Analyzing Evil: Calvin Candie From Django Unchained

hello everyone and welcome to the 35th episode of analyzing evil featuring calvin candy from django unchained quentin tarantino's characters have the great distinction of being entirely over the top at times without edging too far from the realistic on top of these larger-than-life portrayals tarantino makes a few embellishments when it comes to historical accuracy which we'll address when they pop up throughout this video however as the man himself once said during an interview i'm here to tell you that however bad things get in the movie a lot worse things actually happened calvin candy as portrayed by leonardo dicaprio is a thoroughly repugnant character a vicious merchant of flesh hidden beneath the charm of a southern gentleman calvin may be a caricature of a slave owner but the behaviors calvin exhibits in this film and the terrible actions he takes are unfortunately based in reality in this video i'll be taking you through every detail of this sickeningly decadent monster a beast that's both horrifying and captivating to watch in action one who's become imprinted in the minds of us viewers as the depraved and hedonistic southern slave owner personified now without further ado let's begin to start off with calvin let's begin with his southern charm calvin is a picture-perfect southern gentleman finally dressed finally manicured and finally mannered calvin moves and acts like the quintessential rich man with flourishing moves exaggerated smiles and laughs and speech that gives him an air of haughty elegance with a big emphasis on hottie one thing that's central to the way he holds himself is his perception of himself as an intelligent and well-educated man which he is decidedly not calvin like many people who feign intelligence has a surface level understanding of all manner of subjects and an intense interest in ones that he's only attached himself to out of a desire to appear more refined sociable and well popular than he is this is most apparent in his love of all things french an interest that is vain and superficial he prefers to be called monsieur candy orders his slaves to imitate french manners and hospitality and even give some of them french names all without speaking any french or seeming to have any knowledge of french culture outside of his shallow admiration it's true as dr schultz says many people across the world during this time in history had an admiration for french culture as it was seen as the most civilized and luxurious culture the world over from the southern gentleman to the russian aristocrat french culture was to be admired and imitated he has the stereotypical rich boy personality which makes him eccentric childlike and oblivious and he attempts to project himself as a man of culture but in truth below this fine veneer is a man who's as rotten as his teeth one whose pleasures are paramount and whose concern is how he's perceived by those around him a quirk of his is the way he sizes people up during conversation his eyes flitting up and down as he attempts to propagate for himself the proper response to a conversation he's totally lost in which is part of the reason i assume he prefers to surround himself with sycophants like mr mogee his sister and steven he's intelligent enough when it comes to his trade but outside of that calvin is visibly perplexed during his conversations with dr schultz like when he doesn't know the proper way to respond to his toast in german when the doctor uses the word panache during their dinner at his home and of course in his final scene where we see that calvin is completely unaware that a story he likely adores was penned by a black man what i'd like to talk about now is what calvin does have knowledge of and that's the slave trade and every dark and barbaric detail of it calvin has a fascination with his channel a fascination that encompasses the more gruesome and brutal aspects of slave ownership which is a curiosity that i wouldn't call morbid but rather something that in calvin's mind is a perfectly acceptable and noble area of interest a notion that rings true when he's showing off broom held a scarred back at the dinner table something he perceives as quite innocent and acceptable to converse about in polite company his interest in phrenology is another great example of his curiosity as though this pseudoscience had different trends to it throughout history such as it being akin to reading a horoscope what it ended up transforming into over time was a way for racists and people in the higher classes of society to justify their views of those below them as calvin explains during his erzot's lecture to schultz and django phrenologists of his time believed that non-white races were inherently inferior to the superior white race in part because of their natural-born deficiencies skull size shape and dimples were used to explain the genetic differences between a white person's brain and the brains of other races reasoning that the skull formed itself in proportion to the deficiencies that are present in a person's brain this is entirely false and if you'd like to learn more about this topic i'll put a link to an interesting video on the subject down in the description something that calvin muses on during this lecture reinforces a notion that we'll be expanding upon further in a moment his utter lack of empathy when it comes to african americans calvin wonders why his former head servant old ben never cut the throat of his father as he shaved him with a straight razor the answer is quite simple but it escapes calvin because his mind is so focused on what he perceives as the inferiority of his slaves and he doesn't stop to consider the facts of their bondage and the role he plays in subduing these people had old ben cut his father's throat how far would he have gotten afterwards escape was already a less than viable option for most slaves but to murder their master and assume that afterwards their lives would improve is a ludicrous thought the amount of people that would be hunting a slave who murdered their master would number in the dozens as it wouldn't only be the plantation workers coming after them but the authorities as well suffice to say the only thing calvin is actually good at is being a racist and a slave owner his mind has been acutely adapted to the trade and lifestyle he was raised in and any fascination beyond his biases is almost abstract the same way his curiosity isn't