White guy here. While I don’t like it when people use the n-word (both white and black people), I think a white director should be able to use it in his films if he does it responsibly. The responsibly that every artist should have is to be careful not to talk about race in such an ignorant way that it promotes racists attitudes or beliefs.
Now the question question becomes whether Tarantino’s over the top use of racial slurs for comedic purposes in “Django” was responsible. Does it reinforce racist attitudes, or does it break them down by exaggerating and mocking them?
Now, I’m 100% sure Tarantino isn’t racist. If you read any interview with him about “Django” you can clearly see that he knows a lot about black film history and has clearly thought through the way he frames racial issues in this movie.
In some parts of the movie it’s easy to see how Tarantino is mocking racism. The scene where the hooded racists want to kill Shultz and Django comes to mind. It’s the scene where a bunch of rednecks want ride out to kill Django with bags over their heads, only to realize that the wife of one of the lynch party members did a bad job cutting the holes in the bags for their eyes. It’s pretty clear that these guys are racist idiots, literally choosing to ride blind in order to kill a black man.
However, sometimes it’s hard to see why certain characters have to use the n-word in the movie. For example:
If I had to come up with a reason for the use of over the top offensive language, it would probably be to show how ridiculous Dr. Shultz has to act in order to pretend to be a racist hoping to purchase a slave. There is also the genial way he says “nigger gal” that mocks the hypocrisy of southern hospitality among slave owners.
From what I know about Tarantino and how thoughtful he is about his approach to race in movies, I’m pretty sure this is what he intended. While this feels funny when watching the movie, it starts to feel more uncomfortable once you think about a white director writing those words.
There is actually only one scene where the use of the n-word by Tarantino still has me confused. That’s when Jimmy uses it in Pulp Fiction. I’d be interested in hearing a good reason for why Jimmy had to use the n-word in that scene, and why Tarantino thought that scene needed to be in his movie.
Well, to be honest, Jimmy is VERY upset at the time. As I think all of us would be in his situation.
That might not justify his usage, or it might, depending on one’s point of view. And some view Jimmy is sort of a comical light. But, in reality, he’s really pissed off at Jules, there.
He is a cultural parasite in a mostly positive way and absorbs whatever he finds interesting and uses it in his work, most particularly music and language.
In Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained that word needs to be used, it would be jarring if it weren’t.
Tarantino’s own skin colour is irrelevant, context is everything and I think we can trust him to use language judiciously.
Jimmy has to use that word because that his how gangsters and thugs speak when they get very angry. Notice Jules doesn’t even flinch. He doesn’t give a fuck, because nigger isn’t some shocker word in their world.
Southerners of the time period used “nigger” as an almost neutral descriptive turn (obviously, it wasn’t neutral to Black Southerners, but no one cared what they thought). Anyone talking about a black man in that period in that setting would use the word.
Look at Huckleberry Finn. Not only does Huck casually call his best friend Jim a nigger, but there’s that exchange between Aunt Sally and Huck when she asks him if anyone was hurt and Huck replies, “No’m. Killed a nigger.”
Tarantino is being historically accurate here. It is not over-the-top language; it is the language of the white people of the time. No white person in the South would find the word over-the-top and offensive, and most black people would reluctantly accept it because there was nothing they could do about it.
I haven’t seen Django Unchained yet. However, in the time period in which the the film is set, the word “nigger” hadn’t yet acquired its strong social taboo. Having the characters use that word in that scene would be simple historical accuracy. Those people, in that place, at that time, would have said “nigger” with no self consciousness at all, regardless of their individual feelings about race relations.
Of course, having seen Inglorius Basterds, I don’t particularly expect a lot of historical accuracy from Django, and Tarantino likely had other reasons for why he wrote that scene that way, up to and including “really likes the word ‘nigger,’” but I won’t speculate on that until I’ve actually seen the movie.
I have seen Pulp Fiction, though. In the “Dead Nigger Storage” scene, Jimmy’s use of the word can be taken two ways. The first is that Jimmy and Jules are close enough friends that Jimmy can use the word freely around Jules without it being an issue. Secondly, Jimmy is deliberately using the word to signal what a mammoth imposition Jules is making on Jimmy. “This is such a big deal,” he is saying, “That I, a suburban white guy, am going to casually throw around the word ‘nigger’ while castigating you. And you, a black mobster, will listen without objection - indeed, you will apologize to me - because you are so desperate for my help that you can’t afford to make an issue of it.”
