Django Unchained research

• What is a western?

A film, television drama, or novel about cowboys in western North America, set especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

•  What is a spaghetti western?

A western film made cheaply in Europe by an Italian director

• What is a blaxploitation film?

Action films that were aimed at black audiences. Featuring African-American actors in lead roles and often having anti-establishment plots, the films were frequently condemned for stereotypical characterization and glorification of violence.

• Which THREE films does Django Unchained take its name from?

Django (1966)
Hercules Unchained (1959)

• Why does Franco Nero appear in the film and what is the significance of his dialogue with Jamie Foxx?

The lead actor from Django (1966), the movie which inspired this one, has a cameo as the owner of the slave that fights against a slave owned by the character played by DiCaprio (the screenplay gives his character the name Amerigo Vassepi). After being asked to spell his name, Django explains, "The 'D' is silent". Nero replies, "I know".
This links to the original film Django (1966) in which Franco Nero played Django.

• What song plays over the final credits and how does this film connect to the original film Django?

Django, the original theme song from the original film Django (1966)

• Which other song from Django features in Django Unchained?

La Corsa

• Who or what is Mr Ed?

A horse that was able to move its mouth to show that it was talking.

• What is the significance of the red mask worn by Zoe Bell as Django murders the killers of d’Artagnan?

There was intended to be more storyline behind her character but this was never included in the film.
"Yes and there was a little sneaky secret under the mask," Zoë explained when asked if she was ever intended to be unmasked. "Part of my face was missing."

• The name of the saloon in which Schultz and Django drink is called Minnesota Clay, why?

When Django and Dr. Schultz are in Daughtrey, Texas (near the beginning of the film), the saloon they are in is called "Minnesota Clay's Saloon". Minnesota Clay (1964) is the name of Western film directed by Sergio Corbucci, the same director of the original Django (1966).

• Who is Ennio Morricone?

An Italian composer, conductor and orchestrator who has worked with Tarantino on a number of films.

• What connects him to both Django Unchained and director Sergio Corbucci?

Ennio Morricone wrote music for both adaptions of the film, Django (1996) and Django Unchained

• What sequence has made the 1903 film "The Great Train Robbery" so iconic?

One of the wanted posters calls for the apprehension of Edwin Porter for train robbery. Edwin Porter was the filmmaker who directed The Great Train Robbery.

• What is the significance of the name Von Shaft?

Broomhilda's last name is von Shaft - a direct ancestor of the 1970's blaxploitation character Shaft, according to Tarantino. Samuel L. Jackson, from this film, also starred in the 2000 remake of the film.

• What TV western does Django's western style outfit pay homage to?

Bonanza! (1957) 
In the screenplay, Tarantino describes one of Django's outfits as a little like Elvis in Flaming Star and Little Joe Cartwrigth from Bonanza.

Postmodernism definition 3

"Postmodernism is cultural movement that came after modernism, also it follows our shift from being a industrial society to that of an information society, through globalization of capital. Markers of the postmodern culture include opposing hierarchy, diversifying and recycling culture, questioning scientific reasoning, and embracing paradox. Postmodernism is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding modernism"



"Postmodern style is often characterized by eclecticism, digression, collage, pastiche, and irony. Postmodern theorists see postmodern art as a conflation or reversal of well-established modernist systems, such as the roles of artist versus audience, seriousness versus play, or high culture versus kitsch."



By R. Lee from Media Studies 180 Hunter College, Sections 102, 103

Of course, intertextual references are often found in postmodern texts.

Postmodernism definition 2

Label given to Cultural forms since the 1960s that display the following qualities:



Self reflexivity: this involves the seemingly paradoxical combination of self-consciousness and some sort of historical grounding

Irony: Post modernism uses irony as a primary mode of expression, but it also abuses, installs, and subverts conventions and usually negotiates contradictions through irony

Boundaries: Post modernism challenges the boundaries between genres, art forms, theory and art, high art and the mass media

Constructs: Post modernism is actively involved in examining the constructs society creates including, but not exclusively, the following:

• Nation: Post modernism examines the construction of nations/nationality and questions such constructions
• Gender: Post modernism reassesses gender, the construction of gender, and the role of gender in cultural formations
• Race: Post modernism questions and reassesses constructs of race
• Sexuality: Post modernism questions and reassesses constructs of sexuality

Postmodernism definition

Postmodern texts deliberately play with meaning. They are designed to be read by a literate (ie experienced in other texts) audience and will exhibit many traits of intertextuality. Many texts openly acknowledge that, given the diversity in today's audiences, they can have no preferred reading and present a whole range of oppositional readings simultaneously.
Many of the sophisticated visual puns used by advertising can be described as postmodern.
Postmodern texts will employ a range of referential techniques such as bricolage, and will use images and ideas in a way that is entirely alien to their original function (eg using footage of Nazi war crimes in a pop video).