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Django: The African mind (Re)chained

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In light of its nomination and the proximity of the Oscars, the members of the Kwame Ture Society of Howard University have collaborated to write a serious critique of the film, Django: Unchained. With African-Deep Thought as our critical methodology, it is our hope that this critique is insightful as well as engaging.

 In an interview, director Quentin Tarantino claimed he wanted Django to be "an ex-slave western hero". His "attempt" was decidedly unsuccessful. As such, we shall address why Django was a sidekick and why Django is offensive, specifically to African people.

 Django's intended role of sidekick in the film becomes evident from the opening scenes as he begins the movie in chains. Then enters the god-like – real hero – figure Dr. Shultz, and Django is effectively apprenticed to him. Dr. Shultz exhibits a tangible power over the other people around him. Eventually both Django and Broomhilda belong to Dr. Shultz because he has paid for them both – with written documentation to prove it. Shultz shoots and kills one of Django's former masters, trains Django as a sharpshooter and bounty hunter (but promises him only a third of the reward money), and masterminds the rescue plan for Django's wife. Django’s improvisation – i.e. his mistreatment of the enslaved Africans on Monsieur Candie’s plantation – of Dr. Shultz’s plan (Mandingo trading) reinforces the idea that the plan was conceptualized by Dr. Shultz.

 Ultimately Shultz position as hero is solidified when he kills Monsieur Candie with a fatal shot to the chest. Historically speaking, the hero almost invariably kills the main villain. Shultz gives his life for a righteous cause, simultaneously inheriting the glorious immortality of martyrdom and exonerating the heavy mantle of white guilt, to solidify his place in the viewer’s heart. Until his untimely demise on Monsieur Candie’s plantation, the plot of the movie is driven principally by the actions of Dr. Shultz and the repercussions of them. While this is enough to dismiss the movie as somehow good for Black people, there are several other factors that contributed to our conclusion.

 We contend that Django: Unchained was an intellectual ambush designed to dupe Black people, evidenced by: the over sexualization of Black women, lack of dialogue between Blacks, reinscribing the motif of the “Exceptional Nigger” (a phrase employed by Monsieur Candie), the passivity of the enslaved and the satirization of slavery.

 If Django: Unchained is being touted as a film that Black people can be proud of, what are we to make of the consistent presence of demeaning and degrading female imagery throughout the film? The hyper-sexualization of Black women in Django is magnified by their silence: the women of Candieland are quite literally wordless objects of sex and pleasure, decorative accessories places conspicuously for the use of anyone who may feel so inclined. In the cases where women are given the platform to speak, their lines are dripping with blatant sexual suggestion. When considering the history of rape and sexual trauma which existed between white men and Black women during the period of enslavement, watching enslaved women refer to their master as "Big Daddy", stimulates a poignant disgust rather than a lighthearted chuckle.

 The dialogue that existed amongst the Blacks in the film was either non-existent or centered around an axis of pathology. The Black men in the film were portrayed as brutes – with the “exception” of Stephen, who also falls under Monsieur Candie’s idea of 1 in 10,000 – and their dialogue was absent in most cases but pathological when present. There were several scenes when there could have been dialogue between Django and some of the other Black men, outside of him talking down to them, but this never occurred. The absence of dialogue is almost invariably the same when considering Black women in relation to each other, and Black men to Black women. When we consider Django and Broomhilda, here is a man who is in love with a woman and other than the few lines of German she spoke, Broomhilda says very little. In fact, her wordless image appears in the movie more often than her voice does, which once again indicates that Black women are to be seen but not heard. As a result, we can assume that Django loved Broomhilda because she was an “exceptional nigger”; after all, she did speak German!

 Django reinscribes the notion of individual advancement juxtaposed to group advancement. Throughout the movie Django, and to a lesser extent Broomhilda, were considered rare, exceptional niggers. This idea, where Blacks advance as a function of their exceptionalism, condemns the masses of Black people because it states that as a group Black people are inept “except” in those “Django” (1 in 10,000) cases (modernly read as Obama, Jay-Z, Mia Love etc.) In fact, maybe it is the lack of Exceptional Niggers among the enslaved that ensured the passivity during the insurrection caused by the real hero and his faithful sidekick, Django. We find it odd that there were no attempts, by the enslaved Africans at Monsieur Candie’s plantation, to assist Django as he shot up the nameless, insignificant whites (significant whites include Django’s slave owners and Monsieur Candie, both shot and/or killed by Dr. Shultz). Historically speaking, there are no slave insurrections that come to mind where there was only one assailant. Somehow this historical fact is not portrayed – though Tarantino made sure to overzealously use Nigger to maintain historical accuracy. Instead, we see Django take on an entire plantation alone, almost demonstrating Blacks’ adoration and/or indifference toward slavery. Even after Django (alone) has killed the three slave-traders, freeing himself and the other men in the caravan,. Tarantino declines to send those men back – even if on foot – to help Django defeat the rest of the plantation. Django rides off alone and the three Black men sit in an open caged-wagon in silence, waiting for their next captors. This movie has to be a satirization of slavery because it would be hard to prove that these events would have unfolded in a similar way if this was a true story.

 The satirization of slavery in Django is among the greatest factors that make the film unsafe for the African Psyche. It is surprising that Dr. Shultz's offensive and condescending lines in the opening scene went un-rebuked by Black audiences. Shultz says, “Now as to you poor devils, so as I see it, where it comes to the subject of what to do next, you gentlemen have two choices; one, once I’m gone you could lift that beast off the remaining Speck then carry him to the nearest town which would be at least 37 miles back the way you came or two, you could unshackle yourselves, take that rifle, put a bullet in his head, bury the two of them deep and then make your way to a more enlightened area of this country – choice is yours .” He goes on further to say, “Off chance there are any astronomy aficionados amongst you the North Star is that one.” This simply implies that the Black men were not “exceptional” enough to make their own decision such that Dr. Shultz had to point out the blatantly obvious. In addition, the satirization of the klu klux klan –though it may have been well intended to show the idiocy of racism – not only made lite of a serious situation but also gave whites an alternative with regards to genealogical attachment. In other words, whites who viewed the movie could make the claim that their ancestors were not the stupid klu klux klan but were more akin to the brilliant Dr. Shultz. But, even greater than that, the movie, in general, was intended to be funny and to satirize slavery; let us not forget the enslaved women enjoying themselves on the swing just as the whipping is going to take place. The unfortunate thing is that Tarantino and his cast, although comfortable satirizing slavery, would never make a film satirizing the Jewish Holocaust in the same manner.

 In conclusion, Django: Unchained failed as a movie under its various claims of heroism and historical accuracies. However, the movie did manage to successfully deceive some people who felt the movie was “good”. Blinded by the sentiment of love and one man’s revenge, people completely missed all the clandestine undertones, including: the over sexualization of Black women, lack of dialogue between Blacks, reinscription of the “Exceptional Nigger” , the passivity of the enslaved and the satirization of slavery. In addition, there were a number of other instances that should have offended people. For instance, Django says that “Broomhilda ain’t no field Nigger, she’s pretty”. The implications are quite far reaching and they too reinscribe a particular ideology aimed at colorism. As remediation for this psychological-trauma of a movie, we offer the movie Posse, by Mario Van Peebles, as an alternative if you need a western hero. Though the movie does not deal with slavery – it takes place after the emancipation proclamation – it does effectively deal with everything else that was overlooked in Taratino’s sorry excuse of a movie. Your (African) mind has been UNCHAINED.