Could you please stop playing Beethoven?

All it took was that one line for me to realize Tarantino had delivered and how. Of course Django Unchained is a treat for the eyes and the ears, Tarantino’s effortless style of showing off gratuitous glorified violence will make this movie an instant hit for all the aggressive, “I’m too cool for school”, yuppie generation that urban India seems to be breeding today. But what most of the people did not, perhaps will not get is the significance behind this one little seemingly uncharacteristic line that made me wonder if Tarantino’s having a chuckle at everyone’s expense wondering how many people caught his hidden gem right there. There is a scene where Schultz after having been bested by Candie and in the room a lady plays Beethoven’s Fur Elise on the harp, as the piece begins Schultz remembers the D’ artagnan being torn apart by rabid dogs. it builds to a point where Schultz tells the lady to stop playing Beethoven and she ignores him leading to a point where he physically restrains her from doing so. This one scene has just pointed out to you what a master Tarantino when it comes to morality and ethics.

A simplistic explanation and a stupid one at that would be Schultz is reminded of the barbarism through Beethoven’s music, while Beethoven’s music has been associated with violence on several counts including Psycho (1960), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Die Hard (1988), Immortal Beloved (1994), and Elephant (2003) (Reference: http://theomniscientidiot.blogspot.in/2012/12/the-d-is-silent.html) you would be wrong to assume a causal link between the two. The second explanation you could admit to would be that Schultz is horrified to hear his dear countryman’s music in such a house where barbarism and cruelty prevail. It is almost with artistic impunity that Schultz would deem his fellow German insulted to hear his music being played by what he would deem such uncultured and animalistic a race. You might be right with this explanation but you would not have uncovered the entire truth, with this one line Schultz does much more he talks about the moralistic superiority of a culture over another, he is much more than ashamed he would not have the pinnacle of art in his culture be played by one he feels has no ethical equal to his own. In short he is judging America and Tarantino is quite clear on this, with one line he pokes fun at the American hypocrisy of calling the Nazis barbarians and inhuman when they themselves descend from a culture equally if not more inhuman. Even before when Candie tells Django about Schultz being a little too green around the gills, Django answers by saying “I’m just a little more used to America than he is”. Tarantino right there has shown you the American’s ease with violence has appalled the German. This is not about the judgment of two cultures, but about the brilliance of a director who has conveyed so much in so little. He is telling you that all cultures at various points have descended into the depths of what we today term as inhuman behavior and conduct. To therefore claim moral superiority over any other is just hypocrisy.

Another instance where Tarantino shows his brilliance is when Schultz says, “Alexandre Dumas is black” now most would assume he says this to tell Candie that he wouldn’t approve of him naming his slaves after Dumas’s characters. But there’s more to it than that, right there Tarantino has just told you that the true person who runs Candieland in fact isn’t Candie but Stephen the butler. Candie is just the face for the business, to further back this up there is a scene when they approach the mansion, where Samuel Jackson is shown signing checks in Candie’s name. Even when he’s telling Django about his fate once he is captured, Jackson says, white folk never had a bright idea in their lives. If you’re one of those people who are right now clamoring Tarantino’s white and he made a movie on slavery, I would urge you to remember this sequence, for it will tell you that the true mastermind, the string-puller whatever you may choose to call him is still Jackson. What follows once again is brilliant dialogue where Jackson keeps repeatedly talking about the fate of a mine worker at the LeQuint Dickey Mining company and you know it is he who incepts the idea in Candie’s sister when she decides to sell Django to them.

But it’s not over yet, one might wonder why does he decide to make Schultz German, a German bounty hunter in America, why German and why Christoph Waltz? I’m of course a huge fan of Waltz and you might argue where else would you find an actor of his caliber who is as fluent in English, French and German and hence Waltz. But look at Tarantino’s timeline the same actor who plays the menacing Jew hunter is now a German who can’t tolerate slavery, the very same actor. The same Landa is now a bleeding heart, slave owner hater, who kills criminals and would rather sacrifice his life than endorse slavery or even shake the hand of a slave owner. What Tarantino I believe is telling you that races aren’t bad Germans aren’t uncultured boorish, Nazis, he is telling you to not hold responsible a race for the actions of a certain period because otherwise we’re all painted red by the same brush. To claim moral superiority as certain nations often do is plain and pure hypocrisy we all descend from the same bunch of humans who have at some point in time committed to degenerate behavior and inhuman conduct.

Let’s leave it that Tarantino says, for we’ve all been evil, we’ve all enjoyed the spilling of blood and we’re all equally savage.

PS I found this Article on the music arrangement of Django to be fascinating, do take a look.

Tagged: Beethoven, Candie, Christoph Waltz, director, Django, Django Unchained, DjangoUnchained, ethics, genius, hypocrisy, Inglourious Basterds, morality, nationalism, Nazis, quentintarantino, Samuel Jackson, Schultz, screenplay, slavery, Tarantino