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A History of Violence essay
Analysis of django unchained
Analysis of django: unchained
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Recommended: A History of Violence essay
Quentin Tarantino is often criticized for the use of language or violence within his films, and there are no exceptions with his latest film Django Unchained. Throughout Tarantino’s movies we are entangled into his storytelling, his characters, and more importantly his world. Django is set in 1858 during the Mississippi antebellum south at the height of slavery. While drawing some historical elements from this time period, the story is being told for Django (Jamie Foxx), and through him we see the world as it is horrific. While some Americans may be uncomfortable with the nature of violence and or language within this film, it is imperative that we as a nation never forget what took place during slavery and Tarantino did just that. Slavery is a topic that the majority of Americans have a hard time talking, or dealing with, yet Tarantino is able to bring mainstream audiences into the world of the South before the Civil War and have us talking about it. Django is the type of character that you instantly root for, regardless of his outcome you just know that you want Django to have his revenge. (1) Cobb from the New Yorker said “The theme of revenge permeates …show more content…
He has been critiqued in the past for his used of the word nigger through his films. If any of his movies required this language, it is Django. (1) David Cox from the Guardian stated that “Quentin Tarantino, the director of Django Unchained, maintains that the word has to be "part and parcel" of a truthful representation of life in the antebellum south.” Tarantino is telling us a story set during a time before the Civil War, and in the heart of slavery. Calvin Candy says the word over a 110 times, even Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) who plays the house nigga says nigger many times throughout the movie. Spike Lee has voiced his opinions on Quentin Tarantino’s films before, in particular his usage of the
Of the given options of films to watch for the extra credit assignment, I chose to watch HBO’s documentary titled the Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives, a production I thought was excellently put together. I was initially apprehensive of the film, thinking it would be extremely boring, but I rather found it to be quite the accessible medium of history both available and appealing to a broad audience including myself. I found the readings of the many slave’s interviews and firsthand accounts to be such a clever way to understand more about the culture of slavery in an uncanted light and it broadened my knowledge of what slavery entailed. The credibility of this film finds its foundations cemented in the undeniable and indisputable
As Kennedy explains “used by black people amongst themselves [the N word ] is a racial term with undertones and good will--reflecting a tragicomic sensibility that is aware of black history” but how could such a contradiction exist (Kennedy 5)? How could the most “noxious” of words also also be used to show comradery and brotherhood for those who have been in the struggle. “He is my nig” or “That guy is my nigga”, phrases like these are uttered by black men to each other to express their most public form of masculine endearment towards one another. Note that it is uttered between black men, to black men, and from black men; Black bodies participate and engage with the “N-word” much more differently than any other non-black person would. The word must come from colored mouths to have a “positive” significance, if I, a Mexican woman, or for instance Nate, in Bernard’s class, say it--we change the meaning entirely. As quoted by Randall Kennedy, Jarvis Deberry states, “[the n-word is ‘beautiful in its multiplicity of functions. I am not aware…of any other word capable of expressing so many contradictory emotions” and I cannot help but to agree that the “N-word” is more messy and complex then we would anticipate it to
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
The 13th, a documentary by Ava DuVernay, was released this year on Netflix. The hour and forty minute film makes visible a link between slavery in the United States and the modern day prison system. Specifically DuVernay looks at how race and the subjugation of black and brown bodies have been to forefront of these modern day prisons. DuVernay nicely ties in the social and economic factors behind the mass incarceration related to the progression of the US on the backs of black bodies. Through the use of statistical data it proves how pure racist reasoning in the United States has programed both white and blacks in America to fear the black body. Where the film falls short is that it represents black people as the face of the black men, and
Saying 12 Years a Slave is a realistic film is an understatement. According to the British film director Steve McQueen, some people did not want the film made. He stated, “Some people want to close their eyes on some subjects. They don’t want to look behind them.” (Aspden 5). Others feel there have been too many films been made about slavery already, such as Roots, Django Unchained, and Amistad. 12 Years a Slave is a true story that needs to be told. In this writer’s opinion, it depicts the abuse of slavery in the United States with more intensity than any other film previously made.
