IMDB- Poster
Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson
SUMMARY: The movie takes place a couple years before the American Civil War. A slave named Django (Foxx) is freed by a German-American bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz (Waltz). Together, the two men traverse the antebellum south hunting down criminals and selling their corpses for cash to the U.S. government. Eventually, Django and Shultz decide to rescue Django’s wife (Washington) from the clutches of a wealthy Mississippi plantation owner (DiCaprio).
INTRODUCTION
Django Unchained was one of those films that for one odd reason or another, I did not get the chance to see in theaters. After finally watching it a couple months ago on home video, I regret my oversight. Not only did I love the film, but it’s clearly a movie designed to be watched with an audience.
THE GOOD
Django is a hard film to classify. One scene it’s a spaghetti western, the next a 1970s “blacksplotaiton” film. In an era where sequels and remakes dominate the silver screen, Django is refreshingly original film. It is nice to see filmmaker like Tarantino create new characters we have never met and let our self be wrapped up in a new story we have never heard. Despite being a long film (over and two and half hours), there is never a point where the film feels slow or hits a lull. Every scene is necessary to tell Tarantino’s story.
Despite the film’s serious subject matter (American Slavery), it is not a dark and mournful film like say Schindler’s list. In fact, though the tone of the film shifts considerably throughout, on the whole there is an atmosphere of the fun rated-R action vibe. That is not say the film treats slavery trivially. Slavery serves as the “bigger bad” for the narrative. This is amply brought out with how Tarantino depicts violence.
When violence is directed against the white slave owners and their racists’ collaborators, it is over the top and some ridiculous. This works because in many ways Django is a revenge fantasy. Seeing the now free Django, unchained from his former masters, reap his just vengeance upon them is satisfying to the core. In many ways it works better than the revenge fantasy element in Tarantino’ earlier Inglorious Bastards. Yes that film had Jewish-American soldiers killing Nazis, but they weren’t escapees from Auschwitz. They were more disconnected from the atrocities committed against Jews by the Nazis. Here though, Django’s fight with the white slavers is deeply personal. He and his wife were born slaves, they are treated like slaves, and have suffered brutally at the hands of their masters. The first bounties Django and Schultz go to collect are those on three brothers who are working on a plantation run by the southern so-called gentleman “Big Daddy.” These three brothers had worked for Django’s former owner and subjected both Django and his wife Hildie to excruciating punishments. When Django appears, dressed all fine and dandy, it upsets Big Daddy who requires financial coaxing from Schultz to not expel them. Django then finds the brothers on the plantation and rescues a slave women from their whip. The look on the oldest brother’s face when he sees Django standing confidently before him is one of sheer speechless horror, before Django sends him to hell with quick bullet to the heart. Then another brother pathetically tries to kill Django only to be whipped ruthlessly and finally put out of his misery. The white racists are consistently portrayed throughout the film as bumbling, incompetent idiots against the intelligent Django and Schultz. All this violence against the white slavers is displayed as a glorious fun action scene. The white slavers are, like Nazis, acceptable targets. As racist oppressors, filmmakers can show these people being killed and attacked without fear of moralizing pushback. Even the most liberal viewers will sing and cheer our hero as these bad guys are laid low by the black man they repressed.
When it comes to the violence against slaves, the tone and presentation is one-hundred eighty degrees different. From the Mandingo quasi-gladiator fights, to a runaway being eaten by dogs, the violence is not cartoonish at all. It is very real and very disturbing, and it fuels our yearning for vengeance. At a number of points, Tarantino tastefully pulls the camera away and lets us imagine the horror the unfortunate slave is experiencing. There is no spectacle here, but simply cold, hard, brutal violence with nothing entertaining about. The way violence against slaves ought to be portrayed.
Django Freeman and Dr. King Schultz
The ensemble cast of this film is simply brilliant. Jamie Foxx’s performance is convincing and never over the top. He is dour and more subtle as one might expect from a man who has been enslaved his whole life. He excellently captures his character’s gradually shift from a somewhat timid slave, to a confident, assertive, bounty hunter. Django’s character arc is therefore more subtle but it is there. He does not change too much but that is because his constantly tested to break and give in.
Christoph Waltz is, as always, brilliant. His performance here is even better than that in Inglorious Bastards. In many ways he’s the same charismatic, witty, sharp, and flamboyant character, only this time, we root for, not against him. His relationship with Django is real and heartfelt. Though he doesn’t free Django right away so he can compel Django to help him find a group of bounties, he never treats Django as anything less than human. And when he does free Django after they kill the three brothers, it’s clear that he cares for him as friend, even pledging to help Django find his slave wife Broomhilda “Hildie” von Shaft. What follows is an interesting scene where he tells Django the German legend of princess Broomhilda. She is trapped on a mountain guarded by a fire breathing dragon. She awaits her champion Siegfried to rescue her. Django is a real life Siegfried, and Schultz, as a German, cannot refuse to help him rescue his princess. It’s a brilliant piece of characterization by Tarantino.
