“It’s interesting, I’m now all of a sudden looking into my rearview mirror again and I’m seeing the bubblegums — police cars — again in a way that I haven’t thought about in 20 years.”
Quentin Tarantino did not hold much back during his discussion with Bill Maher on Friday’s Real Time, mostly revolving around why he decided to get vocal about the actions of the police in recent weeks and a few looks back into his past run-ins with the law. And right off the bat, you’ll notice that the tone is not one of hate. Maher and Tarantino instead focus on the idea that we need to have a discussion with police and the “blue wall” needs to come tumbling down at some point:
“[The]biggest head that needs to be chopped off first” of the “Hydra” — is the “blue wall idea…
“The fact that they would protect their own as opposed to put themselves at the betterment of citizenry…I actually don’t think it is an issue of individuals, good cops verses bad cops. I think it’s inside of the institution itself. If they were really, really serious about this, they wouldn’t close rank on what I’m obviously talking about, which is bad cops. And I’m obviously talking about specific cases where it is murder as far as I’m concerned. Walter Scott was murdered.”
He also called the claims that he called all cops “murderers” to be slander, echoing his earlier comments to the LA Times. Instead, he clarified that he feels that you have to define the events as they happen and as you see them (in so many words).
What didn’t come up was the reported “surprise” in store for Tarantino ahead of the release of The Hateful Eight. Tarantino has already said he will not be intimidated by the police messages or boycott, and his appearance on Real Time seems to solidify that:
“If they were saying what I said and they had a problem with that, well then now we’re actually talking about the problem,” Tarantino said. “We actually do need to talk to the cops about this. We actually do need to get to the problem. We need to bring this to the table.”
Guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens next. Police promising surprises these days doesn’t seem to always end in the best way.
(Via Real Time / The Hollywood Reporter)
