Quentin Tarantino‘s “The Hateful Eight” hit theaters without a peep from nationwide police unions and their supporters despite threats of a boycott since late October.
Protests over the Weinstein Company release and its outspoken director erupted after Tarantino referred to cops as “murderers” at an anti-police violence rally in New York.
“We’re not giving this guy anymore free publicity. We have nothing to say about it,” New York Patrolman’s Benevolent Association spokesperson Albert O’Leary told TheWrap on Saturday.
Calls to similar unions in Los Angeles, Atlanta and a spokesperson for the National Association of Police Organizations did not immediately return TheWraps’ request for the status of their boycotts. At its peak, the movement also attracted the support of a group representing 16,500 border patrol agents.
Organizers from groups like the National Fraternal Order of Police had maintained they would “surprise” Tarantino and his studio on opening weekend, where the bloody Western has been playing in limited release, projecting in 70mm.
“When I see murders, I do not stand by … I have to call a murder a murder, and I have to call the murderers the murderers,” the “Django Unchained” director told the crowd at the October event in New York’s Washington Square Park, organized by Rise Up October.
“It’s no surprise that someone who makes a living glorifying crime and violence is a cop-hater, too. The police officers that Quentin Tarantino calls ‘murderers’ aren’t living in one of his depraved big-screen fantasies,” NAPO president Patrick Lynch told TheWrap at the time. “They’re risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to protect communities from real crime and mayhem.”
Tarantino received another holiday gift this weekend — a solid box office performance for his eighth movie. The special roadshow rollout of “Hateful” made $1.9 million in 44 cities.
Every Quentin Tarantino Movie Ranked From 'Reservoir Dogs' to 'Hateful Eight' (Photos)
8. "Death Proof"(2007)
Despite some truly audacious stunt work by Zoe Bell on the hood of a careening Dodge Challenger, Tarantino's homage to grindhouse fails to transcend that leering genre. If anything, "Death Proof" unintentionally makes the case for exploitation flicks' niche appeal with its cardboard characters and lurid set pieces.
7. "Reservoir Dogs" (1992)
Tarantino's directorial debut inaugurates the self-assured vision of a filmmaker who knows exactly what kind of movies he wants to make. Vicious and nihilistic, the crime thriller is also largely an exercise in style despite fantastic performances by Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Madsen.
6. "Kill Bill, Vols. 1 & 2" (2003-04)
Tarantino's movies are never short of watchable, but this two-part, four-hour pastiche epic is the director at his second most fanboyish (after "Death Proof"). Tarantino himself has said of the Uma Thurman vehicle that it's "not about real life, it's just about other movies" -- and it shows. As a primer on Tarantino's favorite movies, it's enjoyable enough. As a standalone film, it fails to register beyond the over-the-top fight scenes.
5. "The Hateful Eight" (2015)
Thinly drawn characters and a three-hour-plus running time make this Western an inessential and interminable chamber drama. After the peaks of "Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained," it's disappointing to see Tarantino return to pointlessly bloody form, especially given the film's promisingly fertile post-Civil War setting.
3. "Inglourious Basterds" (2009)
This alternate-history cartoon is Tarantino at his most entertaining, featuring a continent full of snappily sketched characters and star-making (or -remaking) turns by Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, and Melanie Laurent. But whacking Nazis with bats and setting them on fire don't add up to much more than a hollow revenge fantasy, however funnily or majestically rendered.
2. "Jackie Brown"(1997)
Tarantino's only attempt at a real love story (sorry, "Django" doesn't count), "Jackie Brown" is in many ways the director's most human film. The soundtrack is flawless, Pam Grier's in top form, and the tangled busyness of the criminal escapades just make Jackie and her would-be bail-bondsman suitor's (Robert Forster) middle-aged melancholy that much more moving.
1. "Django Unchained" (2012)
The rare Tarantino movie to actually be "about" something, "Django Unchained" explores the still-taboo topic of black anger at white Southerners for slavery with wit, ferocity, and cinematic flair. Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio deliver career-best performances in this delirious rhapsody, and for once the director's signature hyper-violence has a point beyond its own sake. If only Tarantino would allow himself to be so ambitious with every project.
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TheWrap movie critic Inkoo Kang reassesses the director’s 23-year career, from ”Reservoir Dogs“ to ”The Hateful Eight“
