A look at audience response and stylised violence vs
realistic violence
*spoilers*
In an
interview in 2007, director Quentin Tarantino discussed the idea of a form of
spaghetti western set in the us pre-Civil War deep south. He stated he wanted “to do movies that deal with America's
horrible past with slavery…but do them like spaghetti westerns. I want to do
them like they're genre films, but they deal with everything that America has
never dealt with because it's ashamed of it, and other countries don't really
deal with because they don't feel they have the right to”*.
Personally,
I feel he lived up to this.
Django Unchained is a visually pleasing film. The long
shots capturing the scenic backgrounds and mid shots of the characters proves aesthetically
pleasing to the audience. The cinematography gives a feel of the older
spaghetti western movies while giving it a modern finish.
The violence
displayed was heavily criticised. The release was ill timed due to the
Conneticut school shooting and was therefore drawn in to the debates about
links between media violence and social violence. It was defended heavily against
the arguments.
To look on
the face of it, it is a violent
movie. However, the violence is used as a device to highlight the injustice of
slavery in context of the time period the film is set in. While the violence is
heavily dramatized, it is a well-known
trademark of Tarantino to use heavily stylised violent scenes in films. Adding
to this the fact that the violence in the film is so out of proportion to
reality that it becomes somewhat humorous, the argument that this film could
encourage violence in society seems to suggest that people can no longer
differentiate between real life and the media.
The
realistic violence from the white men in the film towards the black slaves,
however, is horrific and sickening but helps to highlight the history of slavery.
I feel it would be disrespectful to down play how the slaves were treated in
this major era of American history. The flashes of images of the slave being
torn apart by dogs was realistic and hard hitting. The sounds of the dogs
snarling was worrying and the sound of the encouragements from the owners was
disgusting.
The end
fight scene made me feel disgusted and horrified but I also felt the violence
was justified. The controlled camera work forces the audience to take stock of
what is happening to the characters. While I recognise that the amount of blood
used was a signature style of the director, Tarantino, it still made me feel
uneasy and shocked. I feel the justification came from the narrative leaving up
to this point in the film from Django’s history as a slave and Candie’s ill minded
treatment of Broomhilda in front of him.
Despite this
the shoot-out is thrilling and action packed just as it’s advertised to be. The
sound effects of the bullets shooting through the air and then the sound of it
hitting flesh is revolting and shocking. The role reversal is stark; earlier
was put in a position to feel repulsed at Candie’s treatment of his slave but
now, watching Candie’s mourners shot dead, they feel a sense of approval and a
strong hope for Django to win.
*The
Daily Telegraph, Quentin Tarantino: I’m proud of my flop