The Quentin Tarantino Thread

[pedromonkey]

ok now i am a huge Tarantino fan boy, I reference his films on a daily bases.

As a writer, Jackie Brown is his most Mature screenplay, as a Fan Inglourious basterds is his best screenplay. As an obsessive Reservoir dogs is his best film.

AS DIRECTOR

RESERVOIR DOGS: A old skool heist flick done in an exceptionally original way, not as violent as it is made out to be, great soundtrack, great acting and for a début feature, no one has matched it since, not even Donny Darko which is overrated IMO.

PULP FICTION: Another crime drama done well, but when you really think about pulp fiction, nothing really happens in the film. There's no pay off. Still one of the best second films ever made.

JACKIE BROWN: QT adapts a novel by Elmor Leonard. it's his most mature screenplay and also a kind of straight homage to Blaxsploitation movies with some spot on casting. Bit of a Flop for miramax.

KILL BILL VOL.1: QT goes comic book, which believe me this film is. He tries his hand at action cinema and it pays off. Only problem is some of the dialogue this time around is a little wooden.

KILL BILL VOL.2: A major shift in style which confused many film goers who flocked to vol.1. Goes for western style this time and tries to Peckinpah it up. Didn't really work but was enjoyable enough.

DEATH PROOF: QT's entry into the grindhouse thingy, unfortunately missed the point of grindhouse movies, with a completely dull first half followed by 40 minutes of bad conversations and a very well made but pointless car chase.

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS: QT takes on the third reich for this one, changing history but the film also contains some of the most tense dialogue driven scenes ever committed to celluloid with his best character to date (Landa) and some genius and darkly comic moments.

AS WRITER Only

TRUE ROMANCE: My favourite QT screenplay, that was originally the basis for natural born killer and was spawned by his first film, My best friend's Birthday.
Christian Slater is badass as Clarence, Patricia Arquette is great as alabama and lets not forget the Hopper/Walken scene and Alabama vs Tony Soprano fight.

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN: this should have been in Grindhouse. QT writes and acts in this road movie/vampire movie. he created one of the coolest characters of the 90s with Seth Geko.

that's my minor thoughts on the films of Tarantino.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Someone wanna merge threads?

Thanks Nos.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by BioZombie

I don’t think regressed is the word to use at all. Just because someone does something different doest automatically make it a step backwards. Tarantino always said that Kill Bill was going to be his action film, and viewed as an action film I think that it holds up extremely well against his older works.

Maybe 'regressed as a filmmaker' was the wrong expression. Maybe he no longer has the hunger and dry if he had when he had to prove everything to the world when doing the Festival circuit with Reservoir Dogs, wrote the ambitious script for Pulp Fiction with Roger Avery and then took on an established crime writer's novel for his first adapted screenplay and arguably most accomplished film.

I think perhaps Tarantino made films he wanted to make but had to fight tooth and nail for studio acceptance and every dollar of the budget. Now, as an Oscar winner and someone accepted and lauded by his peers (chairing the jury at Cannes was a fairly major thing), he is almost critic proof and can basically choose the subject, choose the cast and crew and dictate terms.

I'd like to see him back as that hungry filmmaker making something raw, vibrant and with the energy to capture the zeitgeist as he did in 1992 and '94.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Its going on 20 years since he made Dogs and Pulp. No major director makes the same films over and over again.
He is no longer a raw talent bursting onto the scene, as you say he has achieved much in the past 2 decades.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I've never thought of Quentin Tarantino as a 'cult director' as everyone in my family has seen at least his first films, as has at least one of my aunties (as I had a conversation with her to explain the chain of events in pul Pulp Fiction) and lines from his films ('Are you going to par bark all day little doggie, or are you going to bite?', Mmm Hmm, that is a tasty burger') have entered common vernacular. Although his films do have explicit content, I've always considered them to be fairly mainstream.

[Argentofan]

Just watched the Kill Bill house of blue leaves scene uncut and wow what a difference! Plus the scenes not in the UK version aren't that bad and should have been included imo. It was a lot better uncut.

[InDogWeTrust]

Oh my god.
I was just bidding on ebay on another copy of Kill Bill Vol. 2, Was winning the bid at $6.00 (AUD) had 2 seconds left on the clock and I was outbid. I don't know whether to laugh or cry!

[InDogWeTrust]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I've never thought of Quentin Tarantino as a 'cult director' as everyone in my family has seen at least his first films, as has at least one of my aunties (as I had a conversation with her to explain the chain of events in pul Pulp Fiction) and lines from his films ('Are you going to par bark all day little doggie, or are you going to bite?', Mmm Hmm, that is a tasty burger') have entered common vernacular. Although his films do have explicit content, I've always considered them to be fairly mainstream.

QT is a mainstream director, But he does direct movies that pay strong homage to cult movies (exploitation style movies especially) so I think there's a certain group of fans (for instance anyone on this thread) who appreciates his work for that aspect and then theirs the more mainstream fans who don't really know cult movies or understand that QT is producing modern hollywood versions of exploitation films so I think in a way he is a cult director but at the same time he is mainstream.

[pedromonkey]

Originally Posted by InDogWeTrust

QT is a mainstream director, But he does direct movies that pay strong homage to cult movies (exploitation style movies especially) so I think there's a certain group of fans (for instance anyone on this thread) who appreciates his work for that aspect and then theirs the more mainstream fans who don't really know cult movies or understand that QT is producing modern hollywood versions of exploitation films so I think in a way he is a cult director but at the same time he is mainstream.

i think you nailed it there. With QT he makes 'cult films' with large budgets get's critical acclaim a wins awards at festivals and ceremonies. when i think of Cult filmmakers, i think of people who have a less that normal accessability to their work. David Lynch, Cronenberg, Jarmusch, Wes Anderson, these are only a few who while they do make mainstream-ish movies, they're films aren't plastered all over town and in phone boxes. But Qt has a great promotions team and there's the act that he'll go on almost any TV show himself to promote it. so it's not classed as cult, can you imagine Lucio Fulci or Russ Meyer ever winning a Palm D'or at cannes...

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Imagine what the red carpet would be like if Russ Meyer was to win at Cannes.