2. Ku Klux Klan
The Movie: Not only does Tarantino use
Django Unchained as a platform for slavery-based historical revenge thrills, he crams in an entire sequence that serves purely to ridicule the notorious Ku Klux Klan. Firstly, in a hilarious bag-head sequence (featuring a cameo from Jonah Hill), he makes them look dumb as hell (that
is historical accurate, actually). Secondly, he reduces them to the slaughter, mainly with bullets and explosions. Woo! Just remember that it's 1858...
The History: Um, well, the Ku Klux Klan was first formed in 1865 - 7 years after the events depicted in
Django Unchained - by six disgruntled Confederate Army veterans. Tarantino's point, perhaps, was to show that lots of folk were ready to take such an extreme stance even before the Klan was "officially formed" - this fore-bearer crew, then, complete with bagged heads and flaming torches, serve to highlight the attitudes that would eventually mark the Klan's coming. Klan members really would ride out into the night as depicted in
Django, though, and would attack small towns and rural areas - often their own.