19°c Clear
18°c Cloudy periods
Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Django Unchained is great story-telling
Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained. (HANDOUT / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
I’m glad Django Unchained won best original screenplay at the Oscars.
For months, I avoided Django Unchained, assuming that it would be another big picture history lesson, a sober and hand-wringing treatment of slavery, like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which I teach at the University of Vermont.
But Django doesn’t contain solutions to the problem of how we represent this shameful period in American’s past as much as it poses a question: Can a story about slavery also be a story about style? When Django is unchained in the opening scene in the movie, he walks away from the links and throws off the blanket that had been covering his shoulders.
Then, we see his back. Crisscrossed with the scars of the lash, Django’s back is an iconic back; it is a Roots back. It resembles the back of Peter, a slave turned Union Army soldier, whose scarred back was featured in a photograph that was widely distributed in the North during the Civil War to attest to the frankest and most irreducible truth of slavery.
Like Peter the Slave, Django’s scarred back is an image that needs no accompanying words in order to inspire our shame, rage and disgust. The only thing is, through director Quentin Tarantino’s lens (and with an accompanying "whoosh" as the blanket falls from Django’s shoulders), that back is a sexy back, too.
I hadn’t expected to enjoy Django Unchained but I did, notwithstanding two brutally graphic scenes that didn’t get easier on second viewing.
I was riveted by the exquisitely diabolical performances of Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio, and I rooted, without cynicism, for Jamie Foxx’s Django to save Kerry Washington’s Broomhilda and burn down the master’s house. But the image I continue to think about is the image of Django’s back, and Tarantino’s quiet but powerful cinematic revisiting of the symbol of the slave’s scarred back as the purest and most authentic story about slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Roots were composed to testify both to the horrors of slavery and to the irrepressible spirit of black people. The circumstances that produced Django Unchained are hardly as urgent as they were in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s America.
But Tarantino’s film exists because slavery is still the most compelling, troubling, and vexing story America has to tell. And Django Unchained is fresh because it reveals how much of the heart of the story resides, even today, in the style of the telling.
Emily Bernard is associate professor of English and ethnic studies at the University of Vermont. She wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues.
—McClatchy Tribune Services
More Analysis
- Back to Top
- Return to Analysis
More Analysis
(1 of 31 articles for this week)
Electronic footprints in a Google age
06/18/2013 2:30 PM 0View Related
Poll
Most Popular Analysis
- Quebec's nationalism run amok
- Electronic footprints in a Google age
- Pimachiowin Aki is exceptional heritage
- Iran’s president-elect a glimmer of hope
- Beauty and the (mortgage) Beast
- Firm sues governments over intellectual property
- Canadian to expose alien collaboration with U.S.
- Elijah Harper changed my world
- Smart people SLEEP LATE
- That will be $90,000 down, please
- Too rural, too white, too male
- Canadian to expose alien collaboration with U.S.
- Quebec's nationalism run amok
- Smart people SLEEP LATE
- Beauty and the (mortgage) Beast
- Was east side misled by NDP government?
- Expense scandal dogs Nova Scotia's fading NDP government
- UNESCO's concerns unrelated to Bipole III
- Appalling rates of public-sector absenteeism must be addressed
- The view of Bipole III from Hart Mountain
- Canadian to expose alien collaboration with U.S.
- Smart people SLEEP LATE
- Key of Bart: Video Killed The Mayor Who Hates The Toronto Star
- Too rural, too white, too male
- A sorry fact -- Katz finds it hard to apologize
- Ford puts Toronto on the map at last
- Manitoba Hydro's halcyon days are gone
- The key of Bart
- Ford can't resign as mayor soon enough
- Obama gets ‘revenge’ with Rice appointment
- Shed more light on JTF2 secrets
- Quebec's nationalism run amok
- Smart people SLEEP LATE
- The view of Bipole III from Hart Mountain
- UNESCO's concerns unrelated to Bipole III
- Shed more light on JTF2 secrets
- Hydro must serve citizens, not government
- The view of Bipole III from Hart Mountain
- Erdogan — a Chavez-style strongman who gets results
- Aging makes women proud — and loud
- Was east side misled by NDP government?
- Quebec's nationalism run amok
- Smart people SLEEP LATE
- Canadian to expose alien collaboration with U.S.
- No bailouts required for Pollock's
- Teachers should fast-track inclusive plan
- Smart people SLEEP LATE
- Manitoba Hydro's halcyon days are gone
- Hydro must serve citizens, not government
- Shocking exclusion
- Canadian to expose alien collaboration with U.S.
- Gadgets in classrooms are gimmicks
- ‘Stand your ground’ case not what it seemed
- Hydro plans will be scrutinized in public
Ads by Google
You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is be a Winnipeg Free Press print or e-edition subscriber to join the conversation and give your feedback.
You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. You can also agree or disagree with other comments. All you need to do is be a Winnipeg Free Press print or e-edition subscriber to join the conversation and give your feedback.
Have Your Say
New to commenting? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions.
Have Your Say
Comments are open to Winnipeg Free Press print or e-edition subscribers only. why?
Login SubscribeHave Your Say
Comments are open to Winnipeg Free Press Subscribers only. why?
SubscribeThe Winnipeg Free Press does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comment, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. These terms were revised effective April 16, 2010.