Pudd'nhead Unchained

In this blog I would really like to relate Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson to the Quinten Tarantino film “Django Unchained.”  “Django Unchained” is a sort of Western film only extremely modernized and, like an Tarantino film, extremely gruesome.  Django, who is played by Jaime Foxx is a former slave who was freed by a German bounty hunter who was disguised as a dentist going to different plantations to conduct business.  The bounty hunter makes a deal with Django that if he can help catch the bounties he will be a free man and he will split the profit.  Django agrees under the condition that they must free his long lost wife from slavery at the “Candy Land” plantation owned by Calvin Candy.  Stephen, who is played by Samuel L. Jackson reminds me a lot of the Real Chambers, or “Tom.”  Stephen is one of the older more privileged slaves on Candy’s plantation.  He has the right to stay in the “big house” and when Candy is away he even tends to business.  He acts very much like a white slave owner would even though he himself is a black slave.  One scene that really demonstrates this is the scene in which Django and the bounty hunter first ride into “Candy Land.”  Django rides a horse alongside the bounty hunter while slaves that Candy just purchased are forced to walk behind the wagon.  Upon seeing Django, a former slave, upon a horse Stephen has an interesting reaction.  He meets the group on the front steps of the “big house” and after a little heckling he asks Candy, “Who dis nigger upon dat nag?”  I find this very interesting because Stephen is economically more poor than Django, given that Django is a free man and Stephen is still in slavery.  It really reminds me of Real Chamber’s character in that because he is raised white and treated better, in turn he oppresses other races and treats other people poorly.  Another parallel between the two stories is the idea of being “sold down river” in Pudd’nhead Wilson and the fact that Stephen wants Django to be sent to the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company.  In Pudd’nhead Wilson everybody fears being “sold down river” because they know how harsh conditions will be.  Being “sold down river” is intended to mean that they will have to work every waking moment of every day, they will be beaten, they will be starved, and they will be much worse off than they were before they started causing trouble.  That is exactly what the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company is supposed to do.  After Django gets caught and the white men start to torture him, Stephen convinces them that sending him to the mining company will be worse punishment than anything they could ever do to him because he will be whipped constantly, he will work until the day he dies without ever getting a break, and he might die soon because of his defiance.  Luckily, before Django gets to the mining camp he convinces the men who are transporting him that he can help them make a lot of money, in turn he blows those men up and returns to “Candy Land” where he basically murders everyone that gets in his way and he saves his wife.  I just watched “Django Unchained” this week and I found so many parallels when comparing it to Pudd’nhead Wilson that I can’t help but wonder if the movie is at least loosely based on the novel.