How can Django Unchained be viewed as a postmodern film?
Postmodernism is a style, whether it be used in film, music,
architecture, art, or anything else, it is characterized by an intentional use
of earlier styles and conventions. ‘Django Unchained’ is a 2012 ‘western’
styled film, written and directed by Quentin Tarintino. The film tells the
story of a freed slave who befriends a German bounty hunter in southern
America. The story follows their journey from the early winter of 1858 to the
following spring of 1859, two years before the outbreak of the American Civil
War. With the help of his newest companion, the freed slave, Django, sets out
to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. This film could
be described as postmodern due to the references and connections it has to
previous and historical media pieces.
The first, and perhaps the most obvious way, in which
‘Django Unchained’ could be seen as postmodern is through the use of intertextual
references. Throughout the film Tarintino makes many clear references to films
from a previous era, the most blatant being used in the title. ‘Django’ was a
spaghetti western released in 1966. A spaghetti western was a specific genre of
western film. These films were made cheap in European countries, such as Italy.
Tarintino used the name of the 1966 film to title his own western styled movie,
and also to name his main character. This intertextual reference is important
as it shows homage to the original film as well as the overall genre of ‘spaghetti
westerns’. His appreciation and admiration
for this film was also made clear through the use of the soundtrack. Although not
the entirety of the film’s music was suitable for the film, the opening track
and main song was lifted straight from the original Django film. Django,
performed by Rocky Roberts, was recorded in 1966, in order to feature in the
film. Tarintino decided to use this song to pay further homage to the original
Django. The Django film was also made reference to towards the end of the film.
A cameo was made by Franco Nero, the Italian actor who played Django in the
1966 rendition. In this scene Nero asks
Jamie Foxx (who plays Django in Django Unchained), what his name is, and
continues to tell Foxx that he knows that the ‘D’ is silent at the start of his
name. For western fans it is obvious that he knows how to spell his name, as he
played the character in a previous role.
Although Tarintino pays homage to the genre of western films
and shows he greatly admires them, in this film, he also uses a parody aspect
to imitate westerns in a humorous manner. Certain scenes in ‘Django Unchained’ appear
to mimic films by making certain lines or snippets of the film funny for the
audience. For example, towards the
start of the film, Django and Schultz assassinate the three ‘Brittle Brothers’.
In this scene the shooting by Django follows popular conventions of older
western film. The camera shots are very similar and this is used to put a
humorous aspect on the death of these characters. As this follows conventions
of the western genre, but also makes the film humorous, this shows that the
film has a postmodern ‘parody’ feature.
Another feature of postmodernism that Tarintino incorporates
into this film is ‘Briolage’. Bricolage, which literally translates as ‘do it
yourself’ is when any writer, director or creator of any kind uses lots of
separate inspirations to create their own personal collage of work. Almost all
of Tarintino’s films can be referred to as postmodern as almost all of them use
this feature. Different sections and categories of the deign aspect of the film
can be separated and divided into chunks that can be traced back to their
original reference point. The first piece of the film I want to analyse is the
clothing used. Tarintino got his inspiration for the clothing in the film from
many different locations. One of the most vibrant and infamous outfits in the
film is Django’s first outfit as a free man. The bright blue suit, with the
white cravat styled neck piece, is well documented as being inspired by a
famous painting, ‘The Blue Boy’ by Thomas Gainsborough. In this painting a
young boy is depicted wearing an almost identical outfit to that of Django’s. Although in this instance the reasoning for
choosing to imitate this outfit seems abstract, other outfit decisions in the
film appear to have more relevance. Later on in the film, Django’s second
outfit consists of a cowboy style hate a green jacket. This entire outfit
mirrors that of famous western TV programme character, Bonanza’s Little Joe.
This reference and piece of bricolage is much more relevant as fits into the
same genre as Django Unchained. Although
this can be labelled as homage, as Tarintino is tipping is hat at the success
of the TV programme, the reference isn’t obvious and works alongside the rest
of the film to complete it, meaning it can be labelled as part of the
bricolage.
Another section of the film that can be categorised into the
bricolage postmodernism aspect of the film is the setting. As the genre of the
film fits into a western style, then the stereotypical placement for the
filming and location would be in the west of America, yet the majority of this
film is not. Due to the slavery and plantation aspects to this story then it is
clear that this film is in fact set in southern America. Some of the settings
of the film are clearly taken from older more traditional spaghetti western films.
For example, scenes from ‘The Great Silence’ (1968) are reflective of the snowy
expanses seen in Django Unchained. The use
of these similar settings also add towards the collage of the overall product,
or the bricolage, of the film.
I do believe that Django Unchained could be labelled as a
postmodernism media product. Tarintino uses lots of references, conventions and
other aspects of older and pre –existing texts to create his own. He also uses
lots of different stances to do this, whether that’s paying homage and
respecting the originals, or if he is using their conventions to create humour.
Critics of postmodernism are frequent, many people, such as Frederic
Jameson who said that the idea of postmodernism is vacuous and full of self-referential
jokes. He believes over-exposure in mass media means we can only recycle the
conventions of earlier texts and never be original. I personally believe that
due to the nature of the media industry, postmodernism will carry on as
different genres with always cross paths. As more and more original ideas are
created this gives a larger scope for them to be used as references and
inspiration.
