Django's status as The Quiet One makes sense when you consider that even as a free man, white Southerners still view him with contempt due to his race. The only person he speaks to on equal terms throughout the movie is Schultz and possibly Schultz's marshal friend.
Broomhilda's nature as a textbook Flat Character and Damsel in Distress may seem strangely at odds with the movie's otherwise-progressive themes, but recall that the movie has a running theme of being based on the classic fairy tale plotline. Plus, a line from Stephen indicates that she actually has acted on her own initiative and tried to escape twice now.
Schultz is shown to be cool, calm, and collected, no matter how dangerous the situation is. The one time he loses his temper dooms him, and very nearly dooms Hilde and Django.
At the end of his encounter with the Speck brothers' slaves, Dr. Schultz has provided not only their freedom, but given them a weapon (one of the brothers' rifles), some cash (the money he "paid" for Django), and a general direction to head in. Dr. Schultz not only treats these slaves with respect, he gives them a more-than-decent shot at making it to a freer future. It really drives home how much he hates slavery and how much he's willing to do for those under its bondage.
Going on the above, Schultz might have also had a somewhat selfish motive for freeing those slaves: eliminating a witness to his murder of one of the Speck brothers.
Calculated compassion, perhaps?
Carrucan, Django and Hildi's original owner, is in huge measure the person responsible for the couple's plight at the start of the film (whipping them and branding them as runaways). So it rightfully disturbs a number of viewers that he seems to get off as the film's main (sole?) Karma Houdini. But the Brittle brothers (his former henchmen) are no longer working on his plantation when we meet them, and are on the run from the law for a crime heinous enough to warrant a considerable bounty be placed on their heads. It wouldn't be too wild a bit of conjecture that they possibly murdered their former employer (Carrucan) for some reason...
Recall Schultz's story about Broomhilda: the king locks her up, puts her under the guard of a dragon, and so Siegfried comes and kills the dragon and rescues her. Pay attention: Siegfried does NOT kill the king. He kills the dragon. Just like Django doesn't kill Candie; he kills Stephen.
In the scene where Big Daddy and his men attack Dr. Schultz's wagon and attempt to kill him and Django, you can hear Big Daddy shout, "Get that nigger out from under that wagon and get that nigger lover out of the wagon!" Of course, neither of them were there, but they went to the effort of placing a dummy under the wagon because although Dr. Schultz doesn't consider black people to be inferior to him, he knows that the men after them do and would expect Dr. Schultz to at least have what they consider to be some "standards" in his treatment of Django.
At first, the scene at the end of the winter montage where Dr. Schultz and Django meet a marshal friend of theirs feels out of place. But after the Candieland sequence, it makes sense. The marshal offers them cake, which they accept. At Candieland, there's constant mention of dessert (a cake), that Candie goes on and on about. When it finally appears, Dr. Schultz refuses it. Why? He likes cake, but he's absolutely disgusted by Candie. It also serves as a Chekhov's Gun for Django's escape and comeback in the finale.
When outlining the plan to rescue Broomhilda, Dr. Schultz uses the analogy that instead of offering to buy a horse, they should offer to buy a farm. He winds up "buying the farm."
When Django first arrives to Candieland and stands at the bar, you may notice the house slave sitting at the bar immediately takes her drink and moves across the room. If you remember Django's earlier words, there's nothing lower than a black slaver.
Django avenging D'Artagnan's death isn't just for a one-liner's sake. Upon returning to Candieland, Calvin asks how bad Stonecipher's dogs got her. If D'Artagnan hadn't run as well, drawing the attention of Stonecipher and his dogs, Broomhilda would have been the one being torn apart by hounds instead of being brought back by presumably a few fellow slaves. In a way, Django probably feels like he owes him one, since he talked Schultz out of saving him to maintain their cover.
If the theory that Stephen is only playing dumb in the presence of others is true, then consider the moment where Dr. Schultz says the word 'panache' and Stephen acts all confused — it's evident that Calvin didn't get it, judging by his expression and how he fields the reply so as not to look like he doesn't know the definition. It's almost as though Stephen got all over-the-top befuddled for Calvin's benefit.