Calvin Candie
Of course, if there is a Siegfried, there is a mountain and a dragon. The mountain is the enormous Mississippi plantation Candieland, owned by Calvin J. Candie. Seeing DiCaprio play a villain is a real treat. When we first meet Candie, he cheering on his Mandingo slave champion in a grueling death battle. He’s rich, a Francophile, and full of contradictions. He is the embodiment of everything wrong with white society in the antebellum south. Candie thinks of himself a cultured and refined southern gentleman. But underneath that is a malicious, cruel, ignorant, and arrogant tyrant. He believes wholeheartedly in the superiority of races, as is clearly demonstrated from a scene where he explains the (pseudo)science of phrenology. At one moment he seems like a harmless bigot, next moment he’s violent, either quietly or angrily. He is not a particularly bright man despite what he thinks of himself. A Francophile who cannot speak French, a believer in phrenology (which was even by then disproven), and easily manipulated (which he hates). Tarantino described him as a southern Caligula. The incest subtext with his sister and his self-centered, inoculated worldview, and out lashes undermine his refined façade.
Stephen
But as bad as Calvin Candie is, he is not the greatest villain of the film. No, that honor goes to Candie’s head house slave Stephen played by Samuel L. Jackson. Jackson steals the show the moment he appears on a screen (even from Waltz). Stephen is Uncle Tom on steroids. He hates black people, despite being black himself. He benefits from the slave system. Candie is the front man, the face, Stephen is the real power behind the throne. He makes the plantation run, he signs checks in Candie’s name for him, and he keeps all the other slaves in line. He has no desire to see slavery go and blacks make headway in life. Stephen is not just a villain, he’s the polar opposite of our hero Django. As soon as Django and Schultz arrive at Candieland, Calvin has to restrain Stephen’s hatred towards our hero. Why is Django such a threat to Stephen? Because he represents what Stephen is always trying to suppress, a black person who believes he/she is more than mere property, but a true human being with goals, dreams, and ambitions. Stephen, to protect the status quo, believes he needs to put Django in his place and warn the other slaves, letting them know Django is not something they can aspire too.
Not only is Stephen the perfect villainess foil for Django, he is also by far the smarted antagonist in the film. In this way the white racist slavers are also shown as fools. Even when it comes to the bad guys, it’s the black Stephen, not the white Calvin, who is the smartest and most capable of them all. It is Stephen who discovers, through very subtle manipulation, that his suspicions are true. That Schultz and Django are scamming Calvin to get Broomhilda. When Stephen informs the oblivious Calvin of this, his entire demeanor is changed. He sits back like he’s on a throne, he addresses Calvin as his equal, and speaks with cold confidence. In short, Stephen is the most complex and interesting character in the film. A head house slave who actively benefits from the slave system and does anything to hold onto that power. His relationship with Calvin is fascinating. Calvin treats him like a beloved old uncle and Stephen pretends in public to be the “yessir, whatever ya say boss” kind of guy. But in private, the two of them are an evil team, and Stephen is clearly the brains behind the operation. He embraces racist and age stereotypes to mask his true nature in a façade of meekness and simplemindedness. Stephen has a limb he deliberately exaggerates, much like Emperor Palpatine in Star War using a cane he doesn’t really need. In an all-star cast, Samuel L. Jackson takes the cake when it comes to performances.
(SPOILERS AHEAD!)
The ending of the film is a brilliant triumph. Their scheme exposed, Candie mocks Schultz and Django as if victorious. Here Schultz’s own rivalry with Candie comes full circle. The horrors he’s seen Candie commit against his slaves pushes him over the edge and he shoots Candie, leading to both of their deaths. The result is massive shootout where Django has to kill as many white slavers he can. Some may feel Django should have killed Candie, being that Candie represents all that has hurt Django and his wife. But I think Tarantino was right in that Candie is Schultz’ rival and Stephen is Django’s. Django is eventually captured and sent to work for a mining company. He escapes, frees his wife, and returns to Candieland where he kills off the last of the Candieland workers (and Calvin’s insidious sister). He then has a final confrontation with Stephen and shoots him in the knee and the leg, giving him a real reason to limb. As Django departs the plantation mansion, Stephen hollers Candieland will always be here and Django won’t get away with this. From outside, Django and Hildie watch as Candieland blows up in a glorious crescendo, taking Stephen with it. This ending is perfect. We as the audience are utterly satisfied to finally see Django succeed after all his hardship. It also nice to see a minority protagonist succeed on his own without the aid of a white friend.
Finally, Tarantino’s sense of music is great and I love to listen to the soundtrack on my iPhone.
THE BAD
While I love this movie, I do have a few criticisms. Kerry Washington is much underused and her character mostly screams, cries, and looks scared in the film. Granted the horrific circumstances she is in, Hildie does not come off as great well rounded female character. Also, the n-word is overused. Yes it is justified by historical accuracy, but there were other words in English lexicon used to designate black people. Sometimes it simply feels forced and unnatural.
CONCLUSION
Django Unchained is fantastic film. Watching it with an audience is both a fun and enthralling experience. The cast is top-notch, especially Samuel L. Jackson, the music great, and Tarantino’s script clever, tight, and original.
Four/Four Stars ****
–Terry Young
Villains Never Lie 