It feels like Quentin Tarantino's been doing promotional rounds for the Hateful Eight forever. His latest film, which follows a group of conniving characters in post-Civil War Wyoming, has sparked a ton commentary, both positive and negative. While Tarantino's definitely no stranger to controversy, these days he's been exceptionally vocal about racism past and present in United States. Now he's gone on to compare the Confederate flag to the Swastika.
In a recent feature with the Telegraph, Tarantino spoke about a particularly devastating incident that occurred in 2015, the shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina earlier this year. It had a profound effect on him. While he's not known to edit his scripts, ever, the event was so brutal that he felt the need to remove a line from his Hateful Eight script, a line he claims was just "too on-the-nose." While so much of the film's racial conflict feels of this moment—and intentionally so—Tarantino felt that this line, said by Walter Goggins's racist sheriff character, was just too much. "You ask the white folks in South Carolina if they feel safe," was taken from the script. You can see why.
In the interview Tarantino went on to speak about race in the states, the Ferguson protests, and finally went so far as to make a connection between the symbol of racism—the Confederate flag—and another really hateful symbol rooted in history.
"All of a sudden, people started talking about the Confederacy in America in a way they haven’t before," he told the Telegraph. "I mean, I've always felt the Rebel flag was some American Swastika. And, well, now, all of a sudden, people are talking about it, and now they're banning it, and now it's not OK to have it on f______ license plates, and coffee cups, and stuff."
It's a big statement, but when isn't Tarantino making big statements?
