Over the weekend, Spike Lee told Vibe TV that he won’t be seeing Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, because it’s disrespectful. I don’t know how he knows that without having seen it, but whenever people don’t see a movie, I like to imagine them saying “here’s my impression of the audience for Miracle at St. Anna.”
“I cant speak on it ’cause I’m not gonna see it,” Lee said. “All I’m going to say is that it’s disrespectful to my ancestors. That’s just me… I’m not speaking on behalf of anybody else.”
I guess “speaking on it” doesn’t include what he just said or what he said on Twitter, because he also Tweeted the following:
American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western.It Was A Holocaust.My Ancestors Are Slaves.Stolen From Africa.I Will Honor Them.
— Spike Lee (@SpikeLee) December 22, 2012
“@ba_benny_boy @spikelee its just a movie damn spike”Wrong.Birth Of A Nation Got Black Folks Lynced.Media Is Powerful.DON’T SLEEP.WAKE UP YO
— Spike Lee (@SpikeLee) December 22, 2012
While Spike Lee has a history of saying dumb things (accidentally retweeting an elderly couple’s address while trying to incite mob violence against George Zimmerman being only one of the more recent) and of publicly criticizing Tarantino, I don’t want to just dismiss what he says out of hand because of who he is. Though I will say that if you’re trying to do intellectual cultural criticism, maybe a phone that capitalizes every word and makes you sound like semi-literate spambot isn’t the best tool.
As for the criticism, I’m not sure what it even is. That you’re not allowed to make genre films about serious subjects? That every slave movie should be Roots? The holocaust is a terrible comparison. “Slavery was a holocaust! You don’t see Tarantino making three-hour spaghetti westerns about the holocaust, do you? I mean, other than that three-hour holocaust western he made three years ago!”
The Hollywood Reporter notes that in 1997, following the release of Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown,” Lee said, “I have a definite problem with Quentin Tarantino’s excessive use of the n-word. And let the record state that I never said that he cannot use that word — I’ve used that word in many of my films — but I think something is wrong with him.” [Salon]
Here’s where it gets tricky, because even though he wasn’t sharp enough to even make this point himself, you sort of have to grant Spike Lee the fact that people probably wouldn’t see a problem with Tarantino using the n-word a billion times in a movie about slavery (where it follows that characters would constantly be using the n-word) if he hadn’t already used it a bunch in movies where he didn’t really need it (Jimmy in Pulp Fiction, say). Clearly, the more un-PC something is, the more Tarantino is going to want to do it. And what’s more un-PC than the n-word? The worse you say the word is, the more attractive it becomes, because now it feels naughty. The taboo is the entire point. I can imagine certain people laughing at those lines for all the wrong reasons, and that being pretty uncomfortable to be around (ie, the Dave Chappelle effect), but if you start tailoring your art towards the worst people, you’re all but guaranteed to end up with some terrible art. Should smart people turn in their rhetorical tools to keep dumb people from using them? Are we just blinded by Tarantino’s movies being so entertaining? How do you get people to stop saying a word that they only say because people are always telling them not to say it?
I don’t really know what the solution here is, so I’m just going to eat some pie. “This story, you know, it has a lot ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-yous.” -Jeffrey Lebowski.
[photo credit: Rena Schild / Shutterstock.com]
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It better be bean pie.
Good thing he isn’t going to see it, because that scene where Jamie Foxx rubs Christoph Waltz down with an ice cube in the unbearable southern heat would have pissed him off A LOT.
Spike added: “And Tarantino wouldn’t have the balls to wear a Baron Samedi costume when it wasn’t even Halloween, like I do! But if he DID…it would be disrespectful.”
I don’t remember the Wolf saying it. I remember Zed and Lance using the word, though.
Did he not? I guess he didn’t. For some reason I thought he said “one n**ger, minus head”, but apparently he didn’t. My bad.
Jules, Lance, Mr Wallace, Zed and his security rapist buddy all drop N bombs from what I remember(from seeing it two days ago). Wolf is too damn smooth for it. Chris Walken says ‘Gook’ but I’m sure Mr Lee has no problem with that.
