Earlier this week, Quentin Tarantino stepped in it, when in an interview piece conducted by Bret Easton Ellis for The New York Times Style Magazine, the filmmaker took what seemed to be a swing at Ava DuVernay‘s "Selma" by saying, "She did a really good job on ‘Selma’ but ‘Selma’ deserved an Emmy." Now, the director is backpedalling on those words and claiming he was taken out of context.
In an email to Thompson On Hollywood, he admits that he hasn’t seen "Selma," and attributes most of his quote to Ellis (as of posting this piece, the NYT article still has Tarantino as the one giving those comments). However, he does say that the TV line was more of a question, such as: "It’s like a TV movie?"
Essentially, Tarantino thinks "Selma" looks like a TV movie, but he doesn’t think that’s a diss or a bad thing in his eyes. "Both Bret and myself come from the seventies and eighties when there were a lot of historically based TV movies: the ‘King‘ mini-series written by Abby Mann staring Paul Winfield; ‘Crisis at Central High‘ with Joanne Woodward. And ‘Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys.’ These were great TV movies. I’d be honored to be placed next to those films. However, I haven’t seen it. Does it look like a seventies TV movie? Yes. Does it play like one, I don’t know, I haven’t seen it," the director wrote.
I dunno Tarantino, maybe if you haven’t seen "Selma," you shouldn’t say anything at all.
all tarantino films look like a seventies parody…all of em
"maybe if you haven\’t seen "Selma," you shouldn\’t say anything at all" : sure but that doesn\’t seems to bother you most of the time when you praise or trash movies/tv shows you haven\’t saw, based on rumors, earsay or other people\’s opinions…
Not that hard to get what Tarantino is saying. Then again, if you could understand basic concepts, you wouldn\’t be writing for a site as great as indiewire.
I understood what Tarantino was saying. You can tell a compelling story on TV, you don\’t have to make a movie. I would have preferred George Lucas "Red Tails" in 2012 as a miniseries on HBO; than a movie. Spike Lee could have told a better story if " Miracle at St. Anna" in 2008 was a miniseries event than a movie in theatres. What happened to the Black Hollywood doing miniseries events on television?
It\’s a great movie… that looks like a TV production. How did anyone not get that from QT\’s comment? But I understand how Twitter works, people love getting outraged over things.
Well, as someone who has seen Selma (and liked it) I can say that Mr. Tarantino\’s educated guess is not really that far off.