Quentin Tarantino has been forced to the forefront of the discussion of violence in cinema pretty much since he broke onto the scene with Reservoir Dogs in 1992. And whether he has a new movie, or there's a very public tragedy involving gun violence, or both, his name has been dragged through the discussion, clips from his movies have been flashed as examples of heinous movie violence, and value and impact of his work has again and again been called into question. After twenty-five years of this, Tarantino has had enough.
So, when Channel 4 News interviewer Krishnan Guru-Murthy sat down with Tarantino to discuss Django Unchained, which has just been nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, the filmmaker, who has never been shy about sharing a piece of his mind, snapped. Check out their heated exchange below thanks to a tip from Vulture.
Tarantino states:
"I don't want to talk about the implications of violence. The reason I don't want to talk about it is 'cause I've said everything I have to say about it. If anyone cares what I have to say about it, they can Google me and they can look for twenty years of what I've had to say but I haven't changed my opinion one iota."
Personally, I find it hypocritical of the news media to criticize movies for the glorification of violence when they have a 24-hour news cycle that turns every madman with a gun into a celebrity at breakneck speed. And yet I understand where Guru-Murthy's coming from here. If he can get Tarantino to say anything at all on the topic, it's a story his outlet can publicize. But that's exactly why Tarantino is so frustrated. No matter what the outlet, venue or film, it all comes back to the violence that is just one aspect of his work. Sure, he loses his temper here, but really, who could blame him?
