Quentin Tarantino

160 Pages·2004·0.6 MB·English

by  D.K. Holm

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Another title in this series by the same author
Robert Crumb
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Quentin Tarantino
D.K. Holm
www.pocketessentials.com
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This edition published in December 2004 by Pocket Essentials
P.O.Box 394,Harpenden,Herts,AL5 1XJ
www.pocketessentials.com
Distributed in the USA by Trafalgar Square Publishing,
P.O.Box 257,Howe Hill Road,North Pomfret,Vermont 05053
© D.K.Holm 2004
The right of D.K.Holm to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,Designs
and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced,stored
in or introduced into a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form
or by any means (electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording or
otherwise) without the written permission of the publishers.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 1 904048 36 6
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Typeset by Avocet,Typeset,Chilton,Aylesbury,Bucks
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman,Reading
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Acknowledgements
Anybody writing a book about Tarantino had better salute
sources of inspiration and information or be himself charged
with flagrant magpieism.To that end,I can begin with Chris
Ryall,editor of Kevin Smith’s web site,MoviePoopShoot.com,
who has provided a welcoming virtual home for the past
several years,and where many of this book’s ideas were first
developed.To him I can add Tim Appelo, Holly Cundiff,
Manohla Dargis, Desiree French, Helaine Garren, Anne
Hughes, Shawn Levy, Patti Lewis, Cynthia Lopez, Andrea
Marsden, Cindy Mason, Gregg Morris, and Sam Smith, all
making important contributions. Dawn Taylor provided
crucial intel. Britta Gordon and Charles Schwenk provoked
stimulating conversations. Especially resourceful were the
rotating members of the Thursday night Aalto Lounge Round
Table, including M. E. Russell, Robert Wederquist, Scott
Anderson,Robert Lee,and the rest,including Damon Houx,
our own personal Tarantino. Philip J. Brigham and several
other readers of my movie column offered insights.I would
also like to acknowledge the enthusiasm of Robert C.
Cumbow,Karen Brooks,Rachel Byers,Manohla Dargis,Kim
Morgan,Greg Reese,Scott Simmon and Audrey Van Buskirk.
A large debt, literal and figurative, goes to Mary Catherine
Lamb,who laboured long and hard on the manuscript,leaving
only the errors I inserted later. In addition, Kristi Turnquist
made numerous corrections and offered three interesting ideas,
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D.K. HOLM
two of which I stole without acknowledgement.More gener-
ally,I can cite the Multnomah County Library,the Portland
State University Library,and Powell’s Books,plus the Internet
Movie Database, both pro and civilian, which has been an
essential resource, along with scores of web sites devoted to
Tarantino.Acknowledgement is also due to publisher Ion Mills
for his enthusiasm and risk-taking.
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Contents
1.Introduction 9
On writing a book about Tarantino;influences;the movie
industry before Tarantino;Tarantino’s early life
2.Dog Days 34
Reservoir Dogs(1992)
3.Pulp Fame 54
True Romance (1993),Natural Born Killers(1994)
4.Pulp Explosion 74
Pulp Fiction(1994)
5.Overexposure 93
Hibernation;script polishing;acting;TV directing;talk
shows;The Man From Hollywood from Four Rooms
(1995);From Dusk Till Dawn(1996)
6.The Wilderness Years 113
Jackie Brown(1997)
7.Pulp Exhaustion 125
Kill Bill,Vol.1 (2003),Kill Bill,Vol.2(2004)
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8.Geek World 139
Tarantinoesque;magpieism;the violence issue;future films;
Tarantino’s status
9.Reference Materials 155
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1.Introduction
WHY WRITING A BOOK ON TARANTINO IS
THE HARDEST BOOK OF ALL
Writing about most film directors is easy.
Take David Cronenberg. Or Atom Egoyan. Or John
Carpenter.Great filmmakers all – but when you confront the
full spans of their careers,you don’t really have to stray far from
the films themselves, exceptions being the novels they are
occasionally based on.There aren’t a lot of pop references in
their movies.Allusions to previous films and youth culture are
minimal.
Cronenberg proudly proclaims (on the audio commentary
track to the Blue Underground DVD of his 1979 race car film
Fast Company) that unlike those of many of his peers,his films
are based on books and his own life experiences rather than on
other films. Egoyan’s icy cogitations come partially from his
ethnic background, indicating a high seriousness that aspires
toward great art in the European tradition. With John
Carpenter,once you’ve got Howard Hawks and The Night Of
The Living Dead,you’re in.
Quentin Tarantino,on the other hand,is an encyclopaedic
artist.He draws on anything and everything at hand to tell his
stories.He mirrors what in literature are called encyclopaedist
authors, such as James Joyce,Thomas Pynchon, and William
Gaddis.
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D.K. HOLM
I’m not saying that Tarantino is as ‘great’ as Joyce or
Pynchon or Gaddis – but,then again,I’m not denying it (more
on that later).As writers,Joyce and the others throw in every-
thing they know, everything they remember reading, every-
thing they’ve experienced.To fully understand and appreciate
James Joyce,you have to be versed in British literature since
Beowulf and the details of Irish history,in Catholicism,and in
the topology of Dublin.Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbowdemands
familiarity with war-time London,the premises of behavioural
psychology, aerial bombing technology, and African colonial
history.Gaddis’The Recognitionsrequires a working knowledge
of the American Puritan tradition, the techniques of art
forgery, and Bohemian life in post-war Paris.And that’s to
name just a few topics for each of those writers who are
immersed in the minutiae of everyday life, its newspapers,
ditties,commercials,and lingo.
From the heights of Melville to the depths of Michener,this
impulse to create a big, digressive book of life, an ency-
clopaedia containing all that the writer knows and feels is a
fine (mostly American) literary tradition.The urge has passed
on now to authors such as David Foster Wallace,William
Vollmann and Dave Eggers.Tarantino,on the other hand,is a
rarity: their cinematic equivalent.A typical Tarantino movie
can cite ’70s blaxploitation films,Japanese samurai films,or a
Roy Rogers movie from the ’40s. In a single 15-second
section from Kill Bill Vol.2,Tarantino manages to quote from
an obscure movie called Road To Salinas and general car chase
movies such as Vanishing Point,as well as from Faster,Pussycat!
Kill! Kill!,Dirty Mary Crazy Larry,and From Dusk Till Dawn
while also exploring,in almost essay-like form,the unexplored
resonance of screen icons such as Daryl Hannah.
Indeed, if a film scholar finds enforced immersion in the
real and cinematic world of Tarantino occasionally suffocating,
he can always catch his breath by taking a side-trip to one of
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