Kerry Washington, Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio star in the Christmas day release of Django Unchained; a Quentin Tarantino film about slavery, freedom and love. Jamie Foxx is Django, a slave turned bounty hunter, who has teamed up with Dr. King Schultz to hunt down the Brittle Brothers. In exchange for his cooperation, Dr. Schultz will help Django find Calvin Candie (played by DiCaprio) and rescue his wife Broomhilda (played by Kerry). Of course, since the film deals with a heavy subject like slavery, the cast went through some pretty tough challenges to prepare for their respective roles.
Ms. Washington recounted the story of a mask that director Quentin Tarantino put Jamie Foxx’s character into. To her, the mask was a figment of Tarantino’s imagination; something to make the story “pop.” However, she learned later on that the medieval-looking metal mask was actually used during slavery. She said, “I remember there was this one moment in the script where Jamie’s character was put in an awful crazy medieval metal mask. I said, “That’s some sick thing Quentin thought up. And when I went to the production office to meet about my wardrobe, I saw into the research office. Twenty photos of real masks like that. It made me sad.”
Leonardo DiCaprio was concerned that portions of his character Calvin Candie were carried too far. DiCaprio mentioned that, to date, this Candie was the unequivocal villain to rival any bad guy he’s ever played. “This is the first legit bad guy I’ve ever had to play, and it is a [explicative] horrible [character]; the worst display of humanity I’ve ever read in my entire life.”
In the Black community, some have openly expressed being uncomfortable with the Django Unchained plot. Jamie Foxx had a hilarious take on the criticism from the Black community, saying; “As a black person it’s always racial. I come into this place to do a photo shoot and they got Ritz crackers and cheese. I’ll be like, ain’t this a b-tch. Y’all didn’t know black people was coming. What’s with all this white sh-t? By the same token, if there is fried chicken and watermelon I’ll say ain’t this a b-tch? So, no matter what we do as black people it’s always gonna be that.”
Outside of the classic, “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” sentiment Foxx mentioned, Black audiences should be open to checking out the movie. If the film is done in true Tarantino style, the action-packed story will make audiences laugh…and think. It’s been a while since a truly entertaining and thought-provoking movie (not documentary) regarding slavery has been released. The talented trio of Washington, Foxx and DiCaprio will have to wait until Christmas day to see what audiences think, but despite the criticism, many can’t wait to see it.
What do you think? Do you have Christmas day plans to see this movie?