On that note, pay attention to Stephen's hurricane of similes when Candie returns to Candyland. "I miss you like a baby misses mamma's titty" sounds like an innocuous and heartwarming line. "I miss you like I miss a rock in my shoe" is the last one he says. You wouldn't miss a rock in your shoe. Stephen might be the head house nigger and he might help Calvin out a lot, but that's a subtle clue he isn't completely content with his lot in life.
I see that last one differently. It shows that Stephen is on good enough terms with Calvin that he can playfully insult him without Calvin taking offense, despite Stephen being a slave. Given the era, that is massive latitude for a plantation slave.
Stephen makes it adamantly clear to Calvin that he wants Django's bed, sheets, pillowcase, and everything else burned after he leaves. He gets his wish.
Calvin's possibly incestuous desire for his sister is likely born from his white supremacy. Considering his desire for a pure bloodline, he would seek to dilute any "impurity" possible.
Upon finding out that Schultz and Django have been putting on a façade, Calvin gives a lesson on the biology of slaves as a way of saying, "so you thought you could outsmart me, but you couldn't, 'cause I'm white." Of course, who was it that actually figured out they were being lied to? Stephen, a slave.
It's also a brilliant Viewers Are Geniuses moment: what's the science that Candie uses to disparage Django and Broomhilda? Phrenology. Phrenology, for those that know, is a pseudoscience that even before the events of Django had been disproven as complete bullshit. So not only is Candie wrong on the "black brains are subservient to white brains" garbage, he's also an idiot by his own time period's standards.
When Schultz and Candie complete the paperwork for Broomhilda (after Schultz's plan goes up in smoke), King explains Candie that normally, he'd depart from Calvin's home with an "Auf Wiedersehn". However, the phrase in German translates to "Until I see you again", and Schultz never wants to be in Candie's presence ever again, so he simply says goodbye. Later, when Django finds Schultz's corpse after the final shootout, he bids his late mentor "Auf Wiedersehn". When Django heads back to Candieland to finish off the rest of Candie's goons and family, he tells Cora to bid Lara Lee goodbye before blasting Lara out the room.
The Candieland harpist playing "Für Elise" — an instantly recognizable piece written by a romantic idealist who advocated for national and personal freedom, played in a slave owner's house. It seems that Calvin Candie follows trends and likes to play at being educated, but never gets beyond the superficial.
"Für Elise" is a rondo with a structure of A-B-A-C-A. The harpist plays it as A-B-A-B-A, omitting theme C. As theme C is the most upbeat and whimsical of the themes, its omission is symbolic of how Candieland isn't as idyllic as it presents itself.
Schultz freaking out over the harpist playing Beethoven makes a good deal of sense: he is exasperated at these brutal monsters parading his country's culture around without understanding what it really means.
Calvin's enjoyment of Dumas' work is one more example of Calvin's pretentious intellectualism and lack of self-awareness.
As Schultz points out, Alexandre Dumas was black. Specifically, his father, Thomas Alexandre Dumas, was a creole man from colonial Haiti and his mother was a slave. Thomas had been born a slave until his father took him to France to be freed, where he would become a prominent figure in the French Revolution. Dumas' ancestry is that of a man oppressed for his race, overcoming oppression, and rising in the military ranks.
Dumas himself faced no small amount of discrimination for his race. Dumas was also a staunch advocate of liberty and rights his entire life: he participated in the 1830 revolutions, fled from France because he had become an opponent of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, and he would (after the events of this movie) participate in the Italian reunification. Dumas would have tremendous contempt for not only Calvin's beliefs but Dumas would see Calvin as another decadent aristocrat he despises.
The subject of Dumas' other famous work, the The Count of Monte Cristo, is about a betrayed man getting back at elite assholes for leaving him to rot in prison. This almost reflects the conflict between Calvin and Django, and the former is too stupid to grasp the similarities.
