Spike Lee on "Django Unchained": 'It's Disrespectful to My Ancestors' - East Idaho News
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Spike Lee on “Django Unchained”: ‘It’s Disrespectful to My Ancestors’

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GETTY E 012512 SpikeLee?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1356515561432Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) — Spike Lee probably didn’t spend part of his Christmas Day watching Django Unchained.  The filmmaker, who often tackles race in America in his movies, says that the Quentin Tarantino film, which stars Jamie Foxx as a slave-turned-bounty hunter who attempts to save his wife from a plantation owner, is offensive.

“I’m not gonna see it,” Lee told Vibe Magazine, when asked about the movie.  “All I’m going to say is that it’s disrespectful to my ancestors.  That’s just me….I’m not speaking on behalf of anybody else.”

Lee also took to Twitter to voice his frustration with the film, saying, “American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them.”

The film, which Tarantino has described as a Western, is set in Texas in the mid-1800s.  It has made headlines for its use of the “N” word — which characters say more than 100 times — and graphic scenes.

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