Quentin Taratino's Christmas Film And US Lawmakers

Quentin Tarantino           Jacky Naegelen/Reuters

Quentin Tarantino has a new film coming out on Christmas, and it is properly violent, so as to establish the right mood for the holiday season. I mean, we have not had enough violence so far this year that we would want to turn our sight away from the marketplaces of war and contemplate divinity and men of goodwill and other nonce notions.

Quentin Tarantino Responds to Police Threat: ‘You Should Be Able to Talk About Abuses of Power’
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/06/quentin-tarantino-responds-to-police-threat-you-should-be-able-to-talk-about-abuses-of-power.html

After he spoke out against police brutality, the Fraternal Order of Police issued a cryptic threat to Tarantino, saying “something is in the works.” Now, Tarantino has responded.

Harvey Weinstein, who’s positioned The Hateful Eight for Oscars and Golden Globes gold, has rightly called the movie Quentin Tarantino’s most political to date.

The film, about an octet of travelers—bounty hunters, ex-soldiers, and prospective lawmen—holed up at a traveler’s stop, Millie’s Haberdashery, in the post-Civil War Midwest, consists of a racially-charged milieu of violence and distrust that is not so far removed from today’s America, argued Tarantino at a press conference on Saturday.

“[We made this movie] during that last year and a half where many of the themes that we were dealing with, we were watching on television when we got home. We’d come to set and talk about them,” said the filmmaker, who first performed the script last year as a live read after an early draft was leaked. “But the one good thing about the script getting out there is I’m on record for having written it before all the shit started popping off.”

Of course, commenting on just how badly shit in America has been popping off landed Tarantino in the middle of a firestorm this fall, leading police unions across the country to declare him auteur non grata...

Firstly, I always said that Mr. Tarantino did the script for Django Unchained by having pot-smoking bull sessions all night with the cast and crew, and I think this sort of verifies it.

Secondly, I'm not sure I like "auteur non grata", "auteur" being French and "non grata" being Latin. I mean, I think it would be OK if we were writing in French.
As it is, we should say something like...ohhh... author non grata, and, you know, that really does seem to fill the bill.

However, Mr. Tarantino is an Auteur, not a mere author. Anything we say in reference should be an Homage.
I mean, I do not think even André Gide was such a pest about literary nomenclature as we seem to be these days. I know what it is; it is the illusion of quality. I know all about it. When what we do is trash, we tend to call it  des ordures  to class it up a notch.

The story goes on:

...Addressing the intimidation tactic on Saturday, Tarantino shamed Pasco and admitted that while he had no clue what the country’s largest police union had in store for him, he wasn’t too spooked.

“People ask me, ‘Are you worried?’ And the answer’s no, I’m not worried, because I do not feel like the police force is this sinister black hand organization that goes out and fucks up individual citizens in a conspiracy sort of way,” he said. “Having said that, a civil servant shouldn’t be issuing threats, even rhetorically, to private citizens. The only thing I can imagine is that they might be planning to picket us, picket one of the screenings or maybe picket the premiere, or one of the 70mm screenings.”

“Or buy up all the tickets to make sure the theater’s empty,” Jackson offered, prompting snickers from the room.

“Well, that don’t really hurt me!” laughed Tarantino. “I don’t have any inkling and I haven’t heard anything about it, other than Patrick Lynch is keeping the fire on simmer,” he added, referring to the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association who in October slammed Tarantino as a “cop-hater” and “purveyor of degeneracy” and called for a boycott of his films...

What do I think?

Everyone has the right to speak their minds.

I have literally stood up and walked out of Quentin Tarantino films in the past.
Next time I do it, I shall try to get the price of my ticket back.
(It was not my idea to see Django Unchained.)

 Django Whatever

As to the question whether violence is the appropriate emotion for Christmas, ask a US lawmaker:

TPM
Nevada Lawmaker Sends Christmas Card Featuring Fully Armed Family
By Caitlin Cruz PublishedDecember 4, 2015, 2:43 PM EST
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/michele-fiore-gun-christmas-card

For Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore's (R) 2015 family Christmas card, which she posted on Facebook on Monday, her family was each outfitted with a gun. If it wasn't immediately obvious, Fiore is a staunch defender of Second Amendment rights.

"It's up to Americans to protect America. We're just your ordinary American family. -With love & liberty, Michele," her message read.

In the top left corner the [Christmas] card lists the guns photographed: a Beretta 92FS, Glock 30 .45ACP, Serbu Super-Shorty 12-gauge shotgun, Extar EXP-556, Walther P22 (LR), Glock 19 9mm and Glock 30 .45ACP.

Fiore's daughters, Sheena and Savanah as well as her grandchildren Jake, Jayden, Mara and Morrigan, and her mother Lill are pictured. Jake, who a bio on Fiore's website says is at least 5 years old, is pictured holding the Walther P22...

Not one member of that family thought violent images were out of place at Christmas, and they all seemed to think their political message trumps all other Christmas antiquarian niceties.

Guns to Men of Goodwill
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