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B.E.E. clearly has a strong anti-Selma slant that he was obviously trying really hard to get Tarantino to validate, and the only thing he could come up with was: "She did a really good job on ‘Selma’ but ‘Selma’ deserved an Emmy."
Of course that sounds backhanded, but the Emmy reference makes a lot more sense given the context of the whole interview, where they talk a lot about how modern movies are looking more and more like high-end TV shows.
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SWIPE: We talk about the differences between TV and movies, and how TV relies on a kind of relentless storytelling whose main job is to constantly dispense information, while movies depend much more on mood and atmosphere — TV is a writers’ medium and movies are a directors’ medium...The best TV shows still have sets that look a little ragged and threadbare because of the reality of TV economics — and to Tarantino this matters. The bigness of his recent movies — ‘‘Inglourious Basterds,’’ ‘‘Django Unchained’’ and now ‘‘The Hateful Eight’’ — feels like a rebuke to the smallness of TV and its increasing relevance to audiences, a fight against watching a series of medium shots and close-ups on your computer, your iPad and your iPhone. The belief in visual spectacle is part of Tarantino’s message in the era of Amazon, Hulu and Netflix.
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In the uncut conversation, they obviously talked a lot about contemporary movies, BEE brought up Selma, and Tarantino was probably throwing minor shade in the context it being low-budget, digitally-shot, staight-ahead biopic that, while very good, could have easily felt at-home as an HBO miniseries.
Of course that is backhanded and somewhat insulting (hence me saying I'm not necessarily defending Tarantino here), but all the other bullshit in the article with comparing it to TYAS and saying Django Unchained is a much more forward-thinking, challenging film than Selma is all shit B.E.E. put in there. There's a not a quote from Tarantino that conflates any of that shit at all.
As for the "epicenter of black culture" phrase that Basagila made up, he was saying that he's forced the issue of race into some of his movies (which, obviously) and that it's forced people to think and take a position. Outside of having a massive ego and being a whiny bitch about the fact that he gets called out for being white, he's not really saying anything overly outrageous to me:
"You must have an opinion of me. You must deal with what I’m saying and deal with the consequences." He pauses, considers. "If you sift through the criticism," he says, "you’ll see it’s pretty evenly divided between pros and cons. But when the black critics came out with savage think pieces about ‘Django,’ I couldn’t have cared less. If people don’t like my movies, they don’t like my movies, and if they don’t get it, it doesn’t matter. The bad taste that was left in my mouth had to do with this: It’s been a long time since the subject of a writer’s skin was mentioned as often as mine. You wouldn’t think the color of a writer’s skin should have any effect on the words themselves. In a lot of the more ugly pieces my motives were really brought to bear in the most negative way. It’s like I’m some supervillain coming up with this stuff." But Tarantino is an optimist: "This is the best time to push buttons," he says a few minutes later. "This is the best time to get out there because there actually is a genuine platform. Now it’s being talked about."
I also know the prevailing attitudes about Tarantino here at PTP so I'm not really expecting to get anywhere with this. Just think we might be a little guilty of sensationalizing what he actually said in this case... ----
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