Landscapes
Films belonging to the Western genre are famous for their wide-angle vistas, featuring vast landscapes that stretch out into the horizon. Django Unchained features many such shots, including the opening scene where Django and other slaves are marched in shackles across Texas. Tarantino also uses wide-angle shots to capture Django and Schultz riding up to various plantations in the South.
Django's blue suit
Django's blue suit, which he carefully selects from Schultz's wardrobe, is an allusion to Thomas Gainsborough's 1771 oil portrait "The Blue Boy." The image of Django donning the blue suit symbolizes his transformation from a dehumanized slave into a man who can dress, speak, and act independently.
Broomhilda's yellow dress
When Django imagines seeing Broomhilda, he sees her in the fields wearing a yellow dress. The color yellow symbolizes sunlight, happiness, and joy, all of which Broomhilda represents, given that she is the elusive object of Django's quest. The color contrasts with the horrid conditions in which she is kept, such as the underground "Hot Box" to which she is subjected for attempting to escape.
Schultz's carriage
Schultz's carriage features a giant wagging tooth on top, representing his ostensible profession as a dentist, which is in fact a cover for his real profession as a bounty hunter. Tarantino uses dentistry as a metaphor for bounty hunting—like a dentist pulls decaying teeth, Schultz hunts wanted criminals. Schultz allowing his carriage to be blown apart to kill Bennett and his gang symbolizes his transition into a new "cover" with Django—that of a Mandingo purveyor traveling with his slave-turned-expert.
Old Ben's skull
Calvin Candie produces the skull of Old Ben after learning that Django and Schultz have been swindling him the entire time they have been at Candyland. The skull represents Candie's lethal control over the slaves at his plantation, and his ability to have them killed in a variety of grotesque ways. The skull, which Candie uses to discuss phrenology, also symbolizes Candie's belief that the white race is superior to the black race.
