The Perfect 10: 10 Reasons We Love Quentin Tarantino and You Should Too!
What makes a story great? The answer to that question is not only subjective, but at times it is objectively elusive. As a writer, I have to harness and incorporate everything I know of history, music, personal stories and conversations. Then, I use my imagination and, after that, for lack of a better word, it’s just like jazz.
Historically, creatives within the musical genre have all been scholars, geniuses, experts (if you will) of their craft or all the above. It’s rare that anyone’s creative ability stems from nothing—Sorry folks, the fabled Aether is a myth—and everything good is tied to those ten thousand hours of mastery everyone talks about.
Every artist draws from a well of talent, to be sure. But talent is nothing without experience and observation, which are the bedfellows if not the parents of inspiration.
One of mine happens to be a singular talent, who is famously a student/aficionado of multiple media. He writes, he directs, and he produces. To the smallest detail, he has designed ten different versions of our world. And, at the risk of being trite, he makes jazz of all the elements tied to his art form. It should come as no surprise, my inspiration for this post as well as other writings is Mr. Quentin Tarantino.
1. The Dialogue
Why Tarantino? To this particular writer’s mind, there is no question. Every film is the sum of all its parts, though always it begins with a written screenplay. Until the universe folds in upon a singularity of creative wonders and creates, of all discarded and dissected passages, a messianic figure for the arts, it is what it is.
Whosoever the G.O.A.T. of screenwriting is to anyone else I’ll leave to the intrepid reader(s) of this post and future discourse. To answer the question under discussion and state my own opinion, I mean come on. It’s Tarantino and the reason he’s gotten gold and yet remains the people’s champ, is his ability to create a scene between his characters.
Tarantino can put four women at a table in a diner, with their stalker/potential killer sitting three feet from them. Then, while we’re sweating bullets and pointing at the bad guy, he’ll make us laugh. Who’s cool? Who’s not? Who’s getting the feeling something is off? The answers all get lost in who says what, because he builds anticipation gradually with every sentence.
Disagree wholeheartedly or argue with yourself. Dare to write or find somebody who can do better. It’s just this humble blogger’s opinion that Tarantino has ten times achieved greatness. So, the question of that becomes: why or how is Quentin Tarantino so great to me? If you find agreement with my opinion, then you might have (to yourself) already made a reference to a famous line in many Tarantino films. Indeed, you might have whispered softly to the screen of your smart device or looked lovingly away to utter from your heart that it “depends entirely on you.” For me, it’s because Tarantino expertly crafts the dialogue. It’s like music and I think you can see now where this is going.
2. The Rhythm / Pacing
“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides,” said Jules. Just the same, a piece of writing should have a path as well. Additionally, that path should be affected by the events and reactions (the causes and effects) of the world, in which that path is laid.
It appears an easy thing when it’s done right. However, there are only a few good writers that order the steps of a story. Fewer still can appreciate the work that goes into it, because the process of setting the pace of a project is painstaking.
Take for example this bit of writing. I’m not even done but I have every step mapped out. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely nowhere close to ever being Quentin Tarantino. Though, I will try.
While I digressed, you may have noticed the not-so-careful, albeit very much intentional, tone of my every paragraph. Just like a painter might choose colors to create a world on canvass (or attempt to make their apartment look interesting), Tarantino’s choice of words, phrases and events amounts to the piece becoming real. These things are paramount to the creation of any scene, and provide the structure, ordinance and laws of creation.
They stem from choices made by the author, before the pen is put to page. In turn, become the choices and personalities of the characters; and they can appear as boons and banes along the predetermined path.
There is a scene, in which a certain bounty hunter character in “The Hateful Eight” spins a now very famous yarn about himself and another bounty hunter. Without giving too much away, that anecdote is meant to bear the audience through to the other side of tense situation. Ironically, it exponentially compounds that sense of tension, by taking us one direction and ending in another.
That’s not even the genius part. What’s clever AF is how Tarantino makes the audience aware that’s what is happening in the story. Even the characters are in on the prestige and allude to the obvious ending of the tale within a tale. But the story is told in such a way that we’ve been carried in so far and have no way of getting out, not that we’d ever want to.
