Portrayal of Violence in Film

What we've discussed so far is stylized violence, like for instance

putting a knife to that British soldier's neck

If you shoot him, it hits his body. When the hero hits the villain, we feel that

adrenaline rush. I'm asking about the atrocities.

Portraying those atrocities, the more disturbing it is,

the better, because Tarantino says this.

That

in the movie Django Unchained, there is one scene where

DiCaprio lets his dogs loose on a slave

and they bite and eat him. He dies.

They apparently shot that very intensely.

But Tarantino realized that scene is disturbing the

viewers so much that they are not able to enjoy the

next twenty or thirty minutes.

Because that scene is so impactful.

They get so disturbed that they can't enjoy the next movie because it is

still lingering. So, when you are portraying something so

hard-hitting, when you are portraying something that intense,

those atrocities, that tonality, that tone,

how do you decide what dose is enough?

How do you make that call?

That's how it is. The meter is different in writing, it goes differently in shooting and editing

as well.

It goes differently.

Mm. Once the BGM comes in, it

goes even further.

Yeah.

So, different things— because when we write, we

write more, meaning more

detail to get the same essence we had to write.

But visually, it can come across in just one shot.

Mm.

That one shot can be more powerful than the entire sequence.

Mm.

They fall into place like that. So when such things come up, we have to

tune it down very carefully.

So after shooting, back in the editing room again.

This problem came up in our editing room too.

Mm.

After editing the movie, I held previews for different sections of the audience.

Mm.

For different kinds of audience sections.

So they also said that the atrocities are so harsh.

Though it's history, the audience today are all—

There are sensitive audiences.

They may not be able to digest it.

That they may not be able to digest it. So I have toned it down.

Hmm.

In many sequences, I have toned down the atrocities a little, as much as necessary.

It is necessary. Again, I had the same problem.

That is, after seeing the atrocities there, in the next sequence,

I noticed some viewers would feel uneasy.

So I thought, “This isn't necessary here. This is enough,” and toned down two sequences

in all.