Django Unchained and the Lost Cause Theory Part 1

The Civil War was in many aspects an epic failure for the Confederate States of America.  However, if they were going to be defeated in battle, they could attempt a last-ditch effort to win the war of history.

The new goal of the Southerners was to infuse propaganda and literature about the nobility of the secession, and the chivalrous tribulations the rebels endured in order to rescue their citizens from the wicked North.  This movement among historians became known as the Lost Cause Theory, the Southerner’s last chance at restoring their name in history.

Leo DiCaprio portrays the wicked 'Calvin Candie'

Django Unchained, the 2012 historical thriller directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio could almost be characterized as an antonym to the Lost Cause Theory.  The film provides example upon example of the wickedness of the Deep South at the time, and the emotional intensity of slavery that would fan the flames of the approaching Civil War (the film is set in 1858).  Exploring this movie provides an in-depth look at a creative outlet in which violence is praised and considered artistic, while still characterizing the South as evil and completely counteracting the concept of the Lost Cause.

Django Unchained’s most prominent illustration of good and evil shows through its characters.  Django, played by Jamie Foxx, is a freed slave turned bounty hunter who amasses a fortune enough to hopefully buy his slave wife’s freedom in the near future.  Django is the epitome of the principle that “the end always justifies the means” as he accumulates quite the body count throughout the movie, killing evil men for what he believes to be right.

His mentor and liberator, Dr. King Schultz, played by Christoph Waltz, is a dentist from the North who found a better paycheck through bounty hunting.  His new occupation took him South where is hatred for slavery grew stronger every day.

These two characters serve as the protagonists, the former slave and the Northerner, who work together to deceive the antagonist, Monsieur Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.  Candie is a Mississippi slave owner who possesses Django’s wife Hildy, and reveals greater levels of wickedness as the film goes on that the audience could not have at first imagined.

Jamie Foxx plays the titular 'Django'

While it is hard to find any of these characters as particularly noble, there is a clear theme throughout the movie that pits everyone against Django and Schultz, and seeing as it is set in the South the audience is given the impression that everyone in that region are black-hating slave hunters.  Through Candie, Quentin Tarantino successfully characterizes the entire South as a wicked place of the world, which is the opposite of the goal of those who support the Lost Cause Theory.