Quintessential Tarantino: The films of Quentin Tarantino

242 Pages·2005·1.31 MB·English

by  Edwin Page

Quintessential Tarantino
by
Edwin Page
Dedicated to Charlotte
‘You’re my Royale with Cheese’

With special mention to
Nick, Darren, & Cheri
&
In memory of Paul
‘A man who loved movies’
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Introduction
1. Quentin Tarantino: The Man and his Movies
2. Reservoir Dogs
3. True Romance
4. Natural Born Killers
5. Pulp Fiction
6. Four Rooms
7. From Dusk Till Dawn
8. Jackie Brown
9. Kill Bill Volume 1
10. Kill Bill Volume 2
11. ‘ER’ & ‘CSI’
12. That’s a Wrap
Appendix
Copyright
Introduction
‘Storytelling has become a lost art. There is no storytelling, there’s just
situations. Very rarely are you told a story.’’
Quentin Tarantino1
In this book you’ll find guns, gangsters, gimps and sword-slashing heroines, all
served with a large side-order of blood and gore. You’ll journey through the
films Tarantino has either written or both written and directed, and follow the
threads of his stories to find out where they lead.
The story begins with Reservoir Dogs (1992), the first film written and
directed by Quentin Tarantino, and ends with Kill Bill Volume 2 (2004). In all he
has only written and directed five films, which may seem like a small amount
considering the size of his reputation. However, it’s the content of the films,
along with their popularity, that has seen his reputation grow.
Also included is a chapter on the film Four Rooms (1995), Tarantino having
written and directed one of its four parts. Further to this is Chapter Eleven,
which takes a look at the episodes of TV shows ‘ER’ and ‘CSI’ that were given
the Tarantino treatment. The discussion of all his work so far means you are
getting a complete view of the man’s talent, and can see the results of his writing
and directing both together and separately.
When you go to see a Tarantino film you go to the cinema knowing to expect
a degree of violence, a good dose of humour and an injection of adrenalin-
fuelled action, all carried out by characters you can’t help but be interested in.
It’s because of these things that millions of people all around the world come out
of theatres feeling exhilarated by a cinematic experience Tarantino delivers with
style and panache.
Any admiration for Tarantino’s work also has to include his writing ability,
which encompasses his highly original use of literary techniques. Tarantino has
successfully toyed with time again and again, giving audiences non-linear
narratives which excite and thrill in their texture of past, present and future, all
woven expertly together by a master of screenwriting. He has also utilised
chapters which, in the case of Reservoir Dogs especially, helped to strengthen
character and add depth to the plot.
Even Tarantino’s casting choices are admirable. How many other directors
would have had the courage or foresight to cast John Travolta in a lead role in
Pulp Fiction after his career had all but flatlined? This can also be said of Pam
Grier (Jackie Brown), David Carradine (Kill Bill Volume 2) and Daryl Hannah
(Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2) to varying degrees. These choices have worked
perfectly however, sometimes resulting in brilliant displays of on-screen
chemistry not often seen in contemporary cinema, such as that between Travolta
and Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction and Pam Grier and Robert Forster in
Jackie Brown.
In all areas it would seem that Tarantino’s touch is more golden than the glow
from the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. He has the Midas touch, as his studio
Miramax knows only too well, his films having helped to make them a major
force in Hollywood. But this special touch goes beyond mere appearances,
beyond the plot, characters, and acting.
Tarantino displays an immense love and knowledge of cinema and films in
his work. And when I say ‘cinema’ I mean on a global scale, not merely limited
to American cinema, but stretching to European cinema, such as the French New
Wave, and on to Asian cinema, including Japanese monster movies and Chinese
and Japanese martial arts films.
This deep passion for all things film shines through on screen. There is a
special care taken over every frame and numerous homages and references to
other movies are evident in his work. The latter becomes especially obvious in
the Kill Bill saga, as we shall see later.
Tarantino’s films stand out from most others that have been produced in the
last two decades and can be enjoyed on a number of levels. That’s why this book
doesn’t just scratch the surface of his films, but digs deep with sharp nails in
order to get to the life-blood beneath.
At the end of Chapter One are the credits for Tarantino’s film and television
career at the time of writing this book. There are also cast and selected crew
listings at the end of chapters Two to Ten, all adding to the information at your
fingertips. The source for these was The Internet Movie Database, which is a
great resource for all film lovers.
This work could have been a cold look at high-octane action and searing
scenarios, but instead it’s more like a ‘Royale with cheese’. You’re here to enjoy
the ride and find out more about films which contain powerful imagery and
strong themes. Tarantino’s intelligent plots, postmodern narratives, three-
dimensional characters, entertaining dialogue and gripping action sequences are
a blend far finer than the coffee his character, Jimmie, serves up in Pulp Fiction.
Now it’s time to read on and let the story begin. As Jules says to Vincent in
Pulp Fiction: ‘Let’s get into character.’
Endnote
1.Smith, G. – Quentin Tarantino: ‘When you know you’re in good hands’ (Film
Comment, July-August, 1994)
1. Quentin Tarantino: The Man and his Movies
‘When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them “No, I went to
films”’
– Quentin Tarantino1
Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born on March 27th 1963 in Knoxville,
Tennessee, USA. His association with film apparently started immediately, his
