Django Unchained

Django Unchained Literary Elements

Director

Quentin Tarantino

Leading Actors/Actresses

Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx

Supporting Actors/Actresses

Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson

Genre

Drama, Western

Language

English

Awards

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz)

Date of Release

2012

Producer

Reginald Hudlin, Pilar Savone, Stacey Sher

Setting and Context

1858 Texas, Tennessee and Mississippi

Narrator and Point of View

Narrator: N/A

Point of View: Django Freeman

Tone and Mood

Dramatic, vengeful, ultra-violent, blackly comic

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonists: Schultz and Django; Antagonists: Calvin Candie and Stephen

Major Conflict

The major conflict is between Schultz and Django, and Calvin Candie and his army of loyal servants.

Climax

The climax occurs when Schultz kills Candie, prompting a shootout.

Foreshadowing

Schultz's use of a quick-draw to kill Sheriff Bill Sharp with a derringer foreshadows the fact that he will kill Calvin Candie in exactly the same way.

Understatement

Schultz casually says, "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist!" after murdering Calvin Candie, and immediately before being killed himself.

Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques

The film updates the genre of the "Spaghetti Western" by making the "cowboy" hero a liberated African American slave.

Allusions

The "Mandingo fighting" sub-plot alludes to Richard Fleischer's 1975 exploitation film "Mandingo."

Paradox

Stephen is a black slave who is more loyal to his white overseer than to the other black slaves in his position.

Parallelism

At the beginning of the film, Schultz says "Auf Wiedersehen" before killing Bennett and Ellis Speck. At the end of the film, Django says "Auf Wiedersehen" to the deceased body of Schultz.

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