February 15, 2013

Tarantino: "Indians have more or less disappeared"

Quentin Tarantino on ‘Django Unchained’

By Jérôme VermelinYou’re generally not thought of as being ‘political’ but…

(Interrupting) Django is a political movie. Although first and foremost, it’s a great adventure. But it’s political. My aim was to take the audience back to 1800s, in the South, before the American Civil War, and to show how life really was for black people.”

Where did this desire to denounce the violence that occurred back then come from?

I honestly don’t know why no other director has tackled the issue before. Maybe it’s a topic people would rather avoid. But it will never go away. The eradication of American Indians and the enslavement of black people are two of America’s original sins. Indians have more or less disappeared but the black community is still very much here. As is America’s unease. It’s a stain, a scar on my country’s face. The movie has done really well in the US, and the debates it has sparked are very gratifying. Between black people, white people, between black and white people. Even those who didn’t like the film are talking about it.
Comment:  Wow. This explains why he and other Hollywood filmmakers don't do films about Indians. They're not racist pigs, they're just ignorant twits. They don't realize that some five million Americans identify as all or part Native.

Reactions

Some reactions to this posting on Facebook's NativeCelebs page:Um Native Americans are still around WTF?

Someone PLEASE help Tarantino get the news. Help him learn the truth. I know he's only doing the best he can with what little he has been given to know.

Blinders on, check!

Wow, even someone in Australia is aware enough to know that American Indians HAVE NOT MORE OR LESS DISAPPEARED!! Tarantino please go for drive through, oh let's say Arizona!

Disappeared really Mr Tarantino haven't you looked out your car window?

If he doesn't see us in Hollywood, we are gone huh?

Did he EVEN THINK BEFORE he started flapping his MOONLIKE jaw???? Gawd! He sounds like Jay Leno trying to make a funny joke...then FAILS!!

Hard to believe an adult could say such a thing.

Dang.....some people do not bother to think. Nor do they even look around. What does Mr. T think a Mexican is or an Eskimo? And if he will take a drive through Oklahoma he will see a state full of those Native Americans he thinks are gone. Or a rez in the Dakotas where some blonde guy got snuffed by the ancestors of the people who still live there. Then he can drive down through Central and South America to the southern end and count how many brown eyed black haired people who have blood from 40,000 years of family there. Those brown skin people who people keep complaining about overrunning the US have been here for thousands of years.

Tarantino don't know what the hell he's talking about.
For more on Tarantino's take on Indians, see Scalping on Tonight Show and Tarantino's Apache Warfare Fiction.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Goddammit, Tarantino, you successfully made a movie about slavery before (and better than) Spike Lee could, got him flustered about that, and managed to not include a closeup of Uma Thurman's feet in the whole thing, then you go off and say this ignorant thing.

Anonymous said...

His Ignorance is unbearable....

A Native American that lives among 14,000 strong in AZ

Anonymous said...

Tarantino just lost a small, but effective audience saying this. Oliver Stone, Steven Speilberg and even the Cohen Bros. are still here!

Unknown said...

I don't think Tarantino was trying to be negitive about natives, only pointing out the eradication of our people and how the government played a huge role. Yes, we are still here but so few numbers then once was. Its great that one of Hollywood's elite has acknowledged this disgrace and admits America's role in injustice to Native Americans. Also FYI Tarantino is of Cherokee descent, on his mothers side no less.

Anonymous said...

It great that one of Hollywoods elite had something to say about America's role in the eradication of its native peoples. I think Quentin was pointing out the fact that America hunted down our people almost into extinction, and reduced our numbers from what we once had. Also FYI Quitain Tarantino is of Cherokee descent, on his mothers side no less.

Rob said...

Tarantino may have wanted to point out the near-extinction of Indians, but his actual claim was false and insulting. The point is what he said, not what he intended to say.