I know I’m probably in the minority but I always had a problem with Tarantino’s character saying n***er in Pulp Fiction (I guess it was to set up the irony that his wife is black, but whatever). Of course, then you have the shitpile known as Bamboozled (ignoring the anti-Semitic tone of that film) where Spike takes a shot at Tarantino with the Michael Rappaport character.
I always figured Lance dropped the N bomb to emphasize how pissed he was as well as to illustrate the tight relationship he had with Jules. You figure a skinny white guy dropping the N word to Jules would cause a violent reaction otherwise, but he has a close relationship with Jules and has a black wife(possibly related to Jules thus the familiarity).
It feels genuine when Tarantino characters use it. He doesn’t just use it for the sake of using it, its there to provide realism and characterization. IMO anyway.
@The Hammer 2 I don’t know enough about the production of the movie but what if the scene was written for a Black character and Tarantino stepped in?
I don’t want to speak for Tarantino but he’s clearly enamored of Black pop-culture and it seems that he believes he has some sort of a pass.
Im not sure about Lance being a black actor first… But I will say Tarantino is an artist, I think artistic license gives him a pass. IDK him personally but I doubt he drops N-bombs in his normal speech. He has characters that use it, and when they use it it seems to fit the character rather than just tacked on use it cause he could.
You are confusing your white guys (ya, I know, we all look alike). Lance is the drug dealer who drops the n-bomb to Vincent while selling him smack (comparing the quality of hos product to that of his contemporaries in Compton).
Jimmy is Tarantino’s character who drops the n-bomb when complaining about the business he is not in to Jules.
The whole “Well, WE can say it because we’re black!” thing is ignorant. You don’t want people to use it? Stop saying it altogether. I remember in Basic Training, two fellow soldiers (both black)were bullshitting and using the N word like it was going out of style, my DS (white guy)heard them and went apeshit and said if he heard two white soldiers using that word then they would get chaptered out so fast their heads would spin. The soldiers immediately went to “Oh he RACIST!” strategy. However, their strategy was nullified when the DS showed up with black wife and two black kids. He wasn;t racist, he was just tired of the word..and he was right. It’s a stupid word. Everyone of every race should stop using it.
I don’t disagree, but again, I don’t know how you get people to stop saying a word that they only say because people are always telling them not to say it.
I agree there too, I was more going against Spike’s “I mean yeah, I used it in MY films, but I’m black!” defense
Spike Lee librally uses racial slurs against Whites and other races but its OK when he does it, according to him.
smh, its not something that can be easily explained to white people….its a very odd word with a confusing and interesting history. as petty as it is, it being “our word and only we can use it” is a sort of comeback to years of scars caused by the word and racists. its silly yes, but being able to claim ownership of the word and dictate who can use it counts as a win, in a messed up sort of way.
for all the racial bullshit that still happens today, being able to say hey white guy, heres something u cant do/say, is uplifting. i know i sound pretty dumb, but its a sticky situation and thats my best explanation for it…
No, I get it, despite me being white. I really do.
@st8chill, I know what you’re saying. I have a much different feeling when someone Jewish or someone I’m very close to makes jokes about Jews than I do if someone else does it.
jewish jokes are different tho…saying oh jews like money, or hey look as his nose, dont carry the weight that the N-word does. it just doesnt, dropping the K-word tho? thats a closer comparison. NO ONE says the k word out loud besides a few jewish comedians.
but trust if a non jewish director makes a movie about jews chilling and plotting a rebellion inside of a concentration camps while cartoon nazis yell the k-word over and over again, it will be a problem…and God i hate doing the “if this happened” thing
Ummm You do know that we basically made that into a TV showin the 60s right?? Hogan’s Heroes ring a bell? Colonial Klink much?
This was a very well-written piece, despite the glaring omission of the word “buffoonery”
For some reason I cant log into my normal account at work anymore… anyways:
“Did you see a sign outside that says dead African American Storage?!”
“Well… no I mean…”
“Did you see a SIGN OUTSIDE THAT SAYS DEAD AFRICAN AMERICAN STORAGE?!”