As much as society does not want to admit, violence serves as a form of entertainment. In media today, violence typically has no meaning. Literature, movies, and music, saturated with violence, enter the homes of millions everyday. On the other hand, in Beloved, a novel by Toni Morrison, violence contributes greatly to the overall work. The story takes place during the age of the enslavement of African-Americans for rural labor in plantations. Sethe, the proud and noble protagonist, has suffered a great deal at the hand of schoolteacher. The unfortunate and seemingly inevitable events that occur in her life, fraught with violence and heartache, tug at the reader’s heart-strings. The wrongdoings Sethe endures are significant to the meaning of the novel.
It is in the aftermath that James goes into his violent detail about how the slave masters went about interrogating slaves for information. James writes, “For the next two day they strip all them niggers naked, wet they skin and whip them with the cowhide. … The commander have the soldiers light corn husk and scrape off the burnin’ bits so that the fire rain down on her belly, face and titties.” (p. 235) This scene really shows the power slave masters had over their slaves and how they would torture slaves until they got what they wanted. This is the case whether they wanted information out of a slave, or wanted them to work harder without mistakes. This use of extreme “positive punishment” is what ran the slave plantation and brought about fear in each and every slave. This use of sexual language as well as explicit scenery allows for the reader to easily picture the scene in their mind. Even though this is horrid scene, the detail given is important to telling a clear
12 Years a Slave is an accurate adaptation of what slavery was like in the southern United States. The movie does not try to exaggerate the hardships the slaves went through, nor does it try to down play their suffering. This paper will compare the movie to primary sources from that time period, as well as the book the movie is based off of.
Historical evidence is displayed and shown in a variety of ways through popular media, the most common way being a motion picture. For this extra credit essay, I chose to write about the movie 12 Years a Slave because I felt that it appropriately fit the time frame from the beginning of time through 1877. I have provided a short summary of the film, and then briefly described how and why I think that it has fit the time frame of this course.
Moreover, any time the slaves were transported the “civilized” people of the town they kept themselves at a distance because of their fear of them, they also held crosses up to them, prayed, and gave them bibles to rid them of their demonic tendencies. To add to this, the leaders of the countries remark that, “ the real determination our courts and President must make is not whether this ragtag group of Africans raised swords against their enemy, but rather must we?’’ (Spielberg, 1997). Thus, the slaves are again dehumanized and portrayed as beats who cast such heavy
Tarantino likes to approach a screenplay like a Novel. He usually develops different characters in the story on the individual basis. Every character has his or her story. This is very unlikely approach while writing a screenplay. Let's take the example of 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Pulp Fiction'. In 'Reservoir Dogs' he uses flashbacks to show the back stories of individual characters.
When 12 Years A Slave landed on the bookstore shelves, people were not sure if they were ready for another slave storyline. But after all the rave reviews and the decision to make the book into a motion picture, many people decided it was time to view and or read what this story was all about. Majority of people prefer attending a movie when there is an option versus reading, for they do not have the patience to sit and enjoy a good book.
Still today issues such as human trafficking are present which makes us question if slavery has fully been ended. Approximately 18,000 people are trafficked in the United States each year. Some question what the government is doing to help those who are trafficked “But proving it is difficult. And a report published last year by the Urban Institute and Northeastern University suggests why: a lack of law enforcement resources, legal guidance and cooperation from victims. But Burke said if what victims have experienced cannot be proven, she at least hopes that public awareness will put pressure on those who profit from exploited laborers” (Martin, 2013). Still today we struggle with many issues that are similar to slavery in the United States. It can be easy to question one no one did anything to combat slavery during the time of the film but still today we must ask ourselves that same
The documentary hit many points that I can and cannot agree with. One point I can agree with that being that the word "Nigga" isn't going away anytime soon. People use it as a slang word in many different scenarios: to show respect, to show distaste, to show a mentality, to show friendship, etc..
Michael Apted’s Amazing Grace does not begin to compare to 12 Years a Slave’s accurate re-telling of American history and is more based on dramatized storyline for the interest of the viewers than the truth. In this case, 12 Years a Slave did an astoundingly better job. Although far off, in movies such as James Wan’s Saw franchise, viewers take enjoyment in watching people killed and tortured as if it’s an enjoyable sport. This is