Review of the Film Django Unchained

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Recommended: Characteristics of the western genre film

Django Unchained, directed by Quentin Tarantino’s is what you would call a spaghetti western. The name ‘spaghetti western’ originally was a term used to reduce the value of something. American westerns were considered to be on a higher scale than spaghetti westerns. Django Unchained is set in the American South, two years before the civil war, telling the story of the freed slave Django who goes on a killing spree in the name of revenge to rescue his wife Brunhilda from the cruel plantation master that owns her. I thought it was interesting how this movie made the freed slave one of the protagonist seeking revenge. The character, who allows Django to take revenge, is Dr. King Schultz a German-American dentist/bounty hunter. Through Django’s heroism and portrayal of masculinity, we are reminded of the traditional hero traits from the western movies of past. The movie Django Unchained conforms to these traditional standards of masculinity and heroism.

What makes a hero a hero? In western movies such as The Searchers and Stage Coach, they portray the issue of masculinity and the hero in an exceptional way. In each of these movies the main character is represented with the traditional appearance of masculinity, toughness, and honor. Rarely does the hero smile or only smiles in the face of confrontation. He has courage and is daring, therefore not fearing anything. Most of the time revenge is the motivating force behind the hero’s actions. At first, Django is the helpless slave that is chained and broken, but through the teaching of Dr. King Shultz, Django takes the role of hero very quickly and transforms from a needy slave to a cultured, well-mannered, and brutal bad–ass that soon becomes the real focus of the film. Shultz...

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...adhere to a certain code in western movies. This would also mean he would have to turn a blind eye to many things that are morally wrong in order to reach the goal he has set for himself. Masculinity is often questioned in these movies, which in turn we find the male hero proving his masculinity by committing horrible acts. These acts are justified to the audience by the idea of revenge against the “bad” people and justice is being served. Django saves the damsel in distress and gets his revenge on everyone and accomplishes everything he set out to do. This is what you would call a happy ending in a western film.

Works Cited

Scott, A. O. (2012, December 24). The Black, the White and the Angry. The New York Times [New York], p. C1. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/movies/quentin-tarantinos-django-unchained-stars-jamie-foxx.html?pagewanted=2

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