The F%$K Quentin Tarantino Thread

Hmm... ok?

I don't think he's amazing or anything, but I like some of what he's done. Kill Bill, vol. 2 was a good movie; I thoroughly enjoyed it. Jackie Brown... I liked when I saw it, though I thought it was too long. Those are the only two that really stick out in my mind. Pulp Fiction & Reservoir Dogs did nothing for me. Deathproof, which you mentioned above, bored me to tears until the final five minutes; I almost didn't make it to the end because I wanted to leave. It was basically a lot of build up to that scene... and lots of annoying dialogue between a bunch of bitchy Mollusks.

What bothered me about "Deathproof" was that it seemed like an incredibly selfish, INDULGENT movie on his part. Like, he knew he didn't have a 100 minute movie plot, but he had a STELLAR ending, so he filled the movie with his "pithy" dialogue that he's known for and expects the audience to take it, because he's QUENTIN TARANTINO. Well, it wasn't "crisp, fresh, OR pithy," it was just boring as hell. The problem with the above is that his whole schtick was being independent from and "different" than old-hat, boring movie directors. He didn't take his audience for granted... or so it seemed. Well, now, he IS the mainstream. That's sort of what happens when you get big for being indy. After a while, you aren't indy anymore and you become the establishment, or (given the number of Pulp Fiction style clones), the industry becomes YOU.

I am a Quentin Tarantino fan and enjoy almost all of his work! From Pulp Fiction to Kill Bill to Death Proof - then again pretty women that know how to drive and kick ass turn me on. I wouldn't say the greatest of all time but certainly an elite filmmaker in my books.

Now straying away from the typical defense you were expecting I also agree with all your criticisms above. The movies are not for everybody and have plenty of unrealistic/boring shit you can pick on - but I manage to find something intriguing enough in the characters/dialogue/plot/action to watch it all.

Some hate all of his work, others like some, and a few love them all. But whichever group you fall into, you probably all agree on this: the music is solid in every movie . Am I right?

A: First of all, he's an above average writer with (what was once ) a very unique style and pacing of dialogue. You can hear a monologue or dialogue, and instantly recognize it as Tarantino when you aren't even watching the movie. As far as pure directorial chops go, he is stylistically pretty solid. He's derivative of other - some might say greater, stylistic directors like Hitchcock, Leone, and DePalma, but who in Hollywood isn't? Certain shots and setups are inherently dramatic. Its part of the storytelling process to use appealing and dramatic shots to your advantage. He does so better than most directors in the business today. He has a willingness to emulate and pay homage to those that came before him, and willingness to use a variety of unconventional shots and sequencing to keep pace while he plays around with fairly advanced techniques like retrospective and non-linear storytelling. This is his style. Many people have aped his style too. Since Reservoir Dogs and especially Pulp Fiction came out, the use of non-linear storytelling especially, has gone through the roof. Probably to the point where it is now stale and cliche when it was once fresh and innovative. That happens, and it doesn't take anything away from the original works, in my opinion. Tarantino likes to play with the traditional three act structure of a story. The way he structures many of his character arcs is still (to me anyways) fairly ingenious; In many of his movies, the audience's level of discovery is constantly at odds with that of his on-screen characters. Very rarely do you and the character you are watching on-screen know the same things about the situation that they find themselves in. Either they know more than you do (Pulp Fiction Briefcase scene), or you know more than they do (The climax of True Romance). To the best of my knowledge, nobody has made that their own like Tarantino, and I think in the long run that will be his legacy to future generations of filmmaker. B: He has an excellent and nearly encyclopedic grasp of independent, pulp, under appreciated, and outside the mainstream films, both foreign and domestic. His tastes in film, as eclectic as they are, are frequently things that popular culture has to a certain extent only embraced and become MORE mainstream when he brings attention to them. Any time things outside the Hollywood mainstream reach a wider audience, it is better. Directly, Tarantino was pretty instrumental in bringing Chinese cinema to America. Chungking Express (and Wong Kar-Wai), for example would not have gotten the attention it did in the U.S. without being distributed by Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Pictures. Same goes with a dozen other movies. And indirectly, Tarantino's endless obsession and homage to movies outside the mainstream has caused a lot of people, myself included, to seek out and watch the movies he references because ultimately, we respect his tastes in film and want to see a bigger picture of what he was trying to accomplish on-screen, or appreciate more films with similar thematic elements to the one we just watched. One of the first things I did after I watched Grindhouse was go find Vanishing Point, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, and Two Lane Blacktop. I'm sure that to a certain extent - many others did the same.

I'm not saying you have to like the guy, but give credit where credit is due. He's probably had the biggest artistic influence on Hollywood's modern product out of any one director in the industry since Steven Spielberg. Whether that's a good or bad thing is subjective, and I leave that up to you.

This is all that I love about Tarantino movies. It's been a while and reading your post reminded me exactly why I enjoy them. I'm still trying to get my hands on a copy of Vanishing Point.

Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want me to pretend that I don't know what I'm talking about so that you and I can have some sort of meaningless internet argument? Alright hows this: Tarentino rulz! Man, his shit is so cool. I like the colors and movingf pictures, his stuff is so much better then whatever stupid movies you like. Its like Casablanca with more guns and swearing. Or... maybe like Die Hard, with extended cenes of nerdy and unrealistic-yet-appealing dialogue and car chases. And maybe a sword, and some Japanese chicks or something. I can't wait until he makez his war movie. I wil probably get a h ardon.

I don't want to disappoint you. I wasn't sure what you were expecting. Hopefully I have given you something inconsequential to nitpick and berate. I want you to feel good about whatever it is you are doing here. At least admit this to me. Tarantino is better than George Lucas. Come on. You have to give me that.

Its pretty widely available through torrent (or at least it was). Awesome movie.

Liked Reservoir Dogs Loved Pulp Fiction -- worthy of all the great reviews. Jackie Brown -- the beginning of the end. Good film, some good moments, but 1 hour too long. Since then, he's smoked too much weed, drunk too much, thought too little. Think the boy loves the 'celebrity'. Kill Bill 1 was overrated Kill Bill 2 was a complete and utter bore fest. Just die already, FFS. Grindhouse WTF Zzzzzzz