Words On Film: Django Unchained

"Words on Film" looks at the writing process behind films that have been nominated for “Best Original Screenplay” at the Academy Awards. Over the next five weeks, this feature will be dedicated to the five 2013 nominees.

Django Unchained (2012) is a welcome addition to the film world, a perfect display of Tarantino's directing and writing - not to mention the ridiculously talented cast. I am a huge fan of Tarantino's style. His use of dialogue is incredible (if you've ever watched one his movies, you'll know that dialogue is extremely important) and his directing is extremely detailed. Every moment of his films is perfected down to the smallest of details.

The Django screenplay is written with beautiful language and more description than is usually necessary. From the opening page alone, I love how it mentions that we "may or may not notice" a physical feature. Tarantino leaves room for the varying experiences of viewers - some will notice things that others do not. Later, on the second page, we're told: His heart fills with poison. This is a line on its own, a descriptor that can't be seen on film, but adds depth to the written screenplay.

EXT - COUNTRYSIDE - BROILING HOT DAY

As the film's OPENING CREDIT SEQUENCE plays, complete with its own SPAGHETTI WESTERN THEME SONG, we see SEVEN shirtless and shoeless BLACK MALE SLAVES connected together with LEG IRONS, being run, by TWO WHITE MALE HILLBILLIES on HORSEBACK.

The location is somewhere in Texas. The Black Men (ROY, BIG SID, BEN~AMIN, DJANGO, PUDGY RALPH, FRANKLYN, and BLUEBERRY) are slaves just recently purchased at The Greenville Slave Auction in Greenville Mississippi. The White Hillbillies are two Slave Traders called, The SPECK BROTHERS (ACE and DICKY).

One of the seven slaves is our hero DJANGO .... he's fourth in the leg iron line. We may or may not notice a tiny small "r" burned into his cheek ("r" for runaway), but we can't help but notice his back which has been SLASHED TO RIBBONS by Bull Whip Beatings.

You can read the full screenplay here. If you're interested in learning the cast's opinions on the screenplay, a featurette has been released specifically about Tarantino's writing. I've embedded the video below.