Spike Lee Rips 'Django Unchained,' Calls it 'Disrespectful to my Ancestors'

By Sami K. Martin, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Spike Lee has ripped "Django Unchained," the new movie from Quentin Tarentino, saying that it is "disrespectful to my ancestors." The director heavily criticized Tarentino for making light of slavery in his latest movie, which opens on Christmas Day.

"I can't speak on it 'cause I'm not gonna see it," Lee told Vibe Magazine earlier. "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."

Then Lee took his argument to Twitter, where he let his followers know: "American Slavery Was Not a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was a Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them."

Lee has had other problems with Tarentino, who is known for extreme violence and foul language in his films. In 1997, according to TMZ, Lee criticized Tarentino for his "excessive use of the n-word" in the movie "Jackie Brown." "Let the record state that I never said that he cannot use that word," Lee said. "I've used that word in many of my films, but I think something is wrong with him."

Tarentino's latest creation features Jamie Foxx as a slave who kills slave-owners in the Deep South in order to rescue his wife from a brutal slave-owner. The film has come under criticism for using the "n-word" over 100 times. Tarentino has defended himself, and his writing, telling MTV, "I think it's kind of ridiculous."

"No one can actually say with a straight face that we use the word more than it was used in 1858 in Mississippi. So since they can't say that, what they're basically saying is I should lie. I should pretty it up. I should lie, and I don't lie when it comes to my characters and the stories I tell," he told MTV News in a recent interview.

"Django Unchained" opens everywhere on December 25, 2012.