Unit 26: Film studies
Task 1
Video commentary
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Video commentary script
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Introduction:
Django Unchained (2012) is a narrative from a western, action film genre that took place in 1851 where racism is a huge issue back in the 19th-20th century. This film It stars a black man and his allies fighting against racism and slavery. Django, with the help of Dr King Schultz, finds a way to reunite with his “wife” Broomhilda who is in slavery at Candyland. The scene’s I will be analysed will be the whipping scene, hot box scene and the gun shooting scene.
Auteur Theory
Django Unchained is directed by Quentin Tarantino; we can tell that it is a Tarantino film as he added his director trademark in the film. Tarantino’s trademark in the film involves hyper-violence that is meant to be humorous, non-linear dialogues and plays a role in his own film. In Django Unchained, we noticed that hyper-violence like blood, whipping and even slaves being forced to be stripped was included in the film. The flashback in the film shows that the first part of the film is non-linear to fill us in about Django’s past. Tarantino has directed other films like Kill Bill Vol 1,2 (2003,2004), Deathproof (2007), Pulp fiction (1994) and The hateful eight (2015). Those other film Tarantino directed all shows Tarantino’s directors trademark.
Genre analysis
Genre is like a way to group types of film depending on the style. The genre of Django Unchained is action, dark comedy, drama, adventure but mainly spaghetti western.
Spaghetti western is a western film made in the mid-60s, filmed overseas because they are low budget. Sergio Leone is known to make spaghetti western films. It is different to western films because western films include western characters like the cowboy or sheriff and guns whereas spaghetti western has more graphical violence.
Sergio Leone has made spaghetti western films like The Good, the bad and the ugly (1966), Once upon a time in the west (1968), and a Fistful of Dollar (1964). Those films have inspired Tarantino and many other directors to make spaghetti western films. Those films Leone made are Spaghetti Western because the setting of his films takes place in Italy where he comes from, the costume between those 3 films are very similar and the plot of the film is similar where the protagonist fights the antagonist and in the end, the protagonist wins. However, the plot is not the case for Once upon a time in the west, the plot breaks the rules of convention and the rules of traditional western which had a negative response from the audience when it was first released. As the years gone through, the review got more positive and eventually becomes one of the most influential films as it draws the audiences into the story.
Django Unchained is spaghetti western because of the graphical content, torture, the white people having no ethical questions. Not to mention, many of Tarantino’s film is spaghetti western. Tarantino has based this film on another film also called Django (1966) where the plot and genre are similar to this film except Tarantino has added the aspect of racism in this film.
Textual analysis/ audience setion 1:
Whipping
For the whipping scene, there will be two parts that I will talk about: the flashback and the blue boy scene.
In the scene where Django whips the Brittle Brothers, the palette of the first image is a cooler, cool vintage colour palette showing Django’s memories of Broomhilda being whipped. This is the way Tarantino has shows flashbacks in his films.
For the sound of during this scene, in the flashback, the soundtrack Tarantino used was a song called “Freedom”, it is an original song specifically used for that scene. Tarantino picks a song and makes a scene based on the song. It is a non-diegetic sound and creates atmosphere. The song is about looking for freedom which matches with what the scene shows where it shows the flashback of Django and Broomhilda attempting running away; abandoning their duties as a slave and as a result, it failed.
In this flashback, It shows a low angle of Django begging to one of the Brittle brothers to not whip Broomhilda, it is shot in a low angle because it shows takes power away from the audience and shows them who is in power because as we can see from this scene, John Brittle is in standing. Django is begging to him because begging is a form of surrender and Django is willing to sacrifice himself over his wife and shows how committed Django is towards his wife. In the framing of this shot, it shows Broomhilda is slightly off centred so that we can see the slight bokeh background behind her. However, it is off framed because we can’t see her hands. Therefore, we don’t know what is Broomhilda tied to. Tarantino made sure that Broomhilda hands are off framed because earlier it shows that Broomhilda was tied to the tree with leather to hold her so that the Brittle brothers can make sure she gets whipped.
This scene is taken place on a cotton plantation, plantations are usually associated with slavery; especially in the south and also associates with the power of white people. It is associated with slavery because most of the workers in a plantation are black people. It represents power because the plantation owners are usually wealthy and they own more than 20 slaves. Another Mise-en-scene to talk about is the whipping, whips are usually associated to punishment so Django is whipping the Brittle brothers so that they are punished for punishing black people and also for the Brittle brothers to feel the pain the black people are going through when they are whipped.
