revenge which is to burn down her cinema when a German movie premiere takes place and this premiere catches the attention of the eight soldiers (known as the basterds) meaning on that night, their paths cross to reveal a gripping ending.

Spike Lee on the other hand takes a completely different approach to World War II and wants to make it clear that African-Americans also fought in the war so his narrative revolves around four black American soldiers called Aubrey (Derek Luke), Bishop (Michael Ealy), Hector (Laz Alonso) and Train (Omar Benson Miller)-known as the Buffalo soldiers who are the survivors of crossing the Tuscany’s Serchio River which leads them into German territory. They become trapped in a Tuscan village which contains a boy named Angelo (Matteo Sciabordi), an attractive woman called Renata (Valentina Cervi), partisans that include a traitor and a local legend. The stories and brutal killings which take place in this village all link to why Hector shoots Rodolfo (Sergio Albelli) in a bank 40 years later which is shown at the beginning of the film.

One major difference I noticed in these two narratives is the protagonists. Inglorious Basterds has straight, white, middle-aged males for its protagonists which is typical of our dominant ideology and this may give audience the false idea that black people did not fight in the war whereas Lee took the opposite route by using four African-American protagonists to offer the audience a fair representation and being an African-American himself, it is not a surprise that he take a patriotic approach. IG seems to provide us with a negative representation of black people as only one is seen in the whole film (Marcel played by Jacky Ido) and he is the caretaker of the cinema which represents African-Americans as having a ‘weak’ and meaningless role during WWII. Contrastingly, Lee represents white people as racist and disrespectful because the Buffalo Soldiers are treated awfully, as if they are worthless. A similarity I noticed is the stereotypical representations of women in both films. Although the female protagonist in IB has a strong character because she is shown to be capable of burning down a cinema with little help which therefore portrays her as independent, the very first scene has a negative representation of women. It begins with a peaceful establishing shot of a farm and I feel this is excellent use of mise-en-scene because it draws the audience in as they are provided with realism and a relatable setting. We then see Perrier Lapadite (Denis Menochet) cutting at a tree stump with an axe, then it cuts to his wife hanging out the washing which portrays men as strong so have to do the ‘hard, manly work’ and women as domestic housewives who are less capable than men. In MASA, Renata is seen by Aubrey and Bishop as a beautiful woman and the two of them fight over her, mainly due to her looks so therefore she is being sexualised in the film to create the common themes of love, lust and sex. Her only purpose is to been seen as a sex object, who wears revealing clothes resulting in her being gawked at by the men in the film and by those in the audience. This negative representation of women is often seen in Spike Lee’s films and although he has tried to create a sense of equality in MASA, he has still not been successful in creating female equality (in my opinion).  

The themes and key sequences in both films really helped to confirm their main values and messages which I definitely see as contrasting. The themes in Inglorious Basterds are much more obvious and include revenge, death, war, violence, conflict, freedom, escape and secrecy whereas the themes in Miracle at St. Anna go slightly deeper and include innocence, conflict, revenge, war, betrayal, loyalty, humanity, sex, patriotism, underdog and death.  The shared themes of death, war and conflict are make clear through the goory, intense and hard-hitting combat scenes in both films, however I believe Tarantino has made them more explicit by showing everything ‘how it is’ whereas Spike has made them more implicit by making a stronger use of hidden meanings that make the audience think. For example, there is a scene when Train is being told to leave Angelo with Renata but he refuses to do so and although on the outside this shows how much he cares for him, on the inside it represents the inner conflict Train is having with himself regarding whether it is for the best if he keeps the boy. One of the soldiers then tries to grab Angelo and Train grabs and strangles him. This is a very key scene because the man’s face is perfectly in line with the sleeping man mountain and someone says “it’s the sleeping man” which implies that the spirit of the sleeping man lies within Train which is why he is so determined to protect and look after Angelo.

I believe the main themes in Inglorious Basterds are revenge and secrecy as it shows a ‘what if’ portrayal of war away from the battlefields and it shows what goes on ‘behind the scenes’. The beginning and end scenes strongly explore the theme of revenge and they help to link one of the messages of the Jews getting their own back and giving the Nazis what they deserved together. The beginning scene is extremely intense and this is enhanced by the flowing dialogue between Landa and Lapadite which engages the audience as they will have full focus on their conversation. This builds up to the goory and sudden shootings of Shosanna’s family and as she escapes, the audience understand that she will never forgive the Nazis for what they have done so will be keen to get her revenge. The very last scene clearly sums up the message of the Jews getting payback on the Nazis and it is clear that Tarantino has created a film that reflects how he wanted WWII to end. It ends with a low angle shot of Raine and one of his soldiers marking Landa with a swastika and this shot firstly represents their superiority so therefore portrays Jews as powerful and in control and the Nazis as weak and helpless. It secondly links the narrative back to the beginning scene in which Landa was the one in power so this juxtaposition is used to help Landa understand how he made the Jews feel. These messages are very different to what I believe is the main message being expressed in Miracle at St. Anna. I think Spike Lee only had good intentions and was trying to show that war is never good and violence is always wrong and I also think he is implying that war brings out the best and worst in people. It brings out loyalties and friendships and is reflected in the character of Hector who 40 years later, still remembers what his friends did for him during the war so wants to kill the man who gave them harm. However, war also brings out the worse in people as it dehumanises them when they are given the power of killing and they over-use the control they are given which results in people’s lives being destroyed.

Overall, I really enjoyed both Inglourious Basterds and Miracle at St. Anna as they both have strong and gripping narratives which drew me in. All of the performances were excellent and I felt very emotionally attached to the characters, especially in MASA in which Omar Miller’s performance stood out for me because his bond with Angelo was very touching and the performance that stood out for me the most in IB was definitely Christoph Waltz who’s cunning character helped to represent Nazis as truly evil and his role was very believable. Although the messages and values in MASA are more meaningful and heartfelt, I personally preferred Inglourious Basterds as I am a big fan of Tarantino’s style of film making and his fantasy based narrative helped me to find the film more entertaining. I would therefore give IB a rating of nine out of 10 and MASA a rating of eight out of ten and I would definitely recommend both of these films to friends and family.