A couple of weeks ago it looked like Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film, The Hateful Eight, was going to be overrun with controversy following the director’s divisive remarks regarding police brutality. Last night’s Los Angeles premiere was set to be a big indicator of just how venomous the protests against the film would be. The thing is, though, nothing actually happened and the screening for the western went off without interruption.
Rebecca Ford, who writes for The Hollywood Reporter, attended the event, and informed her Twitter followers that Quentin Tarantino’s mood was immediately buoyed by the serene nature of the premiere. She even revealed that QT warmed up the crowd with what I now hope becomes his usual greeting when entering Hollywood soirees.
Quentin Tarantino’s good mood didn’t stop there. From all accounts, he was the one who enjoyed The Hateful Eight the most out of everyone in attendance, as his laughter was said to be booming over every other member of the audience’s chortling.
To be fair to Quentin Tarantino, it’s completely understandable why he was so relieved at the lack of problems at The Hateful Eight premiere. While attending a rally against police brutality back in October, the Pulp Fiction filmmaker referred to some officers "murderers." The Fraternal Order of Police, which is based in Washington D.C. and has over 330,000 full-time police officers as members, reacted furiously to these remarks, which Tarantino later clarified.
Last month, the FOP’s executive director, Jim Pasco, teased that in response to his remarks they were working on a "surprise" for Tarantino that would take place between early November and the film's LA premiere. This period has now come to an end, and nothing untoward has occurred to Tarantino. Yet.
But with The Hateful Eight due out on Christmas Day there’s every chance that Pasco and his band of police officers could be waiting until we're closer to the actual release date to pounce. Which is kind of perplexing to me. Because, despite the hasty nature of Tarantino’s comments, shouldn’t calculated revenge be the sort of thing that police officers are above?
