Spike Lee says he's boycotting Tarantino's 'Django'
- Lee says the movie is "disrespectful to my ancestors"
- The film stars Jamie Foxx as a freed slave turned bounty hunter
- Lee has criticized fellow director Tarantino before on his frequent use of the N-word
Don't look for Spike Lee at a showing of Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained on Tuesday: Lee says he's boycotting the bloody slavery-revenge film because it's an insult to his ancestors.
Speaking to Vibe magazine and tweeting, the maker of Do the Right Thing and He Got Game criticized Tarantino's latest movie, which opens Christmas Day. Lee spoke last week, but TMZ and other entertainment media began reporting it today.
"I can't speak on it 'cause I'm not gonna see it," Lee said. "All I'm going to say is that it's disrespectfu
Later, he tweeted about the film, which stars Jamie Foxx as a slave who kills slave owners in the Deep South while trying to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner.
"American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa.I Will Honor Them," Lee tweeted.
Django's violence became a problem last week when the premier was canceled for fear in the wake of the massacre of children and their teachers Dec. 14 in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
The movie also is under scrutiny for its frequent use of the N-word — more than 110 times, by one count. Lee has criticized Tarantino before on that, complaining about Tarantino's "excessive" use of the word in his 1997 film Jackie Brown, even though Lee hasn't been shy about using the word in his films.
"I'm not against the word, (though I am) and I use it, but not excessively," Lee told Daily Variety back then. "And some people speak that way. But Quentin is infatuated with that word. What does he want to be made -- an honorary black man?"