This has been confirmed in interviews that Schultz was a veteran of the 1848 German Revolution, which tried and failed to topple the corrupt aristocracy. Not only would this explain Schultz's liberal-for-the-time attitude toward black people, but it would also explain his hatred for Calvin. America is supposed to be an asylum of liberty, and it would be infuriating to see Calvin as a living perversion of those ideals. Many of the Fourty-Eighters, as they were known, went on to fight in the Civil War because of their opposition to slavery.
Calvin having bad teeth is understandable: he's a rich man who can afford sweets that would still be out of reach for the average Joe in the 19th century at a time when dental care was not only less developed but quite painful to undergo. But it is also implied that Calvin is a spoiled brat underneath his civilized veneer, so he was likely never taught anything about moderation.
What is the origin of the handshake? To show good faith by demonstrating you do not literally have a weapon up your sleeve. This makes Schultz's refusal (and subsequent action) quite poetic.
The moment where Schultz shoots Candie is actually the first time in the entire film any of the primary characters breaks the law. Sure, Schultz's method of acquiring Django was legally iffy, but he was very careful to observe the forms of the law, and they did some lying and deceiving to their own ends, but there's not really any crime you could pin on them. All of their killings were legally protected. In contrast, Calvin, despite all the brutality, threats, torture, and murder, never does anything illegal, because everyone he kills or mistreats is his legal property. Every time lawmen are present, they have no grounds to do anything about anything. It's a brilliant commentary on how utterly twisted the laws of this time and place were. These characters, heroes and villains alike, are as violent and immoral as in any Tarantino film, but in this context, even the worst bad guy is technically an upstanding citizen.
Candie did break the law just before that by threatening the life of Broomhilda, who had just been granted her freedom.
Candie also killed a lot of people, even if it was indirectly. Even before emancipation, it was a crime to kill slaves.
Dr. Schultz is murdered by one of Calvin Candie's henchmen for killing Candie, and near the film's climax, when Django returns to Candieland to free Broomhilda and get his revenge, he says his goodbyes to Schultz's corpse, which is still on the premises, and later burns down the Candieland mansion. How appropriate is it that a German named "King", with a deep affection for Germanic myths and legends, ultimately receives a Viking Funeral?
Billy Crash is about to castrate Django to death before Stephen comes in at the last second to say Lara Lee has changed her mind and decided to sell Django to the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company. Billy remarks he should have been told earlier and Stephen simply gestures, likely because he was standing out of view the whole time and waited until the last second to torment Django.
The punishment Stephen has in store for Django is to rob him not only of his freedom, but his identity, his place in the world, and his voice. For a man like Django, who has fought for so long for these things, this is truly A Fate Worse Than Death.
A combination of pride and spite. Stephen revels in being the house nigger and having managed to claw as much authority as he can over both the slaves, his nominal employers, and an entire plantation. And he does this to cope with the insecurity of not being free or seen as an equal by those around him despite being smart enough to run a plantation. Django is no slave. He is not only free but is seen as an equal by the white man he works for. Stephen would be deeply envious of Django for having the freedom, and independence Stephen could never have.
The LeQuint Dickey Mining Company isn't just bad, but it seems to make every effort to rob slaves of their humanity: taking away their identity, cutting out their tongues, and throwing them away like garbage is part of that cruel process. For a slave who tasted freedom and respect and even got revenge on his former captors, the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company was a truly terrible fate. Stephen, jealous and bitter at Django for being a freeman, would be happy to do anything to make Django feel weak and humiliated.
Besides that, as noted elsewhere, Stephen's life has already been destroyed, whether he realizes it or not. With Calvin's death, Stephen's cushy position as head house negro is in jeopardy. He can probably still manage Candyland for a little while, but Lara is young enough to marry. Whoever she marries will take over the household, and is probably not going to be as spoiled and lazy as Calvin. Manipulating someone he didn't raise and already sees him as property is going to be a lot harder for Stephen—at best he'd be replaced and at worst he'd be killed for it.
According to Stephen, the LeQuint Dickey Mining Company kills their slaves when their backs give out, then tosses them down a hole. One of the miners is Quentin Tarantino in a cameo. So, unlike Jimmie, storing dead niggers is his business.