The most exciting feeling when you’re watching a movie is not knowing, even when you do. It all comes down to what the writer knows and when that knowledge is decided to be revealed. Wanting to know what’s going to happen is the biggest part of entertainment. That’s only ever achieved through careful planning and execution.
Wow! Really? Who knew? You guessed who, but did you know. Now you do and “That’s a BINGO!” Moving on…
3. The Themes
“So, what are we trying to say?” That’s the question asked by everyone, about nearly every written thing. It’s also the question asked by people discussing some of Tarantino’s films. The novice be like: “huh?” and the writers and cinephiles (film lovers) have then to explain what subtext even is.
Like our opinions, our interpretations vary. For me, his famously a-linear presentation of 1990’s era Los Angeles (“Pulp Fiction”) depicts the underbelly of the working class. His story of a pregnant bride (“Kill Bill”), who’s shot in the head on her wedding day (Shut up, I know it’s the day of her wedding rehearsal), is about a woman’s right to choose. I have at least ten different opinions about the meanings of Tarantino’s films. Though, one might say of the love story set in slave times (“Django Unchained”), the message is a little on the nose. To that particular point, if one was born at any point in history, after those films were showcased, one might dare to make a correlation or two of present times—which truly aren’t presents for all.
Regardless both the pun and my opinion, one’s observation of the embedded subject matter (or lack thereof) creates a conversation. Tarantino always provides us food for thought, in such a way that isn’t pompous or, dare I say, sanctimonious. It’s rather the opposite, and often disguised as the backdrop to a Tarantino story. It’s the “Once upon a time” that should give everyone a sense of pause to consider when and where, and lends, therefore, more plausibility to all things how and why.
4. The Reimagination of History
What needs be said of Tarantino’s use of it? After watching the film, “Inglourious Basterds” (2009), I could only attempt to describe a feeling of being transported to the past. There were scenes in which I felt the exact amount of tension and terror, as Tarantino had so obviously intended. Remake or no, that’s just how good it is.
“History is under attack,” some say. Perhaps that was the theme to abound from every act of the afore-referenced film, because the picture of humanity is only as pristine as collective memory. The world which Tarantino had put before us, was not a foreign one. It was a mirror world gain, wherein the moral of the story ultimately was to remember what became of burning the written word. Historically, in order to install a dictatorial regime, legitimize totalitarian rule and spread its message, all new ideas must first supplant the old. Destroying every reason not to become a fascist has to occur. Sound familiar?
It is a stroke of genius, anyone’s highlighting history. It presents new worlds through the lenses of another.
5. The Violence
One’s effective use of violence, as a storytelling tool, is crucial. Sorry, folks. No matter what we tell the kiddies as we tuck them into bed, the world is chock-a-block with terrible events and people. But don’t you fret. Violence is fake in the movies. It resides within a plot point, is the result of a plot device or is the reason for the plot, all on its own. Misuse and/or overuse aside, my observation holds. Otherwise, there would not be any violence or death in any movies ever.
In Tarantino’s case, the use of violence is the direct result of choices made by the characters. I mean, really. Who uses a flamethrower on a crazed intruder who has fallen into the pool (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)? Often the depths, as well as directions, of villainy and heroism are gauged by how unfeelingly the villain or hero fictitiously performs a “Coup-de-gras”. The question of necessity is rendered moot, when one is trying to understand the dramatic caricature of say… Hitler. How should the story of him be rounded, with a poem?
6. The Flashbacks and Asides
We’ll take a break from all the heavy references. Don’t want you folks to think too hard on human imperfection or dare to question present day democracy. Instead, let’s delve into the fluff and have a roll-around. Shall we?
As far as the recent history of a story is concerned, one has to provide for each core character a backstory. Sometimes it’s a single line and sometimes it’s a cut-away from a woman trapped inside of buried coffin, to an undisclosed location in rural China. Sometimes it’s the narration of a scene implied. The ancient ruins one must explore to discover the future—and there’s that blasted theme again—are as essential as the breath in our lungs. Otherwise no one would care who’s doing what.
7. The Actors
Another element of Tarantino’s storytelling style is truly the most fantastic kind: The Actor.