exactly morbid his brutality towards his slaves isn't exactly what you would call ill-willed either calvin is a vicious man and he enjoys being cruel there's no doubt about that but this viciousness is not born out of a desire to be vicious rather it comes from what can be called the mundane and the playful in calvin's world violence is not only a means to an end but an essential part of business and a method of entertainment calvin isn't participating in and encouraging mandingo fights or enslaving these people because he hates african americans calvin does these things because he doesn't consider these people to be people at all not even stopping for a second to consider their emotions or well-being instead focusing solely on what they can do for him whether that be entertainment or servitude to him their animals inferior beings that masquerade as human beings but when it comes down to it they hold no more significance for calvin candy than a dog does unless of course they happen to be pretty even steven who calvin has quite a good relationship with is nothing more than a highly trained and submissive dog who caters to calvin's every whim a side note here mandingo fighting is one of those historical embellishments i mentioned earlier as there are no records that any sort of fights like these ever occurred regardless as tarantino said a lot worse things likely occurred during this time in history anyway so this information is only slightly comforting now this view of african americans as less than human is what gives calvin and people like him the capability to watch two men fight to the death or work them tirelessly under bondage their tools or play things nothing to be taken seriously and this is why calvin is fascinated with what he perceives as the abnormality that is an intelligent african-american because he believes it to be so unlikely that an inferior species could ascend to the heights a white man could during a small speech he gives about phrenology at the cleopatra club he states that he believes there's a level above bright above talented that an african american can aspire to something that can occur in one out of every ten thousand while he acknowledges this as a possibility and even an eventuality he's fascinated with django and the fact that he exists a theory of his that he thought he'd never see realized which he challenges the validity of frequently there's a scene that best shows us this aspect of calvin this curiosity towards django as well as giving us the most sickening example of his brutality and utter lack of empathy for his slaves the scene where he has d'artagnan ripped apart by dogs before having him killed he belittles this man speaks to him like a child and emphasizes the fact that he's running a business and though dartanian might be tired and broken he paid for him and he deserves to get his money's worth it isn't good enough for calvin in this moment to simply discipline dartanion as where would be the fun in that he needs to chastise him toy with him before he inevitably kills him because after all why not exact every ounce of entertainment out of someone before they're expended of course this act is also in service to his business as escaped slaves need to be made an example of and what better moment to make an example out of him than when he's just arrived with a host of new slaves this also gives him the opportunity to size up django and gauge whether or not he's all he's claimed to be of course calvin finds out that jango in fact isn't all that he portrayed himself to be confirming his own biases in his mind as he seethes over being had promptly unloading the fury he feels it being taken for a ride upon his dinner guests in his final scene we see a calvin once again affirming for us everything we've discussed so far a scene which solidifies just exactly who he was he was a petulant empty-headed child one who confirms his ignorance and narcissism with nearly every word he speaks showing us that he's a person who can't stand to let his inferiorities be laid bare and as dr schultz says one who's an abysmal winner calvin candy was a cruel ignorant heartless and unrepentant racist a man who had no problem dealing in the exploitation and misery of others and one whose pleasure and chief interest lay within the horrific trade he inherited it's not enough to pen calvin as one who willfully supported and upheld an institution that brought suffering and death to hundreds of thousands of individuals but as a man who felt no remorse no sympathy for the people he perceived as being less than human toying with the lives of those he only knew as his property calvin kandy represents the worst aspects of slave owners and though we never see him committing any murders or physically participating in any of the brutal actions we see unfolding during his scenes as owner of the candyland plantation he ordered the death and mutilation of an untold amount of individuals making him directly responsible for the atrocities that occurred under his leadership atrocities that he derived a nauseating amount of joy from a joy that mires the soul of a corrupt and barbarous human being in a quagmire of evil thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on calvin did i miss anything let me know down below and leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured in a future episode while you're at it if you liked this video and want to see more like it appearing in your feed click the subscribe button to keep up on the latest episodes and feel free to leave a like while you're at it thank you once again to all of my existing subscribers for your continued and incredible support if you'd like to support the channel even further consider signing up as a patron over on patreon you can find a link to patreon in the description of this video thank you to everyone who signed up so far and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now join the channel's discord server to interact with myself and the community and follow me on the social media platforms listed in the description for occasional updates on the channel as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you [Music] soon you

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 1,893,400

Keywords: Tarantino, Quentin Tarantino, TVE, Analysis, Character Study, Character Analysis, Evil, Villain, Leonardo DeCaprio, South

Id: t-Cqmgg9Dsk

Length: 12min 55sec (775 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 29 2021