The Films of Quentin Tarantino: Django Unchained (2012)

Django Unchained (2012)

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino.

Written by: Quentin Tarantino.

Starring: Jamie Foxx (Django), Christoph Waltz (Dr. King Schultz), Leonardo DiCaprio (Calvin Candie), Kerry Washington (Broomhilda), Samuel L. Jackson (Stephen), Walton Goggins (Billy Crash), Dennis Christopher (Leonide Moguy), James Remar (Butch Pooch / Ace Speck), David Steen (Mr. Stonesipher), Dana Michelle Gourrier (Cora), Nichole Galicia (Sheba), Laura Cayouette (Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwilly), Ato Essandoh (D'Artagnan), Don Johnson (Big Daddy), Franco Nero (Bar Patron), James Russo (Dicky Speck), Bruce Dern (Old Man Carrucan), Jonah Hill (Bag Head #2).

 

It is fair to question whether Quentin Tarantino should have made Django Unchained – if a white filmmaker at all should be making a film about slavery, particularly one that turns slavery in a blood splattered revenge film – which almost literally ends with people winking at the camera. The film came out the same year as Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln – another film about slavery, but one that avoided the pain of slavery, to concentrate on what Lincoln – and his allies – had to do to pass the 13^th Amendment, and the year before Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, which took us to those plantations, and focused on the horrific toll on the human bodies of the slaves themselves. Both films are undeniable respectful – in a way that Tarantino’s film very definitely is not. And yet – I think Tarantino’s film gets to something more elemental and basic about slavery that I’m not sure I’ve quite seen before. In an era where America is still debating whether or not they should keep statues of Confederate Heroes up in Southern States, and many people try and argue, ridiculously, that slavery was not about race, but was purely economic – yes, it was wrong, but not all slave owners were racist monsters, were they? Tarantino’s film, if nothing else, lays bare that lie. Every white person save one in Django Unchained is an unrepentant racist – someone who spouts out the most hateful rhetoric imaginable, who looks at black people as subhuman. The one exception of course isn’t even American.

 

The title character in the film is Django (Jamie Foxx) – a slave, who we first see as he is being led through a dark forest, with other slaves, when a man in a wagon comes along. This is Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) – a German dentist turned bounty hunter. He needs Django because he can help him find his latest fugitives. The negotiations as they are wont to do in a Tarantino film go on for a long time, but only end in bloody, brutal violence. King Schultz gets his man – and makes him a deal. If he will help him, when it’s all over, Django can go free. Of course, all Django wants is to find his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) – now a slave at Candyland, owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). And King Schultz will, of course, help with that as well.

 

Even more than most Tarantino films, Django Unchained has a strange mixture of tones. It can be out and out comedic at times, where Tarantino is playing things for a laugh, and then at other moments, he is hitting you hard. The violence in the film is strong and persistent – and yet, there is different types of violence here. There are moments where the violence is over-the-top – people being blown up with dynamite for instance, and the bloody massacres at the end. And there are times when it is not over the top at all – D’Artagnan and the dogs for instance, or the fights Calvin forces his slaves to have against each other. The violence in those sequences is almost sickening – Tarantino is not making light of that violence at all. It is appropriately brutal.

 

As with all of Tarantino films as well, he takes his time here. The film runs two hours and forty minutes, and it’s well over an hour before we even get to the main conflict of the film – before we’re even introduced to the main villain – DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie. Until then, we get a lot of Django and Schultz together being bounty hunters – including a montage set in the snow (I always love snow Westerns – and think we never got enough of them). Tarantino allows his character’s time and space to breath – to talk, to reveal themselves. They are not terribly complex characters – but they are acted with great zeal by the entire cast. I’ve always found it odd that Waltz was the one singled out for awards recognition – he is great sure, but ‘s almost a co-lead (it would be, but he leaves the film perhaps a shade too early for that). And the film also contains DiCaprio going wildly, wonderfully over-the-top, playing easily the most contemptable character of his career – and loving every second of it. He isn’t a fun villain per se – he is evil and vile and racist – but DiCaprio knows that Calvin Candie would love being Calvin Candie, and shows that. The most complex character in the film is Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen – the top slave at Candyland, and the one most invested in seeing things stay just as they are. It’s the second best performance Jackson has ever given for Tarantino – right after Pulp Fiction.

 

I don’t think Django Unchained is a perfect film – it is certainly a messy one. It is the first Tarantino film not edited by the great Sally Menke, who tragically died far too young, and there are moments where she is missed. It may be very funny to have the scene with the Klan members debating the hole placements on their masks – but the scene feels awkwardly spliced into the film – like an outtake or a Key & Peele skit inserted into the rest of the movie. And Tarantino, who has always been interested in complex, strong female characters (you are free to hate those characters, or his writing of them – but to say he doesn’t care about them is absurd) here fails Kerry Washington and Broomhilda, who is the least interesting character in the film, not really given any depth at all.

 

And yet, it’s messiness somehow works in Django Unchained’s favor. Tarantino here is tackling slavery and racism at the heart of American history, and he is lashing out in more than a few different directions. It is a messy film, but it’s a messy issue. Re-watching the film, I think I noticed the mess more this time than ever before – but also noticed just how hard Tarantino is hitting here – how much he wants to show the lie at the heart of the slavery – which makes it a stronger film than I remembered as well. This film damn well should be messy.