Pitt and Waltz, Dawson, Thoms, Winstead and Bell, Foxx and Waltz, Russel, Madsen, Roth, Roth, Keitel, Buscemi, the Parks’s (there are two of them as well), and don’t let’s, anyone, forget Travolta, Thurman, or Sir Samuel L. Jackson (TOBAMF = the original bad-a**-mother-f**cker). They have, all of them, had a turn through Tarantino’s revolving door of major talent. And they have, all of them, by way of the above become historic.
Before you folks start naming all the others, there is only so much room within the body narrative. When it runs out, it feels like stereo instructions or, God forbid, a dictionary.
Actors bring films to life. Actors speak the words and very often they reveal what’s either lacking or overdone. They are the audience before the audience arrives and the critics every writer listens to, at least until the point when someone yells that all too ubiquitous of words: “I’m as real as a donut.”
8. The Tarantino Cameo
 |
| This actually is not Quentin Tarantino. It is a computer-generated image. |
I hesitate to say that Quentin Tarantino’s favorite actor is himself. It’s easy to imagine he has a sense of humor about his appearances in film. He thinks cameos are funny which, save the one in “Reservoir Dogs” and the other in “Hateful Eight”, they are. I mean the characters he plays are so hilarious that other directors, such as Adam Sandler, have cast him in their films. Just as uniquely as his voice jumps off the page, his acting roles resound. I’m still laughing because it’s all great fun.
9. The Tarantino Product Placement
Not many people know this, but you have to pay people to show their logos or their faces on the big screen. It is not just a signature or an autograph, it is a brand. Do not forget.
Better known amongst film lovers, is the fact that Tarantino got his start in independent films. When it came to funding those films, because of his edgy content, there was, as I and many others then understood, an amount of trepidation in major companies. Corporations, such Air O, Red Apple Cigarettes and Vasalube had to be created, to fill the empty slots left by, say, Doreo Cookies, Yard Ducks Coffee, and the coveted McDowell’s (a division of the Zamundan Milling Corporation*).
If you get the joke, you know the calling cards left by the man, whose attention to detail inadvertently became a veiled critique of the status quo. If you don’t, feel free to mail me a case G.O. Juice.
10. The Music
“Surely, there’s enough for a soundtrack, though…right?”
As a child of the 80s, an adolescent of the 90s and a so-called grown-up of the disappointing 2000’s, I too often groan at the musical choices of those the younger to myself. (Ha-ha, I kid… or do I?) Luckily, I’ve been a fan of a certain director’s films and have the privilege of hearing music that fits exactly where it should.
“It’s a mood.” So say the kids. When Tarantino is concerned it is a character. In some cases, it’s even a live act of band he had discovered (see “Kill Bill Vol. 1”. No seriously watch it, it’s good). The corporate brands had all but banished Tarantino, but the industry that loved him most besides the one that made him famous, is the one that sings. Thank God for that, because JP would have a playlist full of mumble rap, if not for A Band Apart—If you are groaning bite me hard, I rather like it.
Finalé
The thing I love the most about the films of Tarantino—and I am not joking—are his endings. There is always a callback, always a reason to say, “I love this” or “I don’t.” There is never any ambiguity regarding the nature of a story or its creator’s reasons for writing it in the first place. The end… is the most important part of every story. It matters more than everything else because it is the sum of every detail.
Therefore, to round this unabashed suck-fest, metaphorical though it may be, I think I’ll state some facts. And then, I’ll answer the question posed at the beginning of this post.
Tarantino wasn’t born knowing how to write a screenplay. He didn’t grow up on any list of Oscar winning writers in development, no matter the likelihood of the illuminati knowing everything—cue the X-Files music. No, Tarantino wrote and watched and studied, just like every good storyteller should. What makes him great is practice. “Alright, Alright, Alright.” But that’s another movie quoted.
Ta-ta!
--J.P.
References:
- Reservoir Dogs (1992)
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
- Jackie Brown (1997)
- Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
- Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
- Death Proof (2007)
- Inglourious Basterds (2009)
- Django Unchained (2012)
- The Hateful Eight (2015)
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Comments
Post a Comment