Calvin Candie
Calvin Candie is one of the villains in Django Unchained. He owns the fourth largest cotton plantation in Mississippi which he calls Candyland. Calvin Candie gets his wealth from three sources; the cotton from his plantation, which is his sole legitimate source of income. His other two are forcing male slaves to participate in brutal wrestling matches called Mandingo fights, and charging admission for spectators to come watch these fights. Calvin even feeds a slave to dogs for refusing to fight any more of these gladiatorial battles. Calvin is only slightly less cruel to female slaves, assigning the older and homelier women to either harvesting cotton or housekeeping, but taking young attractive slave women to be prostituted in a brothel he also owns called the Cleopatra Club.
His friend is Stephen, a slave who caters to his every need to the detriment of his fellow slaves. An odd thing about him is he insists on being called Monsieur when he doesn’t know a word of French. His father owned the ranch and he grew up on it his whole life. Until his death, he was the owner of Django’s wife Brunhilda von Schaft.
When Django and Schultz arrive at yoza Cleopatra Club, they are taken to the bar to meet Candie, who is watching two muscular slaves fight to the death. After the winning slave kills the losing slave (a rule that is part of the slave fight), Candie congratulates him and rewards him a drink. When Django meets Candie, he antagonizes him since he is Broomhida’s owner. Schultz reminds him not to make Candie suspicious to which Django retorts that he is only trying to play the part. The duo begins a deal to purchase one of the fighting slaves as a coverage for rescuing.
Candie is shown to act on the negative southern stereotypes, as seen with his sadistic racism and his implied crush on his sister. Despite his fearsome and opprobrious reputation, he is partially shrewd and intelligent, as he did not know his favorite writer, Alexandre Dumas, was black, nor does he know how to speak French despite insisting on being addressed as Monsieur. It is also implied that he doesn’t know how to read or write. Nevertheless, Candie holds a high opinion of himself
Candie is a ruthless, racist and merciless man who finds any means to be in power. Candie displays a disdain for people who are critical of slavery, referring to them as “nigger lovers.” The depths of his depravity are seen when he gives Django and Dr. Schultz a lecture on his belief that people of color are biologically inferior using pseudoscience. He claims that other races’ supposed lower intelligence, along with submissiveness is the result of a series of dimples inside the skull, as Candie examines the skull of a deceased slave. Candie appears to be quite close to his head slave, Stephen, and places a great deal of trust in him. Stephen immediately takes issue with Django and seems unable to comprehend the idea of Django being a free man. Stephen is almost as twisted as Candie; appearing to almost take joy with the slaughter and torment of his people.