What are two Australians doing in the Antebellum Deep South? One of the first large immigrations of Australians to the US were miners who came to America for the California Gold Rush. Those two are probably former gold miners who moved on after the gold was all mined.
One of the few consistent criticisms of the movie is that it could've ended with the shootout in Candieland immediately after King's death, but instead goes another half-hour. But if the film ends with the shootout, the movie is just about Dr. Schultz and his black ex-slave sidekick, another Mighty Whitey plot where Django is only unchained by the grace of a white man's charity. Instead, we put Django back in the situation he faced at the beginning of the film, but now he's got the tools to get out on his own — not only is he good with a gun, but he's quick-witted, he can spin a yarn, and he knows the bounty hunting trade. The climax is about how Django unchains himself.
The possibility of Calvin's relationship with his sister being, ahem, more than merely affectionate is another example of how nonsensical Calvin's belief in racist pseudoscience is: inbreeding risks the creation of offspring who carry genetic disorders. While Calvin harps about racial superiority, he's risking creating genuinely genetically broken offspring by having sex with a close relative.
The sheriff's death. It's played off as dark comedy, but what if the sheriff had changed his evil ways? Maybe he felt guilty for his past crimes, so he decided to become a lawman as a way to make up for his sins.
Even considering the standards of the setting's era, the sheriff was willing to prosecute and potentially kill two men for walking into a bar because one of them wasn't white (regardless of whether he was a free man.) Then there's also the fact that escaping a criminal profile by skipping states and turning into a lawman in a new jurisdiction does not absolve him of his criminality, nor does it overtly prove that he was doing it as a token of atonement, and it's just as easy to speculate that posing as a sheriff in a new town provides him with a convenient cover that allows him to hide in plain sight.
When they come across the slave in the tree who tried to run away, as Candie steps from the carriage you can see he is stepping onto fresh soil, probably turned over, as if it were dug up for a grave. You also notice another one not too far from the one he is stepping on. Later, when Django is chained, Stephen lists all of the things they've done to other slaves; one can only wonder what happened to the two people whom we know are in the ground.
Stephen, on many levels. Despite being a slave himself, he is just as tyrannical and abusive (sometimes more so) to the slaves as the white owners. He is unquestioningly loyal and devoted to the Candie family, as well as the whole antebellum, bigoted way of life.
The implied Incest Subtext between Calvin and Lara. Not only is Calvin excessively eager to see his sister, she presents herself in a way that seems less like a sibling greeting her brother, and more like a lover. She obviously dolled herself up for his arrival.
Lara Lee (Calvin's sister) is a widow. Considering his very unsettling infatuation with her, is it really that far-fetched to consider Calvin might have had something to do with that so he could have her for himself? He is shown to enjoy watching human beings being killed before his very eyes, so it isn't a stretch to think he is also perfectly capable of knocking off his own brother-in-law.
Schultz's final apology to Django, and the look they share. Both men know that Schultz just killed all three of them by assassinating Candie in a heavily fortified mansion that is teeming with gunmen who will cut them all down in retribution. He seems to know just how bad he's fucked them over, just when it seems they were on the verge of victory.
While Stephen's actions in the movie are horrible and inexcusable, consider his situation: he's lived his whole life in world where he's treated as nothing better than a work horse, his very race means he's viewed as, and treated like a subhuman in that society, he's witnessed numerous crimes against humanity, and he constantly has to play an Uncle Tom for the benefit of his masters. All the suffering he's probably endured, being desensitized to such cruelty, being embittered by having to kowtow to a bunch of white trash imbeciles, and never getting any kind of freedom would destroy and corrupt any person. Being a brutal house slave is likely the only thing Stephen knows how to be and the only thing he can aspire to. While he's done too much bad to be sympathetic, he's also a victim of the evils of slavery itself.
At the end of the film, Django and Hilda successfully kill all the owners and overseers at Candieland before running away. One can only imagine the reaction that must've occurred throughout the South at the thought of a post-Nat Turner slave rebellion going that far.
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