Cinematography of Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, follows the story of a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) who is on a quest to save his wife after being liberated by a German bounty hunter, Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz). The first half of the film has many western themes and characters including bounty hunters, a sheriff, and pays homage to the old western movies. The second half of the film is more a Blaxploitation/revenge film and focuses on trying to create a black hero. The film follows Django who starts off as a beaten down slave who was forcefully separated from his wife, but evolves into a cool and confident bounty hunter. In the first half of the film, Django and Schultz collect bounties on wanted criminals and Django gets revenge on some of his former masters. After they amass a fortune, Schultz and Django hatch a plan to go to “Candieland” the plantation of Calvin Candie (DiCaprio) and purchase Django’s wife from him. Naturally, everything goes wrong and Django has to fight his way out of Candieland and rescue his wife. Much like Inglorious Basterds, Django is Tarantino’s way of “correcting” history. This film is essentially a feel good story about an oppressed slave overcoming his struggles and getting revenge on his oppressors. Although the film does have aspects of love and revenge, the main theme is actually the American Dream. Django starts off as an average slave but by the end of the film, turns into the greatest gun slinger in the west, saves his wife, and lives happily ever after. According to Robert Richardson, the cinematographer of this film, the goal of the cinematography was to use iconic American West backgrounds as a montage to show Django traveling and growing as person and bounty hunter. Tarantino used panoramic long shots and a widescreen aspect ratio to show the vastness of the American West and to symbolize the vast opportunities Django has in front of him. Featuring Django and Dr. Schultz as part of the landscape instead of the main