Django Unchained Research Papers

“Kill white folks and they pay you for it? What’s not to like?” Django Unchained tells the story of a slave who desires to get revenge against the white southern people and to save his wife from one of the biggest plantations in the world. Slavery was a big part of American history, and the idea of a black cowboy being a hero in that era, challenges the stereotype of all cowboys usually being white westerners. This movie visits America’s lowest point in history, but it is worth the watch because in the end, the intelligent, boastfulness, loyal slave wins. In 2007, Tarantino had the brilliant idea of making a spaghetti western movie – A movie that is a broad subgenre (mixture of two genres fused together) of Western films. – He wanted to produce
a movie that dealt with Americas horrible past, but not do it as a big issue. I would say that this movie is aimed at both the black and white race. The reason I say this is because throughout the film, both races reiterate the fact that slavery wasn’t a pleasant time and we are shown this through very detailed imagery, language and tone. He went on to writing the script for this film and finished it on April 26, 2011, and handed the final draft to The Weinstein Company.
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, people’s opinion on slavery is that it was “it was good for all.” For example, on February 6th, 1837, John C. Calhoun gave a speech to the U.S. senate saying, “Slavery is a positive good.” In those days, people owned slaves and their mind state about it were far different: we are shown this constantly through the film. Gladly those times have changed and that belief for most of us changed too. Now today in the 21st century, we should all know that slavery was beyond wrong and immoral. However, there are some people that may argue that it still was not necessarily a bad thing and should still be around. “If slave labor created wealth for Americans, then obviously it has created wealth for black Americans as well, including the descendants of slaves.” (October 12, 2012, David Horowitz, president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center and edits the ultra-conservative FrontPage magazine). This is completely absurd. This has to be one of the most ignorant things I have ever read in my life and it makes me cringe. Sure, we all think differently and unfortunately people like this could watch this film and begin to think that maybe slavery actually was a good thing. An arrogant statement like this could pose many problems and make racial groups arise and begin to discriminate against others as it was back in the old days. From the film you could not like the idea of a black slave cowboy riding into town and killing white people when he is supposed to be “listening to the white man.” Even though times have changed, doesn’t mean it has changed in the views of some people’s minds.
The name “Django” is a Romanian name that means “I awake.” I would say that the creative movie name, is to show that we as Americans should wake up and realize that, although we may not have slavery anymore, we should be reminded of what the past was and to treat everyone fairly because in todays society, racism is still a big factor.
An event that may have lead to get a clear message throughout the film would be the shooting of Trayvon Martin. In February of 2012, an African American 17 year old boy was walking home from a near by liquor store. A man by the name of George Zimmerman (neighborhood watchmen) was suspicious of the young black male. This portrays discrimination and racial profiling. The kid was simply carrying skittles and a beverage when he got into a confrontation with the watchman. Problems arose and lead to the unfortunate death of an innocent black teen. Sadly the murderer of second-degree murder was found not guilty in 2013 because of “self defense.” What is great about this is that Actor Jamie Foxx wore a Trayvon Martin shirt while walking down the red carpet at the MTV movie awards in 2013. He said to the public, “Know Justice, Know Peace.” He says this to tell the world we should all be in peace with one another and This is so wonderful because Django also depicts about the justice for slaves and he rebels against the whites to show that they can be overtaken too. Not only was this an event of racism, from there on we have had so many forms of modern
racism, and blacks continue to be discriminated for no reason.
Quentin Tarantino is one of the most iconic directors ever because of masterpieces such as this one. You know you’re watching one of his great movies if there is jam-packed action, gory scenes, and strong use of vulgar language, to add, some scenes in this movie were sad but would end in comic relief. He produces his movies in his own ways and doesn’t necessarily care about anything, which is what makes his films very unique. One of the biggest things that make this movie excellent is the language that it used. It really shows how the use of some words that whites spoke with in those days was nonchalant, and not a big deal; this portrays Tarantino’s use of imagery up close and personal. I kid you not, that the “N” was used in almost every sentence. Other words used were, "fu-k," "motherf---er," "sh-t," "pu--y," "goddamn," "ass," "damn," "hell," "bastard," "bitch," and many more. Additionally, this film uses music tracks that fit so perfectly and are very unique, nonetheless to say they make the scenes pop and enhance the mood. Dicaprio, Foxx, and Waltz characters performances throughout the film were truly spectacular.
