My hubby and I finally got out to see Django Unchained; the latest piece of movie making to escape the dark imaginings of Quentin Tarantino. We both found it to be an excellent movie; very violent, this is Quentin after all, but the violence was an unfortunate but necessary part of the plot. I think that this movie is a movie that needed to be made to underscore, through the brutal violence, exactly what slavery meant to both the slaves and their slave holders. The ease with which the white slave holder dispensed violence onto his slave or “property” as the white slave masters justifiably perceived their “niggers” was hard to watch, I think in part because we know that this is part of our country’s history and our founding fathers were very much aware of this atrocity and were very much in agreement that a slave wasn’t a full human, only 3/4ths of a person and that was only determined to calculate taxes for slave holders. The inhumanity of it all is embarrassing; a system of slavery took over our nation simply because it kept many states economically rich and allowed a certain class of people to live beyond their means all at the expense of others who were denied their own humanity and rights.
One odd thing that kept irking me was the constant offense taken by all of the white folk and most of the slaves over seeing Django, a freeman, riding a horse. Throughout the movie, the words “why is that nigger riding that horse?” It was made painfully aware that it was against the law for slaves to ride horses and even the thought of a “freeman” on a horse was too much for most white folk.
That made me angry, out of all the things, that made me mad. Django is riding a horse and get over it you bad people!
I am sure that the violence will be too much for most but I assure you that it isn’t done gratuitously. What is most interesting is that; this is, at its core, a love story. A love story between two men who become friends and the love story between a man and his wife. I love love stories; regardless if they are between friends, husband and wife, human and their pet or animals with each other, love is love and it is a beautiful thing. It made watching this movie a lot easier because of the hope of love that exists throughout the story. I’m glad that we went to see this movie. It needed to be seen, make us think and remember. Racism isn’t done with and we need to be mindful of that. Social issues always need to be spoken of and never swept off to the corner or under the rug.
laurieanichols 