“Shit.. no but…”
“You didn’t see that sign because I’m not in the business OF STORING DEAD AFRICAN AMERICANS!”
Is the race important? Surely “DID YOU SEEN A SIGN SAYING HEADLESS FUCKING BODY STORAGE?!” or whatever would have achieved the same, script-wise?
My favorite Black stereo-type is the Boombox.
Mine is the sagging baggy pants
8-Ball jacket.
Sweet potato pie.
Mine is the fear of ghosts and swimming pools.
Appreciate the pun, CC
While Spike is pursuing one way of staying relevant: criticizing people like Tarantino and Clint Eastwood I wish he’d pursue a better way: making good movies.
Well I give up, what’s the n-word?
nagger
Nesbian.
noobian
Whats a noobian? (screw it, if we’re having a feud between cult directors with annoying fanboys and haters, might as well bring in Smith.)
Palpatine and Amidala were Noobians.
HSS, shut the fuck up!
You’re all wrong, Thats a Moor ehh?
This shouldn’t be a story because his opinion is irrelevant. If he was talking about a movie he had seen then we could maybe listen to his opinion. He hasn’t seen it so whatever he thinks about it doesn’t matter.
Oh for fuck’s sake. Why are people asking Spike Lee about anything other than where to find oversized throwback Knicks jerseys? Nazism was horrible too but Inglorius Basterds was still a good movie.
LOL’d at the Knicks jerseys. Where does he get those??
absolutely relevant as he is a prominent director known for films about race and history and is looking at Django as disrespectful through those eyes. he can make that call based on the trailer alone.
CONVERSEly, i think his opinion on hoops is irrelevant as he never shows up and supports the WNBA like my man Matt Modine.
#realmenloveWNBA #wnbactsun
[a.espncdn.com]
If you’re a film director and you rip on a movie without seeing it, then you are absolutely irrelevant. You can’t make that call through the trailers, not one bit.
Considering what happens in the third act of Django Unchained, Spike Lee should be professing his love for it from the highest mountain.
The Holocaust Was Not A Bank Robbery Thriller.It Was A Holocaust.Your Ancestors Were European Jews.Honor Them.
- Spike Lee, encouraging Jewish people not to watch Inside Man
Spike Lee isn’t like every other director, you know, who directs movies, he was always more interested in what black folks are saying 20 years after his fall from relevance. Oprah is a real hero of his. Diddy. Diddy would be another person who’s a hero. The movies Tarantino has created over the years, he doesn’t really watch them, but the fact that he’s making them, he respects that.
What strikes me as ironic is that Tarantino and Spike seem to have the same ignorance. I’m less sympathetic of Spike because I see him as smarter and yet his exploration of race always boils down to “White people are bad”. Tarantino has a really juvenile view of the world: I think he feels… guilt isn’t the right word, but he is empathetic to the marginalization of women and minorities and wants to allow them to have their moments as heroes exacting their revenge.
Look at his last four movies: Kill Bill and Death Proof were about a woman exacting revenge on a male antagonist, Inglorious Basterds was Jews getting back at the Nazis (and as a Jew I cannot express how much I love that movie, I’m completely irrational), and Django is a Black man getting revenge for slavery.
so from skimming these comments, i take it that no one understands where spike is coming from on this? while i dont agree with him 100% i do see his points and some of his concerns are valid ones….these kinda topics are hard to view from the other side. its easy for a white guy to tell spike to stfu without really thinking about the reasons why he feels that way.
didnt mean to reply to u, sorry
Not to speak for others; but it’s the hypocrisy that Spike is upset about Django but had no comment about Basterds.
I honestly don’t understand why he feels the way he does. Is it that Tarantino is white? Or that Spike thinks it diminishes the horrors of slavery? Without seeing it I don’t think Spike is in a position to comment.
