Representation Patterns Analysis

     Django Unchained is one of my favorite movies of all time. The classic revenge story and rise of a hero will never get old, and that combined with it being a Western, as well as a Quentin Tarantino film all add up to create a masterpiece in cinema. Representation is a huge part of this movie because the whole plot is based on subverting stereotypes. Racism was extremely prominent in 1858 America, especially in the South. We see a lot of that within the plantation culture of rich white men. Slavery was also still a thing as this was two years before the civil war. In this post, we will discuss two major characters in the story who highly contrast each other and their representation throughout the film.

    Dr. King Schultz is one of the two protagonists, a German dentist who is also a bounty hunter. At the beginning of the film, he rescues and pays our main character Django, who is a slave, in exchange for help tracking down his former owners. They journey together and become partners, rejecting any anti-black laws there are at any establishment they visit. Schultz is a break from how most white men are depicted in the film because he opposes racism. He sees Django as a fellow human being and juxtaposes all of the white men who often always show hatred towards him because he isn't a slave.

A scene highlights this when Schultz and Django claim a bounty at a Tennessee plantation because they were legally obligated to do so, and the owner and his posse attempt to hunt them down. The reasoning behind this obviously has racist connotations, since they couldn't handle a black man being a bounty hunter, and they dressed up in KKK outfits to commit the crime. Schultz believes they are coming and protects Django by rigging their wagon with dynamite and hiding nearby. He even trusts him with a sniper rifle, further demonstrating his opposition to racism. The trap works and they come out victorious. The motif of him protesting slavery continues throughout up until the very end. In the climax of the film, he sacrifices himself when he doesn't need to at the end of the film to kill an evil plantation owner instead of shaking his hand, protesting slavery further. The representation of Schultz illustrates the duality of American views on slavery and racism at that time.

    Speaking of the evil slave owner, the next character I want to discuss is Calvin Candie. He owns a plantation called Candyland and takes pleasure in hosting "Mandingo fights", where slaves fight bare-knuckled with each other to the death. He always dresses up in the finest clothing, and his character represents the racism of rich white men in the South. He views his slaves simply as toys for the white man's amusement and always presents himself with a charismatic demeanor towards other rich white men. This demeanor is shown towards Schultz, who claims to want to buy one of his prized fighters as a distraction for Django to find his wife and rescue her. He tours him of his Mandingo operation whilst demeaning the fighters. Schultz offers to buy his wife alongside a fighter, for a decent amount of money. Once finding out about the plan that Schultz has to rescue Django's wife, he becomes filled with rage and threatens to murder her if he doesn't pay the full sum only for her.

His terrifying unstable reaction to somebody wanting to purchase a servant slave woman instead of his fighters highlights the pure hatred for African Americans he has. Once the deal is made, he demands a handshake and that is when Schultz kills him. These two characters contrast each other in every way they are represented; one guy is a relatively relaxed man and slavery opposer, while the other is an unstable hatred-filled man who doesn't even view slaves as people.