The sound becomes diegetic where Tarantino has enhanced the sound of the whipping in order to give power to the whip and creates realism. Another sound effect used during that scene is one of the Brittle brothers slowly approaches the black girl, a creepy buildup was used to create tension as the black girl knows she's getting whipped. As Django approaches the Brittle brothers, the sound transitions to a less creepy sound which we can tell that Django is the protagonist here; that sound effect is non-diegetic and it is played all in 1 go in order to create atmosphere.
Django changed his costume from being a slave worker to being a valet when he Django works for Dr Schultz as a free slave. The costume refers to another film called The Blue Boy (1994). He is dressed like a valet because Schultz asked him to dress like a valet to show others that he is a free slave working for Schiltz, it is also to not cause any harm when Django meets Big daddy, Schultz can claim that Django as his slave.
When Django confronted the Brittle brothers, he was framed in the centre so that we would first notice him because he his dark blue suit stands more out to the green background with everyone noticing him the other black slaves might wonder why he is dressed like a valet. Usually, clothing in the 19-20th century would reflect on how much power does the person have; if someone were to dress more appealing, it would mean they have more power than people dress poorly.
After Django shot one of the Brittle brothers, it shows a slow motion of the other Brittle brothers trying to get his gun out while at the same time shows other slow motion of Django getting to the whip to whip that other Brittle brother. Tarantino wanted to use a slow-motion effect in this scene in order to create a dramatic effect and so for us to see the most painful death within the slow motion.
Textual analysis/ audience section 2:
Hotbox
In this scene, when Broomhilda was in the hot box, she was punished because she tried to run away; breaking the rule which is a form of rebellion. When she was thrown water and dragged out of the hotbox naked, it makes the audience feel angry at the white people, and that racism is a big part of the American history. It could also make the white people ashamed of themselves if they were to watch it today because they can’t believe that they are the ones as a community who abuses the black peoples. If the audiences watched Django Unchained in the 19th century, they wouldn’t feel guilty towards the black people because white people would not understand the discrimination. There’s also some aspects of gender representation because the female black slaves are forced to be maids, taking on a feminine role, and the black male slaves are forced to take on a masculine role.
When Broomhilda was taken out of the hotbox, she was stripped naked because it is part of her punishment for running away from Candyland. It is also because the white people have to embarrass her and to let others know that what she did back in the days is wrong.
The shots show a bird's eye view of Broomhilda’s body because it shows the inside of the hotbox and the white people are gathering around Broomhilda to drag her out of the hotbox. It shows the white people looking down on Broomhilda because it means that the superior is looking down at the powerless people. The scene switches to an extreme close up of Django eyes twitching a bit because it shows he is angry at the white people abusing Broomhilda then it shows a bit of tear because he feels sorry for Broomhilda and wants to do something to help her. After that, It shows a long shot where Broomhilda was dragged out of the hotbox. The juxtaposition makes it look as we went from the high angle to an extreme close up of Django, then to the perspective of Django. The high angle was shown to make the audiences feel powerless and make us want to do something about it. If the order of shots were to be reversed, then the story would become non-linear, Tarantino has used the montage theory as Alfred Hitchcock explained.
The use of the hotbox draws reference to other film called Cool Hand Luke (1967) where they use hotbox as well to punish slaves even for small mistakes. Except in Django Unchained, Tarantino adds the aspects of racism where the whites-only punish black people for making mistakes, and the punishment is harsher because the black people being punished has to stay in there for at least 10 days whereas in Cool Hand Luke, they will punish any slaves and the duration to stay in the hotbox is just 1 night. Both films use the hotbox because hotboxes are used a lot in the hot regions, it is where the setting took place in both films, in a hot, dry region.
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Textual analysis/ audience section 3:
Shooting
In the scene where Django shoots in the house at Candyland, the palette of this scene is mostly brown so that the red from the blood stands out more, Tarantino decided to frame the shot like that because he wanted to make the blood stand out more. It marks Tarantino's style because he is exaggerating the blood and took it extreme. The scene is dark because the shooting took place at night time but also suggest the sinister atmosphere in the house.
