CASE STUDY: Django Unchained

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of vengeance."

Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz and Kerry Washington.

Producers: 

William Paul Clark Reginald Hudlin Shannon McIntosh Pilar Savone Michael Shamberg Stacey Sher James W. Skotchdopole Bob Weinstein Harvey Weinstein

Genre: Western-Drama

Budget: $100,000,000 (estimated)

Release Date (UK): 18 January 2013

Narrative: One character in the voice over asks questions about bounty hunting and it is revealed to us that the story is about bounty and finding the protagonist’s wife by helping his owner/mentor. We also know that by becoming a bounty hunter Django, the main character, a slave, will be able to find his wife because he is less restricted in the “bounty hunting business”. Django and his mentor help each other. Django’s past helps him find the “brittle brothers” for his mentor and while on this mission he also looks for his wife who was sold by the brothers.

Location: The location is clearly shown by the props and costumes. The horses, westerner clothes, revolvers, cowboys, the historical references are all familiar as part of the American Old West.

Characters:

• Django is the protagonist in the film; the title also includes his name and “unchained” indicate the freedom he has gained through bounty hunting released from slavery, however, this can also be an animalistic or bestial link because of the nature of bounty hunting.
• Django’s mentor guides the narrative of the trailer just as he guides Django to his freedom. He introduces Django to bounty hunting so that he can help him find the “brittle brothers” and also help Django find his wife.
• Leonardo DiCaprio is shown when the voice over talks about who bought Django’s wife. This sequence suggests that the actor’s character is very relevant to Django’s mission as the one who took his wife.

Voice Over: Django’s mentor is the starting narrator in the trailer. However there are many overlaps as the sequences all come together to create interest on the film’s plot.

Themes: Revenge, Drama, Western

Pacing: It is medium-paced as it introduces Django and develops into telling us the film is about revenge, including the setting, time in history and main characters. The impact of this creates an interest because the story in the trailer that Django’s going to save his wife and become a bounty hunter to achieve this also show conventions of a Western film of revenge and drama.

On-screen graphics: Graphics show the names of actors with their characters on screen and title of film.

Editing & Post-production: The trailer is a montage of short seconds from the film to create an idea for the story of Django. Sound is synchronised with the actions and gun shots and photo editing in colour show clarity of image in film. There is also sound editing as the designs of title/s appear.

Audience: This is likely going to have a mainstream appeal but also attracts the fans of director Tarantino and his past films, such as Inglorious Basterds, Kill Bill, and Pulp Fiction. There are certain aspects which fulfils the audience's appetite for action and adventure. It does explore some history of "southern" USA and is focused on racism, Tarantino stated he wanted "to do movies that deal with America's horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies." The trailer promises to deliver drama and western as Django journeys on his quest for vengeance and to free his wife, undergoes bounty training to overcome challenges that are integral to his course of actions.

I chose to analyse this film at the time because it hasn't been released yet. I easily went into detail with the analysis of the trailer without any knowledge of having already watched the film beforehand. I was also interested in this because of director Quentin Tarantino's past films are some of my personal favourites. At the time the coursework was introduced I wanted to include something similar to Django Unchained into my film trailer, within the action and revenge genres. However, I anticipated it may become too challenging with time and planning during the course because of other subject coursework. This will still be helpful for our planning because I am also interested in the camera work and photography in the trailer. The timing and music is also interesting because it creates the mood, tone and flow of the film trailer so this will be beneficial in the style of the trailer. As this was a high-budget film, unlike the budget for ours, I think the story-driven element from this can be applied to our planning and filming.