Again, I’m Jewish and I had no problem with Tarantino doing Basterds.
cuz basterds didnt glorify/stylize the jewish murdering part…they killed nazis without showing any actually jewish murder besides the opening scene. the key difference is that Django is showing u the dirty stuff. we never saw the basterds break jews from a camp, or actually show the horrors of mass murder.
what we have in unchained is the whippings, the brandings, the rough stuff. not just hearing about them, but showing them…
But is it glorifying or stylizing in Django? I don’t think the characters who are doing the abusing are meant to be seen as heroes or objects of admiration. In fact, without showing those things couldn’t you argue that Tarantino was sanitizing slavery?
Total Tarantino apologism here, I admit, but – perhaps you have to take into account the fact that Holocaust atrocities have been shown on film so much already – Schindler’s List, The Pianist, Sophie’s Choice, etc. – that to do it again would be hacky and unnecessary. Whereas slavery movies – Amistad, Glory, Lincoln, etc. – often avoid direct depictions of atrocities against slaves.
ur not getting my point, im not saying that showing the harsh truth of slavery in unchained is bad (as cartoony as it my be.) if basterds had a true holocaust background there would be some justifiable uneasiness about the movie. QT was smart and kept it on the war front while at the same time giving some kind of jewish revenge.
the same route couldve been taken with unchained, civil war style revenge with slavery being mentioned. but QT being QT put this one on in the shit, being a QT fan i think thats an awesome risk to take. but i wont dismiss any black person that doesnt have any desire to see the movie because of that risk. especially after reading his so-called inspiration for the film.
all im saying is to understand the critism rather than outright dismiss it… –dismissively wanks in whiteface off stage–
@Vince, true indeed and valid. slavery is always something most artists (nonblack or otherwise) use the kid gloves when dealing with the harsh realities. the masses i tried watching roots during the break and it made me angry (shit i dont even know why)its a tough, tough subject. for QT to add his familiar style and basically go at the topic with a sledgehammer was sure to draw some side-eyes.
meant “the masses dont want to see how bad slavery was.”
not that anyone still cares at this point. only person in the office and im bored as shit.
I thought the depiction of the atrocities of slavery was one of the most important parts of the movie. You very rarely see such an unforgiving and realistic portrayal of how slaves were treated, and it was almost hard to stomach at times. It really made me wonder to myself how humans could do such things to another person, and I’m glad it made me think about it.
Let’s be real and show it as it actually was – I think Tarentino accomplished that, and Spike Lee should appreciate the realism instead of ignorantly condemning it without even watching the movie.
Jesus, is that how he dresses now? Worst birthday party musician ever.
“Timmy, I’m sensing that the card you’re holding is a spade. Because you’re a god damned racist.”
I meant *magician*. Because obviously Spike would be a kick ass birthday party musician. By which I mean he’d blast Public Enemy and do the Rosie Perez dance while Michael Rapaport handled the catering.
Did you just refer to Spike Lee as a magical negro? What a cliche!
Soooo….who else would like to join me in having a round of negroni cocktails this fine day?
so from skimming these comments, i take it that no one understands where spike is coming from on this? while i dont agree with him 100% i do see his points and some of his concerns are valid ones….these kinda topics are hard to view from the other side. its easy for a white guy to tell spike to stfu without really thinking about the reasons why he feels that way.
Not to speak for others; but it’s the hypocrisy that Spike is upset about Django but had no comment about Basterds.
I honestly don’t understand why he feels the way he does. Is it that Tarantino is white? Or that Spike thinks it diminishes the horrors of slavery? Without seeing it I don’t think Spike is in a position to comment.
Again, I’m Jewish and I had no problem with Tarantino doing Basterds and he literally rewrote history. There might be valid reasons for Spike’s opinions but it comes across as sour grapes and personal beef.
Yup, whitey just don’t understand….That was Will Smith’s original title until The Man made him change it.
meh at the jokes mrejr, def trying to have a decent discussion on this.
cuz basterds didnt stylize the jewish murdering part…they killed nazis without showing any actually jewish murder besides the opening scene. the key difference is that Django is showing u the dirty stuff. we never saw the basterds break jews from a camp, or actually show the horrors of mass murder.
for a movie about WW2 there wasnt a lot of holocaust stuff was it? WW2 was the backdrop of basterds, not the holocaust. slavery is the background for unchained, and you cant fathom that a black director may be put off at the fact that a white director is creating a western with the backdrop of the worst period in black history.
u dont have to agree with him, as i said before, i dont. but to dismiss his whole argument makes it seems like u either dont understand his concerns or dont care to.
