The Trolley Problem of Django Unchained Anonymous College

The film Django Unchained follows two bounty hunters, Dr. King Schultz and Django Freeman, as they infiltrate a plantation in Antebellum-era Mississippi, on a mission to save Django’s long-lost wife. In the first act of the film, Dr. Schultz introduces Django to his profession by describing it as another “flesh for cash” business — not unlike the slave trade which kept Django in shackles in the time before and during their meeting. It’s a very unethical lens to look at bounty hunting through, and perhaps rightfully so. After all, it feels like it should be cut-and-dry that killing anyone is unethical, without room for elaboration. However, the way that Django Unchained presents the problem isn’t by asking the viewer, “Are these killings ethical?” Rather, the film asks the viewer to assess, “Are these killings more ethical than the conditions that exist without them?” It’s a classic trolley problem. Through the film’s gratuitous violence, viewers are constantly asked to consider if the lives lost are justified by the alternative.

From the first few minutes of the film, the audience is dropped right into some classic Tarantino-violence. Dr. Schultz shoots and kills one of the men who has just bought Django and some other slaves;...