Django Unchained: Violence and Racism with a Purpose?
In Django Unchained, a freed slave and a bounty hunter team up to rescue the slave’s wife from a ruthless plantation owner; yet, while the plot description may suggest dramatic comedy, the film turns out to be an uncomfortably comedic exploration of race and violence.
“Anybody bring any extra bags?” says a KKK member whose eye holes are a bit subpar. For Tarantino, creating moments of awkward humor seems to be a cinematic requirement. That laughter-at-a -funeral feeling–the fear of judgment paired with an uncontrollable desire to burst in hysterics–is a frequent sensation when viewing Django Unchained. And if racism isn’t paired with comedy in a certain scene, then gruesome violence probably is. For example, bodies are often shot straight on, but then fly unexplainably to the left or right as blood splatters on a distant wall. Furthermore, the characters often speak or act in a manner incongruous with the emotional representation that would be expected in a brutal or life-threatening scene. It’s funny. It’s uncomfortable. It’s histrionic. It’s unpredictable. Yet, is it worthful?
One question tends to linger around Tarantino’s work: is it art with a purpose or is it art for art’s sake? With
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Django leads us to question without ever giving us an answer. When considering Tarantino’s reputation and past cinematic accomplishments –Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, Reservoir Dogs– a pattern begins to emerge: his work is artistic yet controversial. However, since the controversy is left to interpretation, many wonder if he’s just tickling his own fancy through his ability to successfully pair such conflicting representations and sentiments. Is he simply amused by the combination of racism and humor, violence and irrationality, laughter and fear? And if so, can we accept this as a
"Deadly Unna" is the story of Garry Blacks realization of racism and discrimination in the port where he lives. When everyone else seems do nothing to prevent the discrimination Blacky a young boy steps up to the plate and has the guts to say no against racism towards the local Aborigines. Blacky is beginning to realize that the people he looks up to as role models might not be such good examples as most of them including his father his footy coach and even the pub custodian all accept racism as a normal way of life and Blacky begins to realize this and tries to make them aware.
Throughout the film, the audience is also exposed to many different comical scenes. Many situations and even dialogue are humorous. For example, one of the three killers sleeps with a Teddy Bear. Additionally, Nobody calls Blake a “stupid fucking white man.” This is funny purely because it is not something that would be expected from his character.
The movie 12 Years a Slave, is an exceptional film. It shows how brutal and inhumane American Slavery is. The movie itself is shockingly truthful as to the events that actually happened. There were many scenes that made it hard to not look away from the screen. Along with numerous scenes of trying to hold back tears. This movie is filled with heartache, sorrow, pure utter violence, but also love. There were many amazing actors and actress’ in this movie. Altogether, this film was brilliant. In fact, it has won many awards. Including, an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, and many more outstanding awards. This movie is brutally honest, but well deserved. A free-man was
Director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino has a unique style that is easily recognizable and sets him apart from other
The symbolic interaction theory came from George Herbert Mead during the 1920s; Mead explains this theory to be when someone or society bases their thoughts or meanings of things simply off what they have been told, their experiences, or what they have been taught. So in other words people attach their own belief or meaning onto a symbol and act according to their belief or meaning they have attached to the said symbol. For example, my favorite food could be a hot dog until someone walks up and tells me that it has pieces of pig eyes in it, then it ruins the food for me. This happens because I will have that symbol of pig eyes attached to hot dogs until it is changed again. The symbolic interaction theory applies to this movie in the sense of race, ethnicity, and morals. The morals come into place when Django is hired by Dr. Schultz to accompany him during the winter and he is trying to train Django to kill, but Django is hesistant to pull the trigger because he believes killing people is wrong. This belief is quickly changed when Dr. Schultz explains to Django what the men that he is trying to kill did. Throughout the movie Django has many racial slurs thrown at him for things like riding a horse, or entering a town 's saloon. He is on the receiving end of these slurs because the white people have attached the meaning of “slave” to the african americans and see them no other
I will analyse some of Tarantino?s influences in Reservoir Dogs and his trademarks (he?s got such a distinctive style in directing, that you can just tell a film is made by him by just watching a couple of scenes of any movie he has made).
Django Unchained, directed by Quentin Tarantino’s is what you would call a spaghetti western. The name ‘spaghetti western’ originally was a term used to reduce the value of something. American westerns were considered to be on a higher scale than spaghetti westerns. Django Unchained is set in the American South, two years before the civil war, telling the story of the freed slave Django who goes on a killing spree in the name of revenge to rescue his wife Brunhilda from the cruel plantation master that owns her. I thought it was interesting how this movie made the freed slave one of the protagonist seeking revenge. The character, who allows Django to take revenge, is Dr. King Schultz a German-American dentist/bounty hunter. Through Django’s heroism and portrayal of masculinity, we are reminded of the traditional hero traits from the western movies of past. The movie Django Unchained conforms to these traditional standards of masculinity and heroism.
Ref. The cinema book 2nd edition p100 "Tarantinos films mix violence with intertextual homage. He wants an audience to notice the way his films relate to a history of earlier film, fiction, t.v., thus combining movie fiction and movie criticism by playfully referring to movie history and mini history contained in his stars. " I think Tarantinos style is evolving now he has the money to support his wishes but his storytelling and directing technique is still difinitively Tarantinos own.
But the movie is about slavery in the 1800’s, a time when that word was frequently used. Taratinos’ goal is to make realistic movies and often focuses on touchy subjects in history. In his movies he rewrites history with revenge and that is why Django Unchained is excellent.
In conclusion it is clear that Tarantino’s film is postmodern, and Jameson’s insightful essay stands in relation to Pulp Fiction much in the same way as a prophecy stands in relation to its fulfilment. The postmodernist Tarantino expresses in a full and technicolour form what Jameson the modernist had only partially understood in the more static arts of painting and architecture.
The ideas I intend to express in the following paper are in no way meant to make allowances for the practices of slavery or racism. As I begin this paper, I feel the need to remind the reader that I find slavery, in all of its forms, to be an oppressive and terrible institution. I unwaveringly believe that for centuries, including this one, the narrow-mindedness that slavery has perpetrated is one of the most terrible humiliations leveled upon our civilization. These views are meant only to assess and illuminate the construction of slavery in film.
Quentin Tarantino is an acquired taste – or at least his films tend to be. They’re typically violent in nature, though often brilliantly casted (and acted) – and rarely come without controversial moments. Naturally, controversy typically creates waves of interest, and even since the release of Reservoir Dogs, followed by Pulp Fiction, Tarantino has been one of the most talked among directors in Hollywood – due in large part to his brash, gratuitous storytelling. And, after witnessing The Hateful Eight, that won't change anytime soon.
Django Unchained is a film about a German man who buys the freedom of Django and trains him to become a bounty hunter. The film Django Unchained exhibits both realistic and unrealistic historical accuracies of slavery in the 1850’s. This is due to some of the exaggeration of the brutal treatment to slaves, the inaccurate depiction and focus of female slaves primarily being sex partners and the accurate portrayal of the types of slaves such house and field slaves. The brutality is inaccurately and accurately portrayed due to the scenes of Mandingo fighting, scenes of dogs eating slaves and the brutal punishments to slaves. A plot in the film Django Unchained is the Mandingo fighting scene, which has no historical evidence of this brutality
Within the three movies we have watched so far, racism has played an important role. “The Birth of a Nation”, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, and “Redtails” all take place during the 1900’s, when racism was widespread. According to Dictionary.com, racism is defined as: “a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement,usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.” Although all three movies take place in the same time period, we see different scenarios. In the first movie, “The Birth of a Nation”, it is centered around the Ku Klux Klan and fighting against