7 Directors Who Purposefully Sabotaged Other Movies

7. Spike Lee Trashes Django Unchained

Noted filmmaker Spike Lee, the visionary behind such works as Malcolm X, Jungle Fever, and Do The Right Thing, has never been one to pull his punches. The man knows what he stands for and does not abide by those who would misappropriate or misrepresent his race, culture, or heritage.

Enter Quentin Tarantino, celebrated director of mainstream art house films known for their graphic nature and uniquely personal style. For years, Tarantino had been trying Lee's patience with his obsessive use of racial slurs and frustrating ignorance of African American culture. But the last straw was the release of 2012's Django Unchained, a movie about the pre-American Civil War Antebellum period and the titular former-slave-turned-folk-hero who brought justice to slavers in the style of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.

Lee was livid, tweeting out at the time "American Slavery Was Not a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western" and going on to describe the horrors of slavery without the flair and panache of Tarantino's visual style. As a respected director, Lee's opinion carries a not insignificant amount of weight and, while it's impossible to say for sure, Tarantino seems to have believed that Lee's public outcry damaged the reputation of Django Unchained because he replied with a burst of vulgarity.