The D is Silent

In his latest film, Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino embarks on his own take of the spaghetti Western. Or is this a spaghetti Southern, or Southwestern, since it is set initially in Texas, then travels through the South from Mississippi to Tennessee, to South Carolina, only two years out from the start of the Civil War. No doubt the spaghetti Western as a genre influenced Tarantino's vision, but the interesting twist is that this Western takes place prior to the Civil War and focuses on Dr. King Schultz, a court-appointed bounty hunter (played remarkably by Christoph Waltz) who buys Django (played by Jamie Foxx), a slave who can recognize a trio of brothers Schultz seeks to hunt down. As with most of Tarantino's films, there is a glorification of violence in Django Unchained, yet the film also possess strong leading characters that find you drawn to the protagonists, and drawn, and reviled, by the antagonists. Additionally, the music used in the film brings up several topics.

The film opens with an original title song "Django" with lyrics by Franco Migliacci and Luis Bacalov, and music composed by Migliacci. This is a tradition in Western films dating back to High Noon (1952). Much of the music used Django Unchained is anachronistic for when it is set. The closest to being chronologically correct is "In the Sweet By and By" (1868) sung by Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) near the end of the film. The remainder of the popular music was a mix of genres spanning decades from the 1970s on. As in other Tarantino films, he resorts to pre-existing music rather than an original score, much like Kubrick did.

Classical music has its place in this film as well. In what precedes what will go down as probably the most hilarious KKK scene in film history, we see the KKK ride on horseback through the night as they raid the wagon of Dr. Schultz and Django in an isolated valley. During their gallop it would make sense, and be expected, to hear Richard Wagner's "The Ride of the Valkyries" from his opera,
Die Walküre (1857/76), because of its association with the KKK riding in at the end of The Birth of a Nation to reclaim the South from black control. But Tarantino takes us in a different direction by accompanying the KKK raid with the "Dies irae" from Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem (1874). This excerpt is known for its strong hammerstrokes and thunderous hits on a bass drum specially built to be wider and deeper than standard bass drums. The Dies irae text describes the Day of Wrath where souls are judged before God for eternal salvation or damnation. The music appropriately reflects the menacing KKK, but the textual connection can play double duty. Does the text refer to the KKK passing judgement on Dr. Schultz and Django for their trickery, or does it reflect the KKK riding into their own judgement made by Dr. Schultz through his trickery to ambush them in the valley? The Verdi initially had me associating the former until it was discovered that Schultz lured the KKK into the valley to attack them, and namely take out Big Daddy. In the newly-formed context, it is Schultz who has made the ultimate judgement upon the KKK.

The other two examples of classical music come as rare diegetic examples in a Tarantino film. Diegetic meaning the music is part of the world of the film, there is a source for the music, and the characters are aware of the music, and often interact with it. The first one comes when Dr. Schultz and Django arrive at Candie Land. As they enter the Big House of the plantation, a young girl is shown playing Giovanni Battista Martini's (1706-84) celebrated Gavotte on the violin. This coquettish display of musicianship by a young girl demonstrates a transplantation of European culture to the New World. Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a Francophile, but he does not speak they language, he only engages in its customs and culture. As Dr. Schultz is being led up the stairs to meet with Candie, he is informed of his Francophile ways, and his preference to be addressed as Monsieur Candie, and Schultz begins speaking French. He is then told that Candie does not speak the language, and if Schultz were to speak French to him, Candie will be embarrassed. Even though some manners of custom and culture are transplanted, they are not taken whole stock.

The other diegetic example of classical music comes after it has been arranged to purchase Django's wife (more about her shortly) from Candie. As Dr. Schultz and Django wait in the library, a lady performs an arrangement of Beethoven's Bagatelle no. 25 in A minor (WoO 59), better known as
Für Elise. As she plays this on the harp, we enter Schultz's mind as he has flashbacks to witnessing a slave being ripped apart by a pack of dogs. The music spurs these flashbacks to such a level that Schultz becomes aggravated and tells the harpist to stop playing. When she continues to play into the Strum und Drang section with several stressed diminished chords, Schultz physically stops her from playing Beethoven, calling out the composer by name. Here Tarantino engages in a film tradition by associating the music of Beethoven with violence. Some notable pairings of Beethoven and violence can be found in Psycho (1960), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Die Hard (1988), Immortal Beloved (1994), and Elephant (2003). Given his extensive knowledge of film, I believe Tarantino, and his music supervisor, were aware of this strong connection and consciously chose Beethoven for this particular moment. 

As for Django's wife, whom he travels far to rescue and reunite with her, there is a special musical connection with her. Her name Broomhilda is a bastardization of the Valkyrie, Brünnhilde, the heroine to the German national epic, and Wagner's Ring Cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. While on their travels, Dr. Schultz gets to know Django and about his wife. He learns that Broomhilda speaks German, and upon learning her name, he tells Django about the power and history behind her name. What takes Wagner 16-17 hours to do across four operas to tell, Schultz explains the tale of Der Ring des Nibelungen to Django in a concise nutshell. Schultz says that every German knows about Brünnhilde and the story of Der Ring des Nibelungen. He mentions Brünnhilde being the daughter of Wotan, the God of the gods. She disobeys him and he places her on a mountain surrounded by a circle of fire. Only a brave, fearless hero can penetrate the fire and win her love. This of course serves as a vehicle and metaphor of Django's plight to reunite with his wife.

Django Unchained provides much discussion about the music alone. Overall, I was very impressed with what Tarantino accomplished. There was a mix of new and old camera and cinematography methods, the cast was varied between established faces and older faces (Don Johnson and [even though it took me a while to recognize him] Tom Wopat). Some of the slavery scenes were difficult to sit through, and the N word was peppered throughout the film. Yet Tarantino manages to pull this off in great comedic ways at times where you  do not feel so guilty or uncomfortable laughing at it. Though there is quite a bit of stylized blood and violence (it is a Tarantino film after all), this ultimately is a happy, Western, (fairy tale).