Django Unchained Genre Essay

Django Unchained




The trailer i will be analysing is Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained from 2012. The genre of this film is a Western as proved by the many characteristics within this trailer.
The trailer begins with shots of the 'slaves' walking through different terrains at different times of the day suggesting this was a very long walk over several days. The camera is shooting from a series of high angle shots showing the immense deserts and eye level shots always focusing on the slaves and follows there walking.
A Western Film can sometimes draw attention to the racial and sexist discriminiation going on in the 1800s and this trailer is an example of that. You can see the Racial Discrimination within this trailer from the chains and shackles around the black peoples legs. The man seen leading them through the dessert on his horse looks like an outlaw due to his clothing and his weapons etc. trying to illegally sell these black men in this case to the Bounty Hunter. You can see by the scars on Django's back suggesting that he has been whipped and beaten by his 'owner'. As the trailer progresses in the early stages you can see that the group of slaves is thinning and there is less of them when the Bounty Hunter arrives than when they start in the dessert suggesting they're being sold or killed on the way.
The Dessert setting at the start of the trailer is key to a western film as the vast majority of Westerns are set in and around Desserts in the 1800's. As this is the 1800's the clothing of the characters is representative of that time for example the higher class are wearing very smart clothes whereas the black people and commoners are wearing Rags and other lower class clothing. The Mise-en-Scene within the trailer points out the pistols (Guns) seen a lot in the western genre and also rifle weapons, weapons, gore and violence is a key part of Tarantino's work and so this trailer represents a trademark Tarantino piece. The Character roles in this movie are Django (the slave), Django's Wife, The Bounty Hunter, The Brittle Brothers, and the Rich plantation owner (DiCaprio). Each one of these main characters from the trailer is reflective of the Western genre as they follow Propps Character types of having the hero, the Princess, the helper, the villain etc.
Throughout this trailer you see the change in Characters especially in Django. He starts off as a Slave walking through the desert but as the montage develops and he is released from the shackles by the Bounty Hunter he changes more and more and his power over people increases as shown by the killing of several white people throughout the trailer and his relationship with the Bounty Hunter begins to progress and they work as a team to find and kill the Brittle Brothers.
The Music in this trailer begins at the start of the first scene with a 'moody' Johnny Cash song representing the sad depressing mood set by the slaves being led through the desert and sold however the music then changes when the outlaw is killed and the Bounty Hunter frees the slaves, the music then becomes an upbeat funk song as it represents the second chance at life for Django and the start of a journey for the Bounty Hunter and Django.
The themes within Django Unchained are relative to the Western Genre as most Western films carry the same themes; Racism (Django's treatment by the white people), Revenge (Django's revenge on the white people who enslaved him), Love (Django trying to find his wife) Good vs Evil etc.
This trailer can raise the questions of Blacks vs Whites, Good vs Evil, Males vs Females, Rich vs Poor because of the time in which this film was set, these where the main conflicts happening in America and in the world at this time and so these are the main oppositions.