What Is Django Unchained

Django Unchained Django unchained is a about a freed slave, turned bounty hunter named Django, looking for his enslaved wife. According to the Internet Movie Database, the movie is set in 1858-1859 in the lower and mid south. Throughout the movie there are many examples of chattle slavery with the slave-owners seeing their slaves as property and the racist theory is also presented. There are some parts of the movie that are very disturbing but a lot of those things really happened to the slaves. The movie opens “somewhere in Texas”. You see a group of slaves, with scars on their backs like the slide of the man we saw in class, chained together walking a very long distance night and day. Two men accompany them on horses. One night, a German
man in a dentist cart pulls up and hails the two men. He introduces himself as Dr. King Schultz and offers to buy Django. Dr. Schultz wants to buy Django because he can identify three brothers that he needs collect bounty on. By the end of the scene the two men on horses are dead and all of the slaves are let loose and Django and Dr. Schultz are on their way to Gatlinburg, where the three men are suspected to be.
On the way to Gatlinburg, the two men stop in a small town and Dr.
Schultz tells Django about what his real job is, a bounty hunter. He wants to work with Django and offers him a portion of the reward money that he receives for the wanted men. While in the town, Dr. Schultz kills the wanted sheriff and collects the bounty of 200 dollars. Camping out that night, Dr. Schultz asked Django what he is going to do with his reward money. Django tells him that he is going to find his wife and buy her freedom. His wife’s name was Broomhilda von Shaft and she spoke Dr. Schultz’s native tongue, German. She was suspected to be somewhere in
Mississippi. When they arrive in Gatlinburg they go to the plantation where they think the three men could be. Dr. Schultz makes up a story that he wants to buy one of the white slave-owner’s slave girls. While he is in the house Django is given a tour of the plantation where he finds out where the brothers are. Schultz and Django kill the brothers. Dr. Schultz told Django that if he worked with him collecting bounties through the winter that he would help him find his wife and come up with a plan to buy her. Django agrees and over the winter Dr. Schultz teaches him how to be presentable in public and to be an expert with a gun.
When the winter is over the duo leaves the mid-south and heads to Mississippi in the lower south.
They find that Broomhilda was sold to, rich white farmer Calvin Candie, the owner of a plantation known as 'Candie Land'. Candie is famous for breeding "mandingos"--slaves who are bred to fight each other to the death for their owner's amusement. Dr. Schultz says that he will pose as a wealthy European who seeks to purchase one of Candies’ mandingos to take to fight in Europe, and that Django is his business partner. That evening, Django and Dr. Schultz arrive at a Candie's club. The two are brought upstairs where they watch a mandingo fight, which is very brutal and fatal for the loser. Dr. Schultz and Django state that they are willing to pay a ridiculous amount ($12,000) for one of Candie's better mandingos and they arrange to return with him to his estate. When they arrive at Candie Land the next day they meet Candie's sister Lara Lee and his loyal house-slave and foreman trustee Stephen. Stephen informs Candie that, while he was gone, Broomhilda attempted to escape and is now locked in the Hot Box, a metal pit in Candie's field. Schultz says he wants to meet Broomhilda, saying he heard legend of her German-speaking abilities. Candie orders Broomhilda to be cleaned up and sent to Schultz's room. Once there, Schultz explains to Broomhilda that he and his "friend" are there to rescue
her.
That evening at dinner, Broomhilda serves Candie and his guests. Lara notes that Broomhilda seems to be attracted to Django. This piques Stephen's curiosity and he goes to interrogate Broomhilda in a back room. Broomhilda denies knowing Django, but Stephen senses that she is lying. Meanwhile, Schultz offers to buy Candie's third-best mandingo for $12,000. They agree that Schultz will return to the estate in five days with a lawyer to complete the transaction. Dr. Schultz then asks Candie if he can also buy Broomhilda and take her that night. Before Candie can accept the deal, Stephen tells Candie that he is convinced that Django and Broomhilda know each other and that Schultz and Django intend to buy her, leave, and never return for the mandingo. Candie gets angry and returns to the dining room with a small bag containing the skull of an old slave of his plantation, Ben. He then mentions that the pseudoscience of phrenology is the reason why slaves don't rise up and kill their masters. According to Django Unchained and the racist science of phrenology, an article in the guardian, is the idea that the shape of the skull can be used to assume mental characteristics. Candie says that black brains are predisposed to be submissive whereas white brains are built for dominance and ingenuity. This references the racist theory that we learned about in class. Candie then reveals he knows that they want Broomhilda, and unless they immediately pay him $12,000 for her he will kill her. Schultz immediately agrees to these terms and buys her. After the paperwork is signed, a gunfight ensues, and many die.
This movie seems to have a focus on chattle slavery and the fact that slave-owners in the south saw slaves as personal property and they could do whatever they wished with them. The mandingos were a good example of this. The movie ends with Broomhilda and Django being free and riding off on horseback leaving behind the burning plantation house. Django’s level of intelligence and the fact that he came out on top in the end alone disprove the racist theory of phrenology.