Controversial film causes riff among viewers

Quentin Tarantino's epic western film Django Unchained was released on Dec. 25 to critical approval and to a lot of controversy.
 Film star Jamie Foxx portrayed a freed slave who treks across the country with a bounty hunter, Christoph Waltz, on a mission to rescue his enslaved wife played by Kerry Washington from a cruel but naïve plantation owner played by Leonardo Dicaprio.
 Django Unchained has garnered several awards and nominations. This rendered The American Film Institute to name it one of their best films of the year.
 This film has also received five nominations from the Golden Globe Awards including Best Director and Best Screenplay, while also receiving nominations for five Academy Awards.
 The award shows are not the only ones praising the film. Intro to Visual Arts professor Ann Johnson thought the film was one of Tarantino's best yet.
 "I was not expecting a soft and accurate portrayal of slavery; I was expecting a classic Quentin Tarantino film and it was a perfect Tarantino film in every way," said Johnson.
 Django Unchained, set in pre-Civil War south, was taboo to many audiences and evoked controversy shortly after it was released.
 Filmmaker Spike Lee declared in an interview with Vibe Magazine that he would not see the film because he viewed it as a disrespectful representation of his ancestors.
 Lee said, "American slavery was not a Sergio Leone spaghetti western. It was a holocaust. My ancestors are slaves. Stolen from Africa. I will honor them by not watching this film."
 Kawana Scott, a sophomore community health major, does not agree with Lee's assessment of the film.
 "This was not just a black film, it was also a fictional western, it did not have to be accurate and I personally feel that Spike Lee is jealous that Quentin did better with his black cast of characters than Spike Lee has ever done with his movies," she said.
 Some commentators have criticized the heavy usage of the n-word.
 However, others have defended the usage of the language by pointing out the historic context of race and slavery in the United States.
 Senior civil engineering Shekynah Curtis wants people to see past the use of the n-word and the historical inaccuracies and understand why Tarantino made the film in the first place.
 "They did not call us black or colored then they called us n-words point blank period," said Curtis.
 She added, "I think people are so blinded by the controversy, they end up missing the true motivation of the film, which was to show us how love and determination can help us triumph over the worst of the worst odds."