But again, if he has a real point to make, he should a) see the entire film and b) voice his opinion somewhere other than Twitter. You’re giving him way too much credit.
The problem is Spike Lee’s feelings about Tarantino are nuanced and Lee doesn’t do nuance. Everything is black and white, right and wrong in his view. He’s always the smartest guy in the room and he’s never wrong, and it’s only getting worse as he gets older.
Every Spike Lee film screams MESSAGE!!!! and represents his honest feelings on the subjects, and he presumes that every other filmmaker does it the same way. So Tarantino’s glib use of the n-word, despite being a white director, frustrates Lee and causes all kinds of cognitive dissonance. He knows Tarantino isn’t racist but can’t reconcile that with Tarantino’s dialogue. He can’t psychologically grasp that Tarantino makes movies for the sake of making movies, and not to give voice to some overlooked social injustice. I’d be willing to bet that the origin of Inglorious Basterds was more about some dude carving swastikas into other dudes’ foreheads — because that’s pretty metal — than about Jews, Nazis, or WWII.
I’m not knocking Lee or trying to minimize his feelings, but Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino aren’t the two guys I’d choose to discuss the intricacies and subtleties of American race relations. Lee still thinks it’s 1986 and Tarantino is high on cocaine.
aye, I think Spike didn’t speak on Basterds because he cannot speak as a Jewish person and doesn’t feel he can speak for their people. As a black person I think he feels entitled to speak for black people.
I will say, its very dubious whenever a white man tells a story of black man, historically we don’t have great odds of it being done well in our favor. I also believe we should question QT motives for doing Django since in the long run it might be problematic, it’s our reflex as older black people (some feel its their duty).
I can’t say if QT is right, but until I can see what his motivation is, I think its something that should be questioned. “Is QT being disrespectful” is a valid question looking at QT’s semi-obsession with black pop culture. As a black man I do fear having our story exploited in general.
I believe the artists motivation/intent should be taken into consideration when you view their work, which is why I am all for Chris Brown Shaming.
@kungjistu fair enough. Can’t argue too much with that, cheers
@enig mue I think we have to look at kungjistu said…it’s clear that QT thinks black people are cool…he’s fascinated with things he finds cool…may it be film, Kung fu, violence, he puts shit he thinks is cool in his movies. His potrayal of black folk in his films are mostly based on other media’s interpretations of them. He has zero fucks when it comes to any social impact of his films….he just makes cool shit for people like him.
But I will say there is something that can be said in terms of his potrayal of black folk in his movies, it would be an interested analysis/discussion
@st8CHILL There is a discussion to be had here, if not about this movie, then Hollywood in general. And Spike Lee could bring some valuable insight to it. He’s a prominent black director who seems to have a pretty good handle on cinematic history.
The problem is he has to pull his head out of his own ass to be productive in such a conversation. He started off by saying he hadn’t seen the movie, so he couldn’t say anything about it. He then proceeds to go on a judgmental rant about a movie he hasn’t actually seen. Do you get why it is a little hard to take him seriously right now?
I can understand the knee-jerk reaction to think that QT doesn’t have the ‘right’ to tell stories about black america, but if we kept QT’s movies to just things he can reference in his own lineage, we’d just have another Kevin Smith. The world only needs one Kevin Smith.
Writers/Directors are storytellers and they should be able to tell any story they want in any setting they want. Lee should be applauding QT for showing slavery in a light we never get at the movies, showing us just what a dirty business it was without romanticising it. Some of those scenes made me want to throw up, and that’s a good thing.
My family went to the movies on Xmas to see Django Unchained. I am African American and I enjoyed this movie. It was a twist of events, it was wickedly & brilliantly done in my opinion . Spike Lee is entitled to his opinion. Do u really think we wanted to sit through a depressing slavery movie on Xmas????