mother, Connie, naming him after Quint, Burt Reynold’s character in Gunsmoke
(Juran, 1953).2
He was brought up in suburban Los Angeles by Connie, who took the young
Tarantino to the cinema regularly. At the age of eight he saw Carnal Knowledge
(Nichols, 1971) and at nine he saw Deliverance (Boorman, 1972).3 He was
allowed to go and see whatever movies were showing at local theatres, and these
included most of Sam Peckinpah’s movies5, which remain some of his favourite
films. These cinema visits became a habit of his and he has always treated
himself to a movie on his birthday.
PULP FACT
Tarantino never went to film school.4
Tarantino dropped out of the ninth grade at junior high and is proud to have
achieved what he has despite his lack of education. He’d hide in his house until
Connie, a nurse, went to work. Then he’d spend the day watching television or
looking through his comic collection, gaining an education of a different kind
which would prove useful in later life. This love of movies and comics is clear in
his films, and the two combine most notably in True Romance. Who would ever
have thought that skipping school could have turned out so well?
At the age of sixteen Tarantino took acting classes while working at porno
cinemas. It was during this time that he started writing film scripts.
PULP FACT
Tarantino wrote his first screenplay – ‘Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit’ – in
1985.
He got a job in Video Archives, a video store in Manhattan Beach, California,
when he was twenty-two. It was at Video Archives that Tarantino and Roger
Avary, who wrote parts of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, spent all day
watching, discussing and recommending videos.6
Lance Lawson, manager of the video store where Tarantino worked has said
that he ‘read an extreme amount of thrillers and comics, loved Elvis…and
always celebrated his birthday by going to the movies’.7 Tarantino’s early life is
reflected in a number of his films. The most notable example is in True
Romance, which is arguably the most autobiographical of Tarantino’s scripts,
probably because it was one of his earliest. In it Clarence always goes to the
movies on his birthday, his hero is Elvis, and he loves comics.
Tarantino’s wide knowledge of cinema no doubt arose from his regular
cinema visits and his video store job. Without his particular upbringing and the
job at Video Archives it is unlikely that Tarantino’s films would have the
referential nature that we know and love.
PULP QUOTE
‘Half of my inspiration is from life and the other half is from those movies I watched’8 –
Tarantino
In 1986 Tarantino made his first film, My Best Friend’s Birthday, which
remained unfinished. He then wrote the script for True Romance a year later. His
second script, Natural Born Killers, was written by 1988 and he sold True
Romance in 1990 for $50,000, intending to use the money to produce his third
script, Reservoir Dogs.
Tarantino left Video Archives and started doing rewrites for a small
Hollywood production company called CineTel, where he met Lawrence Bender,
who was to produce all of the feature films both written and directed by
Tarantino, even appearing in three of them. He also produced and made a brief
appearance in Four Rooms.
Bender, through contacts from acting classes, managed to get the Reservoir
Dogs script to Harvey Keitel, and Keitel was sufficiently impressed to raise
some more funding, act in the film and help Tarantino cast the main roles. This
story of how he got to direct his first film and what followed is described by
Tarantino as ‘my American-dream story’ 9. The rest, as they say, is history.
Reservoir Dogs showed at the Sundance Film Festival early in 1991 and was
released in 1992. It received critical acclaim and soon established itself as a cult
film. Prior to the release of Reservoir Dogs Tarantino was an unknown, but he
did a lot of self-promotion when the film came out, both in the US and globally,
which helped to put him in the media spotlight. Along with this promotion was
the fact that the violence contained in the film caused quite a stir, attracting
further media attention, especially in relation to the ‘ear-slicing’ scene (to be
discussed in Chapter Two). All of this helped in building his reputation as a new,
fresh and somewhat maverick filmmaker.
With the release of Pulp Fiction (1994), the second film both written and
direct by Tarantino, his notoriety went through the roof and he won an Academy
Award for Best Original Screenplay along with his writing partner Roger Avary.
The film also won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the equivalent of Best Picture at
the Oscars. With this time-twisting film, Tarantino’s reputation as a great and
original writer/director was sealed.
PULP QUOTE
‘A Tarantino film wouldn’t be one without at least some of his encyclopaedic video-
geekiness finding its way onto the screen.’10
Pulp Fiction cemented and substantially increased his reputation, and was the
largest grossing independent movie of its time. It also had a major effect on
Miramax, the studio that backs all the films written and directed by Tarantino.
Pulp Fiction effectively turned Miramax ‘from an art-house haven into a major
studio’.11 In fact, Tarantino’s impact on the studio has been so important that
studio chief Harvey Weinstein has likened it to Mickey Mouse’s on Disney’.12
Four Rooms and the penultimate episode of season one of the television
series ‘ER’ were Tarantino’s next outings in 1995. The first got a lukewarm
reception at best and the second was only directed, not written by him. These
were followed by From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), directed by his friend Robert
Rodriguez and based on his script. Tarantino took a lead role in this film, which
met with a mixed response from movie goers.
Also helping in his somewhat meteoric rise to fame have been the films that
he’s written, but not directed, which are also included in this book. These are
True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993), Natural Born Killers (Stone, 1994), and From