Nolte: Disney’s ‘Shang-Chi’ Star Trashes Tarantino and Scorsese as Racists

Some guy named Simu Liu, who starred in one of those crappy Marvel movies everyone’s already forgotten, took to the Twitterz Tuesday to attack legendary directors Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese as racist.

Liu is “clapping back”  because Scorsese and Tarantino are not Marvel movie fans. Their lack of affection for superhero movies, in general, appears to be based on three solid reasons: 1)  Scorses and Tarantino are not 11 years old, 2) they believe superhero movies are not cinema but rather $250 million amusement park rides that say nothing about the human condition, and 3) superhero movies suck all the oxygen out of the theaters leaving no room for anything else.

What’s so funny is that Scorsese said what he said more than three years ago, and the Marvel Babies are still butthurt over it. In July of 2019, the Oscar-winner told Empire:

I don’t see [Marvel movies.] I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well-made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.

This week, while out promoting his book Cinema Speculation, which explores his love of 70’s movies, Tarantino lamented the death of the movie star and pointed out the fact that people are not flocking to Marvel and other franchise movies to see the actors:

Part of the Marvelization of Hollywood is you have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters. But they’re not movie stars. Captain America is the star. Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that, I think that’s been said a zillion times. But it’s these franchise characters that become a star.

Obviously, this is true, and Robert Downey Jr. proves it. The Iron Man star is the most popular actor in Marveldom. Nevertheless, as great as he is, as likable and charismatic, that affection did now follow him to anything outside the Marvel and Sherlock Holmes franchises.

A movie star doesn’t star in movies. A movie star is someone whose mere presence opens a movie. What I mean is that the audience likes the star so much that they follow him wherever he goes. People under 35 probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but there was a time when actors did not have lose themselves in CGI to deliver a hit movie.

Tarantino added this:

My only axe to grind against them is they’re the only things that seem to be made. And they’re the only things that seem to generate any kind of excitement amongst a fan base or even for the studio making them. That’s what they’re excited about. And so it’s just the fact that they are the entire representation of this era of movies right now. There’s not really much room for anything else. That’s my problem.

Well, as we all know, no one is allowed to question the Dogma of the Sacred Marvel without being attacked as racist, so this Simu Liu guy let Scorsese and Tarantino have it…

“If the only gatekeepers to movie stardom came from Tarantino and Scorsese, I would never have had the opportunity to lead a $400 million plus movie,” the anti-science Liu tweeted.

No movie studio is or ever will be perfect. But I'm proud to work with one that has made sustained efforts to improve diversity onscreen by creating heroes that empower and inspire people of all communities everywhere.

I loved the "Golden Age" too.. but it was white as hell.

— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) November 22, 2022

He’s straight-up lying, straight-up calling them racists (or at least insinuating it strongly) who would never cast Asians.

Yeah, because Quentin Tarantino hasn’t done enough to promote black and Asian cinema, and Scorsese didn’t risk his career to make Kundun (1997) a critical and commercial flop about the Dalai Lama and Tibet.

For his part, Tarantino has done more to popularize black and Asian cinema than anyone alive, and not just through his love of those movies. Two decades before Marvel/Disney launched its condescending affirmative-action program, Tarantino gave Samuel L. Jackson and Ving Rhames the flashiest roles in Pulp Fiction (1994). He followed that Oscar winner up with Jackie Brown (1997), which starred a middle-aged black woman. Next, he gave a woman, Uma Thurman, the hero role in Kill Bill 1 & 2 (2003-04) and cast the flashiest supporting roles with Asian superstars. Death Proof (2007) starred women, including non-white women like Rosario Dawson. Django Unchained starred a black man. The Hateful Eight starred Samuel L. Jackson.

That’s a pretty healthy record for a guy who’s only directed ten features.

Plus, the very idea directors are “gatekeepers” is ludicrous. Studios and moneymen are the gatekeepers. How can this guy work in an industry he knows nothing about?

The good news is that in a hundred years, people will still be in awe of the timeless art produced by Scorsese and Tarantino. At the same time, the ungracious, immature, lying, race-baiting crybabies like Liu won’t even qualify as Trivial Pursuit questions.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.