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Charlotte Hull

How can Django Unchained be viewed as a postmodern film?


Postmodern texts deliberately play with meaning and will often exhibit many traits of
intertexuality. They encourage oppositional reading to what is presented through the use
of bricolage, homage, pastiche and parody. A postmodern film we have studied is Django
Unchained (2012), a Quentin Tarantino film set in 1858 about an ex-dentist now bounty
hunter called Dr. King Schultz who buys the freedom of a slave, Django as his deputy.
Under Schultzs wing Django is then led and trained to kill various wanted men including
the gang who kept him and his wife as slaves. The pair ends up at one of the biggest
plantations, Candyland, bargaining with Calvin Candie for the freedom of Broomhilda,
Djangos wife, disguised as beginning Mandingo business men.
The main aspect that labels this film as postmodern is the use of intertexual references to
other films, including those made by the same director, Quentin Tarantino. The film pays
homage to Django, through the name as well as the opening titles which use the same
backing track as well as almost identical imagery and text. Django (1966) stars lead actor
Franco Nero who also features in Django Unchained during a scene where he asks Django,
played by Jamie Foxx, how his name is spelt. Once he responds the character silently
mutters I know referencing his previous role and reason for the use of the name in the
film. There are further uses of names as reference to other sources for example Dr. King
Schultz and the song His name was King taken from the 1971 film His name was King.
As well as Broomhilda Von Shaft with the surname paying reference to the hit
Blaxploitation film shaft. Alongside the naming of characters the costumes designed for
them appear to reference other films/TV shows. Djangos first freedom outfit mirrors the
garment seen in the famous painting the blue boy with the blue silk, high white socks
and white lace. As the film matures and the character develops a less striking sense of
style there is a strong similarity to the costume worn by Little Joe in Bonanza through the
green shirt, cream trousers and cowboy hat.
Throughout moments of the film there are clear references to other films including those
created by Quentin Tarantino himself. Schultzs new trade of Mandingo fighting is taken
from a Blaxploitation film Mandingo and is highly seen throughout the film as they
bargain for flesh for cash to allow Schultz and Django to begin their Mandingo fighting
career. The fights seen within the film follow Tarantinos basic formula of ultra-violence,
laden dialogue and salutes to diverse films, Mandingo in this instance. The shooting
scenes in Django Unchained follow an unusually comparable routine to the one played out
in Inglorious Bastards (2009) during the cellar scene, with an extensive use of blood,
shooting and minimal survivors. Tarantino uses the last man standing, Stephan, to echo
the final scene of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly where the character is shouting and
cursing before the overlap of the final track interrupts his speech and finishes the film, or
in this case-the explosion.
Django Unchained is a western but its postmodern style means it twists the traditional
elements seen within this genre. Django Unchained uses the pastiche of this genre
through the characters in the film, with the hero and damsel in distress. However, both of
these characters are black which is unexpected and unusual for a western film. This is
continued through the relationship between the two main characters, the expected noble
gunfighter who shapes the young rookie into a lethal killing machine but the white man
who educates, civilizes and cultivates the oppressed black slave is actually German, also
an outsider. The pair are united through their status and together face the real problem of
the social evil within the American views of slavery. This creates the hero for the viewer
as they are rooting for the pair to succeed as without the other, they would not have made

Charlotte Hull
it this far. I believe that the audience identifies with the duo until Dr. Schultz is killed.
Django does not immediately come to his aid but instead acts solely on revenge for his
wife, enslaved by the Candyland household, as well as the people then trying to kill him.
Throughout the film it continues to mock the genre not only as Broomhilda faints when
greeted with hey little trouble maker from her long lost hero, an over-reacted happily
ever after seen within this genre, but likewise through the fact that there are no actual
cowboys within this cowboy film.
There were many criticisms for this film, mostly revolving around the issue of side-lining
slavery as a result of historical deafness. Donald Trump said the film was totally racist
and Spike Lee refused to even watch the film as he already knew it was racist. These
critiques may be as a result of the chosen genre/style of mixing Blaxploitation with overexaggeration of violence taken from Tarantinos basic formula or through Quentin
Tarantinos postmodern choice of film. Frederick Jameson describes postmodernism as
vacuous and trapped in circular referencing which may justify Tarantinos choice of
using the word nigger and other racial links as they were not to be read into but instead
just a fact of that time. Although using the word nigger may be justified as being
historically accurate there is no real evidence to suggest Mandingo fighting actually
happened so instead suggests this is a fictitious fantasy created by Tarantino under the
influence of the film Mandingo and so questions the reasoning behind his other choices.
Schultz and Django use the oppressors racist values against them by bargaining flesh for
cash in order to buy the freedom of his wife. Nevertheless, the film does not try to
produce a powerful message of overcoming slavery as, towards the end, Django has the
opportunity to unite with the other black slaves in order to seek revenge on their captures
but, goes back to the plantation alone. Tarantinos choice to leave Stephan as the last
man standing shows the unconditional love Stephan feels towards his white master as he
plots against his true family representing his inability and refusal to recognise his own
identity. Therefore the use of parody in the film demonstrates the harsh reality of the
situation during this time. Although Django is now a free man he is mocked as a black hero
through his use of stance and cheesy grin as the plantation explodes which is heighted by
Broomhildas reaction of clapping. His horse then dances before they ride off, once again
referring to him as a clown rather than the powerful man that has just overruled Calvin
Candie.
As postmodernism develops I believe there will remain an endless loop of intertexual
references as this is one of the most common features of this style of film. However, there
will be issues regarding the references chosen as if the same ones are used over and over
it will mean films then have to rely on the bricolage created by a postmodern film to use
as the source of a new film. If films are carried on to be made this way there will be a lack
of original ideas as all postmodern films are a bricolage of other postmodern, bricolage
films. Not only will this lead to disjointed storylines as a result of the dependency on
selected intertexual references but it will also mean they are reliant on self-referential
jokes.

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