Having watched Reggie Miller vs The New York Knicks on Netflix I can say that Spike Lee is a jackass.
Having also watched that documentary, I can corroborate this.
As a Knicks fan, thirded
now he can’t bitch the next time someone attacks one of his movies sight-unseen as he’s set a precedent that seeing the movie you have a problem with is not necessary.
haha. just kidding. no one talks about Spike Lee films anymore.
And the mad genius of Spike Lee wins again. Well done internet.
Spike is just jealous that QT is still in the spotlight and he’s fading into obscurity.
Maybe if the majority of the white characters in Spike’s movies didn’t spew out racist bigotry all the time, I’d be more likely to agree with him.
First off, I haven’t seen it yet but I’ve heard enough about it to know that there are some uncomfortable moments in the film. And as a black person, if a Tarentino movie is what it takes to get mainstream audiences (re: white people) to conceptualize how horrible American slavery was then so be it.
Does it suck that many other great films were ignored in the process of getting out that message? Sure. Is that message undermined by having a white person deliver it? Not sure. But the message is out there, and that’s all that matters.
Considering how touchy he is about the perpetuation of black stereotypes, perhaps Mr Lee could take a step in the right direction by surrendering his Knicks tickets?
Is he mad at Spielberg for making Lincoln with a white actor is he?
I think the fact that spike didn’t see the movie and said he wasn’t going to speak on it then proceeded to do so anyway goes to the heart of why his comments are irritating. I don’t think anyone would have a problem if spike saw the movie and then made the same comments. one might disagree with his opinion, but at least he’d have some legitimacy. as it stands now, it feels like spike is just trolling to get people to talk about him again. in which case 8/10 because my jimmies are rustled.
It is beyond entertaining watching you all dance around this subject.
You’ve clearly never seen white people dance.
noted race hustler spike lee is against some movie i didn’t want to see?
/grabs keys and wallet
/going to see django
/has no problem with tarantino getting my money now
Kike Men Can’t Jump. (note to comment moderation: I’m Jewish.)
he is right because there are no films about the holocaust…oh wait.
It is a satire film but the n word usage is OVER BOARD .. the word was not even negative in that way in the american lexicon until the 1900′s
Tarantino is a sick man to love this word so much ACCORDING TO THE ENCYCLOPEDIA
By the 1900s, nigger had become a pejorative word. In its stead, the term colored became the mainstream alternative to negro and its derived terms. Abolitionists in Boston, Massachusetts, posted warnings to the Colored People of Boston and vicinity. Writing in 1904, journalist Clifton Johnson documented the “opprobrious” character of the word nigger, emphasizing that it was chosen in the South precisely because it was more offensive than “colored.”[8] Established as mainstream American English usage, the word colored features in the organizational title of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, reflecting the members’ racial identity preference at the 1909 foundation. In the Southern United States, the local American English dialect changes the pronunciation of negro to nigra. Linguistically, in developing American English, in the early editions of A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806), lexicographer Noah Webster suggested the neger new spelling in place of negro.[9]
Okay, so you didn’t see the movie either. Or perhaps you don’t know what satire is. Django Unchained is anything but satire.
BTW, the film’s story takes place in 1858, well before the 1900′s, so it was part of the vernacular at the time. I think Sam Jackson’s character used it more than anyone.
I think Tarantino borrowed a little bit from this film Legend of Nigger Charley and Soul of Nigger Charley featuring Fred Williamson. It focuses on a trio of escaped slaves who are down to fight and win against white oppressors.I hear that when this films came out It was highest grossing film of 1972.
[www.youtube.com]
“…but I think something is wrong with him.”
Precicely why I see QT films.
Exactly, no one gives a shit about a mentally well adjusted “artist”. They’re boring.
Who?
Excellent piece on this very subject: [whiteseducatingwhites.tumblr.com]
I disagree.
I agree with Vince.
I don’t agree with either of you, or the writer of the article (I’m much closer to his POV, however) but I enjoy hearing different folks views!
SHIT, sorry , I should have said – SPOILERS in the linked piece.