The Mise-en-scene of this scene shows an excessive amount of blood. Tarantino wanted to show an excessive amount of blood because Tarantino was trying to create some humour that is more than realistic and gives an over-the-top reaction from the audience. An aspect of racism in this film is when two black slaves try to escape, the white people come in a shot both of them because the white people were not ethical and did not question their ethics, which is what made this film a Spaghetti western. This shows that the black people are not allowed to escape Candyland and also shows the white people's true colours, they do not hesitate shooting innocent black people.
Tarantino has put his director’s trademark of the film by making the use of hyper-violence because Tarantino added the effect where the dead people seem alive by making them scream when they’re being shot or used as a shield even though they died. For the first part of the shooting there, it was a diegetic sound with no sound effects or music. All we can hear in this first part of the scene is the sound of gun shooting because Tarantino wanted to the audience to hear the gun shoot and that there is an intense fight going on between Django and the white people. This is to create realism. Later when Django has two guns, thuggish, non-diegetic music was played because the song matches black people like Django and the song makes him look like a thug in which it creates atmosphere.
When we see the blood splashing, it shows a low, mid angle of the body. Tarantino has decided to place the camera next to the body because he wanted the audiences to be placed next to the body where the blood looks more exaggerating. If the camera were placed further away from the body, the dramatic effect wouldn’t be effective than placing the camera next to the body. The shot is framed as a rule of third, the main subject of the shot is the blood where we see diagonal lines along the blood. There was a lot of slow motions involved in this scene, like when tries to get another gun or as Django shoots the white people. The slow motion was used because Tarantino wanted to make the audience feel like the scene going too fast when the speed goes back to normal and also wants us to think whether Django can reach the gun in time. Later when Django surrenders, it shows a high angle of the house because Tarantino wants us to see the casualties and the number of people Django killed, it praises Django’s shooting skills.
The violent use of blood also comes from Kill Bill (2003) which is another Tarantino film where the main character fights the Crazy 88 and lots of graphics were shown which is where Tarantino takes it extreme. There are some elements of humour in this scene. That scene is very graphical because, during that scene, Tarantino had to get the bride to kill multiple 88’s within a less than 10-minute time-frame and having this effect shocks the audience because they are shocked and surprised at how the bride can kill multiple villains within that much of a time-frame. Although in Kill Bill we can see lots of decapitated bodies in Kill Bill, Django Unchained has more blood violence because in Kill Bill, as the fight goes on, the use of blood violence starts to become less. When the palette becomes black and white, it starts to give the audience the enigma code whereas, in Django Unchained, the audience would understand what is going on in the film. The effect of hyper-violence from both films would have the audience stick that scene in their minds which is what made both of those films known for, the hyper-violence from the climax of both films.
Distribution
The film Django Unchained was first premiered and released in 2012 in America. This film has three distributors: The Weinstein Company, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures; People can watch this film on DVD, Bluray, in the movies and downloaded digitally. It has started being distributed through DVD, Bluray and digitally download in 2013.
Overall, audiences liked this film because it was rated four stars out of 5. It is four stars because many audiences have found the film excellent however some audiences thinks that there are too many uses of the word “nigger” which causes a bit of controversy to the film; this is probably because back in the 19-20th century, the use of the N-word is used commonly. Now that racism is over, people especially black people would find using the N-word offensive. Another reason why the use of the N-word is frequently used in this film is that Tarantino wanted to give the audience the over-the-top reaction from using the N word a lot, he wanted the audience to see how much the white peoples are abusing the black people. If audiences hear the commonly used word “Nigger” before racism ended, there wouldn’t be controversies among the audiences around that topic because people that time would not understand any ethics towards black people and white people during that period would be used to hearing the N word a lot.
This film is successful because they have won many awards and has earned much gross profit; As of 2013, this film has earned the grossest profit out of all of Tarantino's film. According to the box office, it shows that Django Unchained made more than $150,000,000 which was beyond expectation to what film was going to rate. Internationally, Germany has the highest box office ratings. This could be because when Schultz and Broomhilda spoke in German, it got through to the German audience. It is also because the actor of Schultz is German which is why he is given a role where he can speak fluent German in the film. This film has the highest box office ratings at that time because this film also features a lot of celebrities.