The Western Film of Vengeance
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of vengeance”—this is the sentence used to describe the new Quentin Tarantino movie Django: Unchained. Not only does it describe the basis of the story, it describes the basis of us as human beings. Our country was based off of the concept of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—yet the quote for Django seems to do a better job describing it. Django (Jamie Foxx) was a slave that teamed with Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) in order to rescue his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from the notorious plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). He wanted to gain his happiness back by rescuing his wife—however, his emotions seemed to stand in the way and took over the reasoning he had for his adventure in the first place. At the first chance he got, he shot and killed his previous owners that treated him so poorly and did not blink an eye. Like Django, we all base our lives off the want of happiness but fail to truly define what that happiness is and is what leads us to fall in defeat and corruption. Our emotions play a large role in getting into the way of our happiness and it seems to be the negative side that attracts us today—which is why we consider Django a western take on the view of slavery—whereas it can truly be described as a story of seeking vengeance and ending with a terrible massacre. DiCaprio comments on his character as being “one of the most deplorable, indulgent, horrendous characters I’ve ever read in my life.” Yet he is the one who dies in the end along with a large list of others. We consider Django the hero not because he kills Mr. Candie but that his story is the one that we can relate to the most. His actions show that even during the time period of slavery, everybody’s ideals can turn corrupt. Django’s plan to rescue his wife and regain his happiness—in the end—“becomes an almost sadistically literal example” of how plans and ideals come to a downfall. Us humans can become influenced greatly to the point where we believe the actions we make are for the better and towards a better life for ourselves—yet we can be so blinded by a simple concept like that of vengeance where we cannot tell that our actions can end up being a type of crime committed—whether it be literal or in the figurative sense that hurts us internally.
Bold, bloody, and stylistically daring, Django: Unchained is another incendiary masterpiece from Quentin Tarantino. |
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