Django Unchained: The Brutal Past in our Modern Films

Farhiya Ismail Ali,

Editor (Film)

 

Just when we thought that slavery was a thing of the past, it has indeed come back into our contemporary media landscape as a historical twist to our modern films. Django Unchained, set in the Antebellum Era (1781-1860) is an American Western film that was released on the 25^th of December 2012. Briefly, the film plot is about Dr. King Schultz played by (Christoph Waltz) who buys and sets free a slave called Django, played by (Jamie Fox) with the intention to make him his deputy bounty hunter. Django ends up, along with the Dr. King Schultz at a site called ‘Candyland’ which a massive plantation in Mississippi that is owned by Calvin Candie who is played by (Leonardo DiCaprio), where Django finds his wife, Broomhilda who he was sold separately from for trying to escape from their ruthless owner.

Steven Spielberg, who is an American film director, stated that: “The great bulk of the movie industry’s evocations of the American past have been Westerns—that is, escapist adventure stories set in a vague time more or less identifiable as the eighteen-seventies or eighties, a vague semi-desert or mountainous region somewhere between the Mississippi and the Rockies, and a vague economy based on cattle-raising, saloon-keeping, and banditry. Nothing wrong with that, of course. But Westerns lack context—political, social, historical”.

In the case of Django Unchained, the director Tarantino has incorporated a large proportion of famous historical context in order to bring the past to the present. The film, in essence consists of tension in lengthy dialogue exchanges that is in fact infinitely more compelling to create sequences of cathartic violence. Although the film is wonderfully depicting the reality of the brutal and shackling past, its brutality and horror may have left many with a wicked humour or in a state of shock. However, there are many positive elements to the film, as it could be argued that Africans from all nationalities could be empowered by this film. This is because it showcases a timeline of how black people were treated to how much they’ve succeeded in the 21^st century. Clearly, society has shown progress, but it is important not to forget the past and the era of slavery. The director Tarantino has successfully deployed a large chuck of historical context into his film in order to create a modernised twist to not only entertain, but to also educate and it could to some extent be argued that this film has prospered in this case.

Image Courtesy: drafthouse.com