Django Unchained Rhetorical Analysis

Hollywood’s Boy Wonder and controversial director, Quentin Tarantino is notorious for several classic movies like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. In Tarantino’s 2012 Western American drama and “blaxploitation” film Django Unchained, he used rhetorical techniques to appeal to the audience, which in return is then used to establish itself. Quentin Tarantino likes to show off Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Django Unchained to help convey an accurate setting of America’s 19th century.

Starting off with Ethos, the credibility and/or reliability of something, is a type of rhetoric that is positioned to a certain extent in Django Unchained.

Quentin Tarantino has been using various rhetorical techniques for years, and seeing that how he is one of the most successful and acclaimed directors in Hollywood, it definitely catches the audience’s eye. In the movie, Tarantino uses production value to establish Ethos. The overall quality of the movie, the time, effort, and dedication that went into creating the movie definitely works to establish credibility in the viewer’s eyes.

Also, by casting such a popular and profound group of successful actors and actresses such as Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington and more, Tarantino presents credibility and reliability very well.

Especially Waltz, who won an academy award for Best Performance of an Actor in a Supporting Role in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Waltz also won another one for Django Unchained. This definitely lends to the movie’s credibility by being able to say something like “starring Oscar winning actor Christoph Waltz’.

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Credibility is a very important appeal, not only for the films themselves, but also the advertisement of the film as well. If a film looks poorly-made and cheap, or has poorly-made advertisements, then more often than not, not too many people are going to be interested in seeing the movie. This is the case with Django Unchained. In order to create a successful piece of work, credibility is crucial. Although Ethos is very important to a film’s success, it’s more than just credibility and reliability.

The appeal of Pathos, or appealing to one’s emotions, is also very present in Django Unchained. The plot revolves around the lives of a former slave, and his wife, who is a slave. The escaped slave is trying to reunite with his wife, and this plays on the emotions of the viewer. The audience can sympathize with the characters and learn to understand them. In addition to the romantic love story, there is a particularly macabre scene in which the wife (Kerry Washington) of Django (Jamie Foxx) is being unmercifully whipped by an overseer, and from this the viewer can be overcome with disgust or anger to the point of turning their head away from the screen. Pathos is, in my opinion, the most powerful of the three rhetorical appeals and this movie is definitely no exception. The fact that how easy and efficiently the movie affects the emotions of the audience is a credit to not only Tarantino’s talent, but also to the power of Pathos itself. The appeal to one’s emotions is clearly seen and experienced throughout the movie, but isn’t the only thing the viewer will be taking away from the movie, and what they’re noticing.

Which leads to the third appeal, Logos, which is definitely put on display in Django Unchained. Logos is using logic and reasoning to convey a point. In Django Unchained, the very controversial topic of slavery is one of the main points of the film. Using Logos, the audience knows that slavery is asinine, absolutely ludicrous, and immoral, which is then establishing the protagonists as well as the antagonists. Thus, by expressing a clear difference in right and wrong through logic, the audience now has a vested interest in watching the movie to see who is victorious in the end between good and evil. In Django Unchained, Tarantino uses this appeal to perfection. He exhibits antagonistic characters that are so easy to hate, that the decision between what is reasonable or logical is basically unnecessary. Tarantino makes it clear all throughout the story. Which is why, despite all the controversy, this movie is so critically acclaimed and seen as another one of Quentin Tarantino’s greats.

Django Unchained was a very good work of film in terms of the three rhetorical appeals, Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Logos and Pathos were more evident, and were seen in the majority of the film. These rhetorical appeals are almost everywhere, and movies are no exception. When used correctly, rhetorical appeals can absolutely work to make a better piece. In Django Unchained, Logos and Pathos were used primarily, but the three of them worked together perfectly to create a credible, emotion-evoking work of a cinematic masterpiece.