Django Unchained; an almost review

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