For someone who’s made a name for himself particularly when it comes to the use of the n-word in his movies, you’d think Quentin Tarantino would pay attention to the criticism he receives from black people.
As Tarantino preps for his newest Christmas Day release, The Hateful Eight, starring Samuel L. Jackson, he spoke about the criticism he’s received throughout his career, but especially regarding his film Django Unchained.
“If you’ve made money being a critic in black culture in the last 20 years, you have to deal with me,” Tarantino stated. “You must have an opinion of me. You must deal with what I’m saying and deal with the consequences.
“If you sift through the criticism, you’ll see it’s pretty evenly divided between pros and cons,” he continued. “But when the black critics came out with savage think pieces about Django, I couldn’t have cared less. If people don’t like my movies, they don’t like my movies, and if they don’t get it, it doesn’t matter.”
Savage. What an interesting word.
People have taken issue with Tarantino’s flagrant use of the n-word throughout his movies. There was even a running count of how many times it was used in Django (109 times). But Tarantino still wonders why he’s being singled out.
“The bad taste that was left in my mouth had to do with this: It’s been a long time since the subject of a writer’s skin was mentioned as often as mine. You wouldn’t think the color of a writer’s skin should have any effect on the words themselves. In a lot of the more ugly pieces, my motives were really brought to bear in the most negative way. It’s like I’m some supervillain coming up with this stuff.”
Well, maybe people feel that he is a supervillain because he’s a white man who is so comfortable using the word?
Although one of Tarantino’s biggest critics has been Spike Lee, there are other black people in Hollywood who don’t see anything wrong with him. From Jamie Foxx to Antoine Fuqua, there are those who consider him one of the greatest filmmakers of our time.