Quentin Tarantino’s unique brand of filmmaking is Inglourious Basterds’ Col. Hans Landa—in movie history.
Tarantino is so good at creating characters that even his sidekick characters are iconic. His most memorable sidekicks are Cliff Booth, Rick Dalton’s stunt double from Django Unchained. Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz both won an Academy Award for Best ing Actor for these roles.
Cliff: Brad Pitt Gave His Greatest Performance In The Role
Quentin Tarantino is one of the few filmmakers who recognize Brad Pitt’s most underutilized asset: his sense of humor. In True Romance and Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino gave Pitt plenty of comedic material to work with and he nailed it.
Cliff Booth is arguably Pitt’s funniest character, and the result is his greatest performance. His turn as Tyler Durden is a close second, but Pitt brought a unique combination of nuance, charisma, and hilarity to Cliff.
Dr. Schultz: Being A Dentist-Turned-Bounty Hunter Makes Him Uniquely Quirky
Although Django Unchained was Tarantino’s first full-on western, it upends a lot of western tropes. For starters, the director doesn’t even consider it to be a western; he calls it a “Southern” due to its antebellum-era setting.
Just as freed slave-turned-bounty hunter Django Freeman is a spaghetti western hero like no other, a German dentist-turned-bounty hunter is a similarly unique creation.
Cliff: He Has A Rich Backstory
During the writing of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino fleshed out a full backstory for Cliff Booth. He’s a war hero from the Second World war, and he's not afraid to pick a fight. It’s also suggested that he killed his wife, although the flashback sequence leaves it ambiguous.
Not a lot of this backstory made it into the movie itself, but it did inform the character and make him feel more like a real person. Perhaps the novelization will reveal more details from Cliff’s backstory.
Dr. Schultz: He’s A ing Character In The Truest Sense
Whereas Cliff often steals the spotlight from Rick throughout Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and it’s unclear if he’s really Rick’s sidekick or if they’re both the stars of the movie, Dr. Schultz is a ing character in Django’s journey in the truest sense.
He gets Django started on the adventure that will lead him to save his wife Broomhilda. Then, when he gets himself killed during the sale, he messes things up royally. This forces Django to exacts revenge against the Candyland brass singlehandedly.
Cliff: He’s Fiercely Loyal To Rick
Cliff is fiercely loyal to Rick Dalton, the TV western star for whom he used to double in action scenes. When the stunt work dried up, Cliff became Rick’s personal assistant. But, they’re not just co-workers; Cliff proves in the finale that he really cares about Rick, and vice versa.
While Dr. Schultz lets his pride get in the way of Django’s quest to liberate his wife from Candyland, Cliff sticks by Rick every step of the way. When the Manson Family shows up to kill him, Cliff is there with his badass pit bull Brandy to defend the homestead in a delightfully brutal fashion.
Dr. Schultz: He’s A Lovable Counterpoint To Hans Landa
After Christoph Waltz had turned Col. Hans Landa into one of the most sinister and unforgettable villains ever put on screen in Tarantino’s previous movie Inglourious Basterds, the director wrote the role of Dr. Schultz for the actor in Django Unchained. Schultz is a surprisingly lovable counterpoint to Landa, showing off Waltz’s range in Tarantino’s filmography alone.
While Landa is a Nazi detective fueled by hate and nicknamed “the Jew Hunter,” the only prejudice Dr. Schultz has is against hateful people like Calvin Candie.
Cliff: His Laidback Approach To Life Is Inspiring
We can all learn something from Cliff Booth’s refreshingly laid-back approach to life. It’s easy to get stressed out about things, but Cliff’s response to losing his livelihood is simply to kick back and wait for his luck to turn around. While Rick is in a much cushier position than Cliff and he’s worried sick about his future, Cliff just rolls with the punches and hopes that everything will work out.
Dr. Schultz: Christoph Waltz Shared Impeccable Chemistry With Jamie Foxx
Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt shared terrific chemistry in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—and Tarantino’s comparisons to Paul Newman and Robert Redford were certainly warranted—but Christoph Waltz shared even stronger chemistry with Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained.
Over the course of the movie, Schultz spends months training Django to become the fastest gun in the South. During that time, they develop a tangible mentor-mentee dynamic.
Cliff: The Final Fight Scene Is Spectacular
For the most part, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood subverts more than makes up for it. On the night that the Manson Family sets out to kill Sharon Tate and her guests, the murderers decide to go next door to Rick Dalton’s house, where they get a lot more than they bargained for.
Their plan is to kill the TV cowboy who supposedly taught them to kill with the glamorous violence on his show, but they’re met with his tripping stunt double, who, armed with a can of dog food, dispatches them in Tarantino's typical over-the-top fashion.
Dr. Schultz: He’s A Fair Person In An Unfair World
When we meet Dr. Schultz, he offers to buy Django from the slavers leading his chain gang. After they refuse, he kills one of them and traps the other under his horse, then allows the rest of the chain gang to kill their remaining captor and free themselves.
Throughout the movie, Schultz is shown to be disgusted by slavery. One incident that particularly affects him is the execution of D’Artagnan. Schultz is a fair person living in an unfair world.