I’m not sure the use of a racial slur on its own can reinforce a racist attitude. Racist characterization or use of stereotypes can do that, but a word by itself? I’m not sure about that idea, and your post seems to suggest that every use of a racial slur has to be justified in some fashion in order to be acceptable. I don’t know about that either. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but in context it’s obvious Schultz is talking to a slaveowner. That’s why the word gets used. In that context it’s not surprising or inappropriate.
That was my take. Jimmy was deliberately being over the top because he was so pissed off. Presumably he doesn’t speak to his wife the same way but he’s not interested in staying chummy with Jules right now.
I actually only saw Pulp Fiction a couple times, and that was many, many years ago, but if I remember correctly, Jimmy wasn’t exactly just your typical “suburban white guy”. I got the impression that his character implied a backstory that he was into gangsta shit, on a higher level than Jules and Vincent. He was a part of the culture that uses the word, Just like Jules uses it, and probably all the people they hang around use it. Jimmy was angry, and wasn’t using it as a term of endearment, but the non reaction from Jules tells me it isn’t some shocker word that Jimmy pulled out like a weapon.
Mmm. I didn’t get that impression. I think Jimmy is just some guy Jules knows. Knows him well enough to impose, but not so well as to figure he’s just asking Jimmy to pay back a previous favor.
I think if Jimmy were a mobster sort he wouldn’t be so freaked out. He’d be more of a Winston Wolf type who realizes that these things happen and they can be dealt with. But Jimmy is at sea dealing with the car, the goons, and the body.
Plus, hell, he can be bought off for the price of an oak bedroom set. I’m not a mobster and it would take more than that to calm me down in that situation.
All the interviews about Django talk about the choice of the word, and how everyone was very conscious during filming of the choice and intent behind the word. It’s used deliberately both as a concession to historical accuracy and in order to emphasize the bitterness of the time.
Looking at the screenplay, people in Pulp Fiction who use the word are Jules, Lance (the guy who sells heroin), Marsellus and Jimmie. Lance uses it the once and is obviously intending it disparagingly – he asks Vincent “Am I a nigger? Are you in Inglewood? No, you’re in my house” when Vincent starts questioning the quality of Lance’s heroin. He’s also saying it to Vincent; I sort of doubt Lance would say it to Jules had he been there.
That no other white guy uses it seems to imply to me that Jimmie’s over the top usage of it isn’t because it’s just criminal street talk used all the time by everyone. He’s doing it to, if not provoke a reaction, at least make a point about how pissed off he is.
I don’t think you’re entirely wrong. Jimmy’s reaction to seeing a guy with his face blown off isn’t exactly what you’d expect from your average suburbanite. He’s pissed about the hassle and personal danger Jules has put him in, but he’s not freaking out over a dead body with it’s face blown off. He’s acting more like someone tracked dog shit onto his new carpet. So, I suspect that Jimmy has a pretty shady past. I don’t think he’s higher ranking than Jules or Vincent, though - to the contrary, I get the impression that he’s someone who’s trying to go legit, probably after a relatively shallow involvement in organized crime or the criminal lifestyle. He has no tools or resources to deal with the body in the car, and his concerns and interests are almost comically middle-class: oak bedroom sets, designer coffee, heirloom sheets, and so forth. He doesn’t seem to have any pull in the underworld at all. Jules goes to his house not because Jimmy is a gangster, he goes because Jimmy is his “hide a body, no questions asked” close friend.
Jimmy’s wife Bonnie is Marsellus’s (Ving Rhames) AKA Jules and Vincent’s boss’s niece.
Mr. Wolf: Were you Uncle Conrad and Aunt Ginny millionaires?
Jimmie: No.
Mr. Wolf: Well, your Uncle Marsellus is. And I’m positive if Uncle Conrad and Aunt Ginny were millionaires, they would’ve furnished you with a whole bedroom set, which your Uncle Marsellus is more than happy to do.
IOW, an “average suburban white guy” is typically not married to the neice of a crime boss, nor does one react the way Jimmy did to two mobsters showing up with a dead body.