Quentin-Tarantino loses his cool with Krishnan-Guru-Murthy over Django Unchained, would Krishnan have the same interview about Spielberg’s Lincoln? I think not!

Dear All

Quentin Tarantino has produced some great American movies, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown.

His latest Django Unchained is nominated for best pic at the Oscars, but this year, I think that Lincoln by Steven Spielberg will capture the honours.

Django Unchained like many of Tarantino pays homage to other movies; one of them is Mandingo which is available to see on Youtube.

Mandingo is a movie about slavery but not in the same crafted way as Amistad, again by Steven Spielberg.

You have to make your own mind up about it after you watch Mandingo.

Django Unchained looks to be getting a lot of exposure; the trailers look slick and in the tradition of spaghetti westerns expect a lot of people to get shot. But despite all the bloody and mayhem, it is still just a movie.

In America, the Sandyhook shooting was another terrible event, but Tarantino’s movie like every other movie in history were people were pretend shot and killed has nothing to go with it.

I am therefore not surprised that Tarantino lost his cool with journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy during an interview.

Would Krishnan say the same stuff to Steven Spielberg over Lincoln?

I would suggest he would use a different tack, Spielberg are exceptionally crafted period pieces but people still pretend to get shot and killed. Movies are just entertainment, much in the same way that first person shooter games are just entertainment.

Last week on American TV a rattled Tarantino said that any comparison with violent films and the recent US Sandy Hook massacre was 'disrespectful'. He is right, when a terrible tragic event like Sandyhook occurs; there is a tendency in the press to look for the lowest common denominator.

Does anyone think when the Taliban are cutting people’s heads off it is because they watched too many Clint Eastwood movies in the 1970’s?

I think Tarantino could have handled the interview better and defeated Krishnan’s arguments. Tarantino is selling a product, he and his company and the actors looked to have produced a very good movie which will entertain at lot of people, for Krishnan to try and stigmatise it was entirely wrong.

Tarantino made the point that this interview was a commercial for the movie, it was done as most interviews are done to create an impression, although in movies beside the obvious plot, sub plots are interwoven which have social messages to the audiences.

Django Unchained stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L Jackson and has been nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture, Original Screenplay and Actor in a Supporting Role for actor Christoph Waltz.

It’s a movie made by very talented people.

When you watch a Tarantino movie you expect to be entertained, and he usually delivers, the last movie of his I watched was Inglorious Basterds, my complaint about that was it wasn’t a classic war, he failed to do it, it wasn’t Where Eagles Dare, Stalag 17, Attack, Das Boot or even Run Silent, Run Deep, it started well and then descended to over the top camp comic farce.

The movie was well shot and Christoph Waltz did an excellent performance but Brad Pitt was a Turkey and Eli Roth’s character was exceptionally poor in concept.

In short a pile of shit.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Tarantino both did a poor interview, Krishan wouldn’t have spoken to Spielberg comparing Lincoln with Sandyhook.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University