Django Unchained – Story Analysis (Part III)

Arrival at Candyland

Plot:

• In the lion’s den, and the complications stack up. Now our heroes must contend with another rock in their shoes, the head slave, Stephen.

• As in Shawshank Redemption, why settle for one villain when you can throw in a couple more?

• Especially after it was becoming clear Django and Schultz were successfully conning Calvin Candie?

Characters:

• Stephen is the perfect villain to set off against Django. They’re both privileged black men with far more power than they let on.

• Stephen is almost like the Emperor in Star Wars: the real power behind the villain we’ve known all along.

• Show don’t tell: it’s immediately obvious Stephen and Candie are close by the way they behave with each other.

• Character intros: Stephen, a slave, is signing a check to a bank in the name of Calvin Candie. What better way to show this is a powerful man on the plantation, despite his Uncle Tom affectations?

• Be cruel to your characters: always test them, it breaks Django’s heart to see his wife brought out of the hot box and pretend it means nothing, but that’s good drama. Nobody ever made good drama by being nice to the characters.

Lessons Learned:

• When a villain loses luster or has outlived its usefulness, break out another to keep things interesting.

• Don’t let your characters breathe too easily. Think of all the ways you can make their journey extra hard or more painful, and see if you can implement them.

• It makes their triumph all the more poignant.

Silver-tongued Devil

Plot:

• Still and all, a breather is always necessary before a story gets too bleak, which is why Django and Broomhilda get a brief moment to themselves.

• But all important moments should be drawn out, and so it is done here. We know when Schultz asks to see Broomhilda, it isn’t for himself, so we’re looking forward to seeing him reunite Django and Broomhilda.

• However, don’t stay happy too long. Save that for the real triumph: the ending. There’s still a bit of complications in store for these two.

Characters:

• Don’t get too sappy in a moment of romantic encounter unless it is a romance. And even then, try to make an original scene. Broomhilda fainting is not the best I’ve seen, but it’s better than her rushing to Django’s arms and professing her love.

Lessons Learned:

• If you need a breather, don’t stay there too long. Up until the end, a drama thrives mostly on conflict and complications. Keep that in mind. Always.

Dinner Table

Plot:

• Table scenes are dangerous, and this one gets close to outstaying its welcome a few times, but there are a couple of tools that keep it exciting.

• For one, there’s dramatic irony. We know Schultz and Django are lying, but their hosts do not. However, this is a passive tool. You shouldn’t rely on it for a scene that is long.

• So what to do? Up the stakes. Calvin’s sister, Lara, innocently points out how Broomhilda is fixated on Django. And Stephen picks up on it, too. Suddenly, the scene becomes more interesting.

• Then, when it seems Django and Schultz are on the high ground, Stephen baits Django by showing Broomhilda’s whipped back. And it works.

• After that, Stephen convinces Calvin to see him in the library to tell him the truth (after putting on an Uncle Tom show, that is).

• These complications and the implicit promise of impending doom are what keep such a long scene interesting.

Characters:

• Your villain should be relentless. He must never get tired of hounding after the hero. It keeps the tension at an all-time high. Stephen is a good example of that.

Lessons Learned:

• Long scenes are a challenge to keep interesting. The trick is to always hit a new spark to keep the tension mounting.

Library and Skull

Plot:

• Both sequences build on this one truth: the jig is up. And we have seen enough of Calvin to know he’s not happy when he doesn’t get what he wants.

• So throughout the skull scene we wonder what he is going to do to our heroes.

• But even there…I feel the scene goes on for too long. I think I would have preferred if Bartholomew had burst into the dining room right after the library scene.

• One good reason not to do so would have been that Lara was still in the room, but that’s not reason enough for the skull scene.

Characters:

• Just because one character has a flair for the dramatic doesn’t mean he should get a monologue when it gets in the way of the action.

Lessons Learned:

• Too many long scenes, however tense, stack up, and they slow down the pace of the story. This close to Act III is a good time to ease the foot off the brake.

