The Anchorless Postmodern Experience within an Ahistorical Filmic Space: Django Unchained (2012)

Abstract

This chapter considers the way in which Django Unchained (2012) is specifically positioned by the director within a well-defined historical period but is then constructed very clearly as a cinematic fantasy. It is argued that this film, despite genuine concerns on the part of those involved in its making for the ramifications of slavery, does not look to exist in relation to a real space and time but instead within an intense matrix of film references. The relationship of this film to Hollywood classics, such as Gone with the Wind (1939), as well as to spaghetti Westerns and blaxploitation (and sexploitation) movies is examined with reference to specific details from the films. The intense background historical research undertaken by Tarantino is acknowledged. Ultimately, however, the film is seen as a postmodernist text, which because of its ahistorical form is able to escape the need to fully address historical reality.