Django Unchained – Opening Scene
In this scene we see Django (played by Jamie Foxx) chained up to other black slaves while slave traders are leading them to a town to be sold. Then Christoph Waltz’s character Dr King Schultz rides in and asks for one slaves, however the slave traders deny his request and aims a shotgun at him. Dr Schultz reacts to this in a calm manor by shooting one of the slave traders in the head and shoots the other slave traders horse in the head which falls onto the trader. Dr Schultz then releases Django from his shackles and tells the other slaves that they can either help the crushed trader and take him to a doctors or kill him and find a nice place to live that is not polluted by the slave trade, the slave take the second option and blow the trader to chunks with a shotgun.
In this scene you are shown the way slaves are treated by traders. Django and the other slaves are chained to each other by the ankles, only wearing raggedy trousers and holding a cloak over them to try and keep them warm in a cold night. The slave traders however are wrapped up warm in multiple layers of clothing riding on horses. Many know how slaves were treated but this does show a divide between them. For example a sheep dog leads a group of sheep into a pen in the outdoors, the sheep dog then goes inside into a nice warm house and eats a nice meal and sleeps on a comfy bedding however, the sheep must stay outside in the cold and rain trapped in a small space. This could be seen as a metaphor to how slaves are treated, and it can be seen in this scene.
Also the racial slur ‘Nigger’ with the hard R is scene and through out the film, for example when Django goes to take the coat of the dead trader his brother shouts, “Nigger, don’t you touch my brothers coat.” Even though he is trapped underneath the horse he still feels like he has his white man power so to speak.
Dr Schultz is the best thing in this scene, even though he is white you can tell he is not like the other white people and how they treat black people. During this scene he treats Django with respects and even pays for the purchase of Django with a bill of sale even though he leaves the trader for dead. The biggest thing that hits me is when he starts to write his bill of sale he just looks up at the slave in front of him, smiles and finishes off writing the bill. This shows how he believes that black people and white people are the same without him even saying a word.
Django Unchained – The Brittle Brothers
In this scene Django is on the hunt for The Brittle Brothers who are hiding out as brothers called the Shafers. Django finds them as they are about to whip a slave girl and he shoots one of them and whips the other. Then Dr Shultz shoots the other as he rides away on a horse.
In this scene we see Django’s transition from being a slave to a free man. He walks around with confidence and is wearing this bright blue suit which would only be worn by stuck up white rich people in those times.
When he sees one of the brothers in a cotton field he has a flashback from when the brittle brothers are whipping his wife and Django is there begging to take her place and this shows the harshness of slavery back then. Django is begging and pleading with logical reason why he should take her place, he even drops to his knees and in response John Brittle bends down to his level and says, “I like the way you beg boy.” This shows that even with his begging and pleading because he is black and white people are ‘superior’ that he does not care what Django does and finds it hilarious.
When Django then goes to find the other brothers he charges towards where they are and shouts John Brittle’s name. He then stands there very confidently and this shows that he is here for revenge and nothing can stop him, you can almost feel the anger that he is feeling by the way he stands there. He then un-sheathes the hidden pistol on his wrist and shoots John Brittle in the chest. While John stares at the new hole in his chest and back up at Django who then says “I like the way you die boy” which is a throw back to how John Brittle treated him. After that then Little Raj goes to pull out his gun however, Django picks up the whip that John was holding and starts to whip him with it before he can shoot him. This part of the scene is very powerful as before this we have seen the brutal power that white people have used on black people when they whip them, for example the scars on Django’s back and the flashback of his wife being whipped. However now the tables and Django is taking his revenge and he doesn’t give him a brake, even when he is down on the floor he keeps going and even whips him straight across the face. Then he stands stares at all of the black slaves staring and quietly says, “Ya’ll wanna see something.” With this line you know he is going to do something that is going to shock us, maybe not so much the audience but definitely the black people watching as he takes the gun off the floor and repeatedly shoots him and still tries too even when there are no bullets left.
After this Dr Schultz arrives on the scene and asks where Ellis Brittle is and points to him as he hightails across the field. Schultz aims his rifle and asks Django if he is sure that it is him, Django replies saying yes and Schultz asks if he is positive. Django then answers confused “I don’t know” as because he was once a black slave he never went to an education so he only knows simple english, so when he is asked if he is positive he doesn’t understand the term and this shows as well how black people had a worse childhood than white people. They had no education, no one to tell them how the world worked, all they knew was that white men were apparently superior to them and that they had to work and work and nothing more.
So in conclusion this film is a great example of the slave trade and also how black people were treated. We see Django rise from being a mere slave to a free man who has money, a horse and can do what he wants like a white man and even speaks like them as he has been taught words and phrases from Dr Schultz. Dr Schultz is also a great character as he can be seen as a beacon of hope as he is a white man who does not like the slave trade and treats black people equal to white people. Django’s character also in a way shows that white people aren’t superior to black as all the way during the film, he makes people believe he is truly free, he is not a man who can be pushed about, he gains the trust of the highest power in the slave business Mr Candy, he tricks a couple of slavers to release him and give him a gun and then completely destroys Candyland and all its residents single handed.
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