N-Word Used 109 Times in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” Starring Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington

Do you plan on seeing Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” set to hit the theaters on Christmas Day? Personally, I can’t stand to watch any movie that uses the N-word repeatedly, as is the case in this movie — 109 times. Here’s a review from Variety:

True to its spaghetti-Western roots, the pic reveals most of its stoic hero’s unspoken motivations through garishly colored flashbacks, though Tarantino and editor Fred Raskin (stepping in for the late Sally Menke) seem to realize that limited glimpses of such white-on-black sadism go a long way. Filmmakers who choose to portray this shameful chapter of America’s past bear a certain responsibility not to sanitize it. But here, even as it lays the groundwork for “Django’s” vengeance, dwelling on such brutality can verge on exploitation. To wit, the film problematically features no fewer than 109 instances of the “N word,” most of them deployed either for laughs or alliteration.

While good taste doesn’t necessarily apply, comedy seems to be the key that distinguishes “Django Unchained” from a risible film like “Mandingo.” Both take a certain horror-pleasure in watching bare-chested black men wrestle to the death — the sick sport at which Candie prides himself an expert — but what better way to inoculate the power of a Klan rally than by turning it into a Mel Brooks routine, reducing bigots to buffoons as they argue about their ill-fitting white hoods?

Spike Lee had some choice words for Quentin Tarantino in 1997 about “Jackie Brown:”

The word “nigger” is used 38 times in Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown,” sez Spike Lee – and he doesn’t like it. And neither do I. In Daily Variety‘s review of the pic on Dec. 16, Todd McCarthy points out, “nearly every phrase (spoken by Samuel L. Jackson’s character) contains the n-word.” Lee admits, “I’m not against the word,” (though I am) “and I use it, but not excessively. And some people speak that way. But, Quentin is infatuated with that word. What does he want to be made – an honorary black man?” Lee says he has spoken to Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein and the film’s producer, Lawrence Bender, about the excessive use of the word. Lee would like to find out from Tarantino why he used it so frequently in this film “and he uses it in all his pictures: ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Reservoir Dogs…’ I want Quentin to know that all African-Americans do not think that word is trendy or slick.” Lee admits, “I don’t expect them to change (the prints now out), but I want him (Tarantino) to know about it for future reference.”

At some point you cross the line from retelling history to just being plain disgusting. Somehow I don’t think Quentin Tarantino had to overdo it with the n-word in his movie. He seems to have a penchant for this kind of thing. What could have been an otherwise good movie, will now be ripped to shreds because of this word.