We live in an age where the Chinese marketplace—and Chinese censors—dictate what our movie studios make. Big budget spectacle heavy on the CGI: that's the order of the day. And don't you dare cross Beijing's authoritarian censors because it could cost you tens of millions.
Fortunately, there's still one man in Hollywood who puts art above commerce. One man who isn't going to bow to our adversaries. One man who refuses to obey the diktats from the central party.
That man is Quentin Tarantino.
When the Chinese government demanded he alter his new film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the behest of Bruce Lee's daughter, he said "no." No matter his refusal would likely cost him millions; no matter that studio execs undoubtedly asked him to bend the knee. The Chi-Coms finally ran into an American who doesn’t kowtow like LeBron James at a Shanghai Foot Locker.
For producing one of the best films of the year—one in which dirty hippies get the beatings they deserve; one that the Chinese authoritarians can't stomach—the Washington Free Beacon is honored to name Quentin Tarantino a man of the year.