All Hell Breaks Loose

Plot:

• Culmination to all the times Schultz chafed under evidence of Calvin’s sadistic racism. Now that’s a great payoff.

• Of course, Schultz dying leaves Django alone to fight everybody off, and there are a lot of odds stacked up against him.

• Which, of course, makes the scene more riveting.

Characters:

• If a character has strong morals, test them to the point where he must take a stand, for better or for worse.

Lessons Learned:

• For actions sequences, stack up the odds, and sometimes have the characters lose. It builds credibility and tension for future scenes.

Django Hanging Upside Down

Plot:

• I can’t say Billy Crash threatening to cut Django’s balls is all that gripping, since it’s kind of given that it won’t really happen.

• Stephen’s plan to send Django to the mining company instead of killing him is too convenient and smacks of Adam West’s Batman stupidity.

Characters:

• Stephen’s plan would make more sense if the story had kept the deleted scene where he’s humiliated by Django. Then it could be argued he’s blinded by pride.

• Otherwise, he comes off as incredibly imprudent.

Lessons Learned:

• When taking something out from the story, make sure it doesn’t affect other parts of the plot or character work negatively.

• It might be that in a long movie, the audience is more willing to forgive these conveniences so long as they get us closer to the ending.

• Butch and Marsellus Wallace meeting so conveniently in Pulp Fiction come to mind.

Django and the Australians

Plot:

• Again, Django convincing the Australians to team up to claim a bounty sounds mighty convenient.

• But it’s a good payoff for the Smitty Bacall wanted poster.

Characters:

• The story is mostly plot-driven by now, which is a consequence of focusing now on the script’s most uninteresting character.

• See, now that Django is not playing the ironic role of slaver and solves his problems relatively easily, he’s not that interesting to watch.

Lessons Learned:

• Two convenient solutions in a row make for an unsatisfying recipe. Fortunately, the ending to the story is much better. Otherwise, the movie would have taken a bad blow.

Django to the Rescue – Blowing up the Mansion

Plot:

• Fantastic that Django shouted “D’artagnan” before killing all the slavers in the cabin.

• Touching when he bids farewell to Schultz’ body.

• But it’s even better when he comes to Broomhilda’s rescue. Talk about a brilliant scene: simple situation, great blocking, and one powerful line to top it off.

• Get rid of Lara and Billy Crash to go to straight to Stephen, Django’s real nemesis.

Characters:

• Nice touch having Django wear Calvin Candie’s clothes and smoke with his cigarette holder.

Lessons Learned:

• Go the extra mile. Django wearing Calvin’s clothes is perfect poetic justice.

• In a Western, go out with a bang. Here Tarantino does it literally, and the movie is all the better for it.

Conclusions:

• All in all a simple story which threatened to blow out of proportion and wear out its welcome by the end.

• The convenient contrivances at the end didn’t help, either.

• But let’s not forget the genre. Spaghetti Westerns are not the stuff of moving and profound moments, so we should celebrate when they happen, but we shouldn’t cry when they don’t.

• Characters are very memorable, which is something you can always count Tarantino on.

Final Grades

Plot:

• There’s always a clear understanding of where the story is headed, what the goal is, and what the stakes are.

• The stakes are always escalating and shows a creative use of storytelling tools.

• Tarantino transcends some genre tropes and adds some deep moments, primarily between Django and Schultz.

• Grade: 3/5.

Characters:

• Good balance between hero and protagonist, but it’s a shame that Django got underplayed.

• Fantastic, unique, and charismatic characters for most of the cast.

• Yet the hero (Django) and the female interest (Broomhilda) are not as striking or complex as everybody else. In fact, the most layered characters are all secondary.

• It wouldn’t have been so bad if Django had overcome some flaw like Ethan Hawke’s character in Dead Poets Society.

• But other than the times when Django must play the role of slaver (which I don’t feel was fully taken advantage of), he is not much of an interesting character, and he is more important as a plot catalyst than a fully formed character in his own right.

• Grade: 4/5.

• Movie Score: 7/10.