With the 85th Academy Awards about three weeks away, five experts sat down to discuss the history and controversy surrounding one of this year’s most talked-about Oscar contenders for Best Picture — Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
The film follows the story of a slave-turned-bounty-hunter as he fights to save his wife from a wicked plantation owner. While many critics consider the movie an homage to classic Western films, others have called it racist for its constant use of the n-word and its depictions of slavery. Due to its popularity, members of the university’s film department considered Django Unchained the perfect subject through which they could invite students to discuss films currently showing in theaters.
“The classes we have about film don’t often talk about recent movies, and it is often hard to integrate recent films into classes, so we thought that this discussion would be a great way to talk about something more timely,” said film studies graduate assistant and panelist Brian Real.
About 30 students gathered in Hornbake Library on Friday for the roundtable discussion, and the panelists spent about an hour exploring the film from various historical and analytical perspectives. Arturo Serrano, a visiting researcher who has studied several Tarantino films, argued the graphic violence throughout Django Unchained was meant to provide entertainment and aesthetic value, not mere shock value.
“Tarantino movies are like a roller coaster,” Serrano said. “Those who don’t like roller coasters simply don’t like them, but those who do, really love them.”
English professor Zita Nunes also reviewed the criticism regarding how the film handled racial issues, particularly noting that the white characters were portrayed in a more negative, stereotypical fashion. She argued while there were racist elements in the film, such as the frequent use of the n-word, these elements were accurate to the time period in which the story took place.
History professor Saverio Giovacchini described how Django borrowed heavily from the spaghetti Westerns that were popular in the 1960s through its music, settings and villain archetypes. However, professor Luka Arsenjuk of the languages, literatures and cultures school said while the film played to the “revenge narrative” that is common in many Western films, he argued Django was more of a “reworking of several genres” due to its incorporation of slavery and a black leading character, which were not typical in most spaghetti Westerns.
After the debate, the panelists opened up the discussion to the audience, and students asked questions on a number of topics, including depictions of slavery in other films like Gone With the Wind, and the way in which the actors chose to portray their characters in the film.
Lauris McQuoid-Greason, a junior majoring in romance languages, said she most enjoyed hearing the audience members’ comments and opinions of the film.
“It was really interesting to hear someone bring up an opinion that had not been talked about at all during the question section,” she said, referring to one audience member who expressed his dislike for the film. ”Just shows how these types of roundtables promote varied talks in discussions.”
