While Quentin Tarantino’s movies famously feature blood and guts galore, he hasn’t been shy about speaking out against real-life violence.
Entertainment Weekly reports that the director turned up at an anti-police brutality rally in New York City this past weekend and delivered the following message to the crowd: “When I see murders, I do not stand by, I have to call a murder a murder and I have to call the murderers the murderers.”
Tarantino was speaking out against instances of what protesters believe to be excessive and/or unwarranted use of force by the NYPD and other police organizations, but his comments have drawn the ire of many in the law enforcement community.
Related: No Netflix for Quentin Tarantino: The filmmaker prefers DVD, VHS formats
Recently, all 14,000 Members of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 joined officers in Los Angeles and New York in calling for a boycott of all of the director’s movies.
Group President John McNesby said in a related statement that “Tarantino has shown through his actions that he is anti-police,” and added “Mr. Tarantino has made a good living through his films, projecting into society at large violence and respect for criminals; he it turns out also hates cops.”
Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch expressed similar sentiment in his own statement, saying “The police officers that Quentin Tarantino calls ‘murderers’ aren’t living in one of his depraved big screen fantasies — they’re risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect communities from real crime and mayhem.”
The director has yet to respond to the boycott, but we hope cooler heads prevail and a more constructive dialogue begins.
Quentin Tarantino’s latest is entitled The Hateful Eight, and follows a group of dangerous miscreants as they navigate a blizzard in the 19th Century American West, looking to escape the wrath of nature and of each other. The film is set to hit theaters on Dec. 25, 2015.
