Django Unchained - Trailer

Django Unchained Trailer

Django Unchained comes under the genre of Western.

Usually, the central plot of western films is the classic, simple goal of maintaining law and order on the frontier in a fast-paced action story. Normally rooted in archetypal conflict - good vs bad, heroes vs villains. The western hero usually stands alone and faces danger on his own, against the forces of lawlessness, with an expert display of his physical skills, whether that be roping, gun-play, horse-handling.

 

Within the trailer for Django Unchained we set up the USP of the actors that are going to be featured within this film, we start off by seeing that Jamie Foxx is going to be playing our Hero the main Protagonist Django, Christoph Waltz Is going to be playing the Dispatcher Dr. King Schultz, and Leonardo DiCaprio is going to be playing the main role of the Villain "Monsieur" Calvin J. Candie. This sets up some names that are going to attract an audience, as they have seen these men in many different film such as: Jamie Foxx has played Darryl in Due Date, Nick Rice in Law Abiding Citizen and others; Christoph Waltz has played August Rosenbluth in Water For Elephants, Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers; Leonardo DiCaprio has played Jack Dawson in Titanic, Dom Cobb in Inception.

These names bring up some films that have been known of by everyone. This causes the film to reach out to a wider audience as they grasp the fans of the actors, not just the fans of the genre.

 

The narrative of the trailer starts with a state of equilibrium of two men on horseback travelling with several black male slaves that they will sell off to the highest bidder. This gives a sense of the time period that blacks were not treated as equals, they were abused and used to treat the white as in they were royalty.

We then have the disruption of the equilibrium when Dr. King Schultz frees Django from being a slave and offers him a chance to get revenge upon the men that enslaved him and his wife, of whom he was separated from.

The Recognition that the equilibrium has been broken is when Django realises that they only chance he is going to have to get his wife back would be to agree to Dr. King Schultz's deal and help him eliminate the Brittle Brothers, of which Django knows who they are.

The attempt to repair is shown through Django going around hunting and killing the members of the Brittle Brothers and anyone who assisted them. This shows the determination of Django and love he has for his wife as he knows what kind of conditions that slaves can be placed in. He knows that he is the only one who is going to be able to save her.

But of course because this is just a trailer and they don't want to give to much away to the audience they are not going to show the reinstatement of the equilibrium. As this is what is going to bring the audience into watch the film, the enigma question of "is Django going to succeed?"

The verbal code used within the trailer with such lines as "I like the way you die boy" gives the audience the idea that Django is going to enjoy his role as a bounty hunter in his quest of vengeance against the group of people who took away his wife and sold her into slavery. But this also adds the sub-plot question of is Django going to get too caught up in his quest for revenge and not know when to stop, sending him on a spree killing anyone who he fills doesn't deserve to live.
The line "I will agree to give you your freedom" allows the audience to know that this story is going to be more that a fight for survival and vengeance but also the freedom of himself from slavery. The story seems to feature a domino effect, for Django to complete his long term goal of finding and freeing his wife he is going to have to complete a series of other tasks to be able to build up to the big fight that is bound to happen at the end.

The symbolic aspects such the image of Django's arms breaking out of his wrist chains supports the title of the film being Django Unchained but this also allows the audience to get symbolic interpretation that it is not going to be an easy task, chains aren't the easiest of things to physically break out of metal chains. This allows the audience to know that there is going to a struggle for Django to complete his task.
Another symbolic aspect are the sub-settings of Plantations, this connotes slaves and rich business men. Now because we know that Django is a black male we know that this is going to make life difficult for him, living in the times period that he does, but this adds to the suspense of the film, as they see a man rise up against all odds against a group of outlaw/slave traders, to find and free his love.