The opening scene is during the cold winter of 1858, before the civil war, and takes place in the Deep South.
In a dark forest with a trail of slaves being walked by their owners, the Speck brothers; a very well thought out, well kept, intelligent German “dentist” by the name of Doctor King Shultz (who is actually is bounty hunter) appears in the woods with them. Tarantino has a great use of rhetoric if you are familiar with his films. He loves using extreme politeness. For example, in one of his other gory dark comedy movies, Inglorious Basterds, Christoph Waltz plays a polite, smart S.S killer and in this movie he plays a funny, two-faced, polite “dentist” and speaks with perfect English. Doctor Shultz wants to purchase one of the men and cares to make an agreement with one of the slaves, “Django,” because he is in search of two men. He says to the Speck brothers, “Among your company, I’m led to believe, there is a specimen I hope to acquire.” My first thought on how he spoke to the brothers as very formal, and you wouldn’t think doctor Shultz was a bounty hunter. He wants to speak with Django to see if he can help locate the men because he knows what they look like. He agrees to travel with Mr. Shultz to every plantation in Gatlinburg to collect the bounties. Django will point the criminals out and the doctor will kill them, along with this, he will get twenty-five dollars per kill and his freedom. After their first successful bounty, they travel the south in search of
more wanted criminals. Django also has a wife that he wants to be reunited with and to save her. They meet one of the biggest plantation owners: Calvin Candie to make a deal with him for one of his Mandingos, but they really want Django’s wife. They travel all the way to one of the biggest plantations: Candy land, where his wife is to in attempt to purchase her by offering another deal with Monsieur Candie. Worth a shot ain’t it?
How could another human being be able to lay hands on another and cause great pain to them with no remorse? I wish I knew the answer. Although this may be an American comedy, it is also a very dark tale. This film reiterates the fact that slavery was a horrible thing that occurred, and Tarantino portrays that it is, but through his own sense of humor. For example, there is a scene where Dr. Shultz and “his valet” (Django) go to “big daddies” plantation for their first bounty. When they arrive, a confrontation arises between the doctor and the plantation owner due to the fact that Big daddy didn’t approve of Django riding a horse on his property around the other slaves. A dramatic scene follows where he remembers one of the men they are in search of. Django has a flash back to when John Brittle was whipping his wife (Brumhilda) and Django was begging to be whipped instead. John said to the begging slave, “I like the way you bed boy.” When Django yells his name and John turns around slowly in shocking awe, Django withdrawals his gun from his waist and shoots him directly in the heart. As he is dying Django’s last words to him were, “I like the way you die boy.” We are consistently reminded in this film through several scenes that if a slave “acted poorly” in the eyes of their owners, they would be brutally beaten and scarred with whip marks all over their body. This wasn’t made up stuff, this actually occurred when there was slavery. In an interview, Tarantino said he didn’t want to go deeper because we already know how bad things were.” I thought this part of the movie was beyond clever and absolutely hilarious. Revenge is very sweet and feels great; I say this because Django being a slave obviously dislikes the white people and what they are doing to his race as a whole. There is a bit of a historical inaccuracy, but I believe it is there for more of a laugh; it is honestly the best scene ever. Django and doctor Shultz are in the middle of a field knowing they are to be raided by Big daddy and his accomplices. The scene opens up with Men in white facemasks appearing to be the Ku Klux Klan, they have these bags over their heads and all complain that they can’t see anything, the conversations they have they act like it matters if they show their faces because regardless their goal was to kill the two men. Lets stop and think for a second, The KKK never existed during slavery and was made to keep black subversive after slavery was abolished.