Quentin Tarantino (Alive and Kicking)

SantaClaus

Rizzo said:

Read an opinion piece (in the Grauniad, natch) the other day saying how Tarantino should be basically tarred and feathered because of the violence against women in his films. The article cited a few examples (including the woman who got inadvertantly shot by Marcellus Wallis whilst aiming at Butch) but completely ignored the many, many other examples of violence against men, most of which are far, far worse and certainly far more frequent.

Guardian articles are hilarious. Doesn't matter the subject, they'll somehow shoehorn gender/racial politics or Brexit into it. It's the Daily Mail for the self loathing sanctimonious class. 

CharltonMadrid

The opening scene of Inglorius Basterds is fantastic film making.

snowinberlin

Garrymanilow said:

Tarantino is a weird one for me. I almost like what he wants to do a lot. But ultimately he always ruins it for me by doing stuff that I really, really hate. I hate the monologues that are basically just clever conversations he's had with his mates or in his head that he almost breaks the fourth wall to crowbar into scenes of no relevance. Generally I like his films that are least Tarantino-y, like Jackie Brown and Reservoir Dogs. Inglourious Basterds and Django are almost great films that go on for way too long (Django has an entire unnecessary act thrown in) and sort of eat themselves before the end and ruin their momentum. Pulp Fiction is the one I really can't stand though. I will never, ever understand how it's still so well thought of, but I'm also aware that that's not a popular opinion. The stuff I like best from him is stuff that he wrote and then got booted out of the chair before he could suffocate the film in his personality, like Natural Born Killers, True Romance and From Dusk til Dawn. He's brilliant with a camera and he's full of good ideas but he just can't control himself when he's given complete control.

Interesting viewpoint because Pulp Fiction was his zenith, it won awards and from that movie and reservoir dogs how he rose to prominence, it was groundbreaking, the clever conversations, great humour, putting the chapters in different orders, and still very watchable today.  I feel like every other movie since has been in a similar vein but never quite lived up to it and now seems like a tired concept

kentaddick

Favourite director, the reason I work in film/video today. Pulp fiction will always be his masterpiece, inglorious Basterds came close, like Quentin I’m a massive spaghetti western fan, and despite being set in ww2 it’s got the plot and style/music of a spaghetti western. hateful eight was decent, but missed a trick with no “the great silence” references, except possibly being set in the snow.

jackie brown gets a lot of hate, it’s about 40 mins too long, but there are bits of it that I really enjoyed. 

kentaddick

Kill bill is essentially a modern kung fu remake of the spaghetti western “death rides a horse” but I still really enjoyed it. 

hawksmoor

Don't get me started on spaghetti Westerns. I'm not such a big fan of Death Rides a Horse; I know it's well thought of. In terms of non-Dollars Lee Van Cleef films, I much prefer The Big Gundown, with the late great Tomas Millian.

StigThundercock

cafcfan1990 said:

SantaClaus said:

Love Jackie Brown. Best Tarantino soundtrack too. 

Not a fan actually, thought it was bang average and not one of his best. 

Yep, a tedious love letter to Pam Grier, while he vaingloriously attempts to redress some of the indignities foisted on her and her peers throughout the whole blaxploitation era that QT feels so guilty about loving.

StigThundercock

kentaddick said:

Kill bill is essentially a modern kung fu remake of the spaghetti western “death rides a horse” but I still really enjoyed it. 

It's mostly about QT's devotion to Uma T.

CharltonMadrid

He's going to do one more film (always said he'd stop after ten). Wonder what it will be.

kentaddick

StigThundercock said:

kentaddick said:

Kill bill is essentially a modern kung fu remake of the spaghetti western “death rides a horse” but I still really enjoyed it. 

It's mostly about QT's devotion to Uma T.

But the plot is basically identical to death rides a horse. Even bill’s death is a shot for shot remake of lee van cleefs characters death

kentaddick

CharltonMadrid said:

He's going to do one more film (always said he'd stop after ten). Wonder what it will be.

My guess is he’ll start doing tv series, he’s directed tv episodes before and inglorious basterds was at one point an 8 hour mini series 

PopIcon

True Romance....

kentaddick

Watched once upon a time in Hollywood last night. Not his best film by a stretch, meanders a lot through the first hour or so, the only bits I enjoyed throughout were brad Pitts scenes. The last half hour/hour is very good though. Go to it thinking that you’re watching a love letter to Hollywood, Tarantinos hometown, and I think you’ll come away happy. 

Garrymanilow

snowinberlin said:

Garrymanilow said:

Tarantino is a weird one for me. I almost like what he wants to do a lot. But ultimately he always ruins it for me by doing stuff that I really, really hate. I hate the monologues that are basically just clever conversations he's had with his mates or in his head that he almost breaks the fourth wall to crowbar into scenes of no relevance. Generally I like his films that are least Tarantino-y, like Jackie Brown and Reservoir Dogs. Inglourious Basterds and Django are almost great films that go on for way too long (Django has an entire unnecessary act thrown in) and sort of eat themselves before the end and ruin their momentum. Pulp Fiction is the one I really can't stand though. I will never, ever understand how it's still so well thought of, but I'm also aware that that's not a popular opinion. The stuff I like best from him is stuff that he wrote and then got booted out of the chair before he could suffocate the film in his personality, like Natural Born Killers, True Romance and From Dusk til Dawn. He's brilliant with a camera and he's full of good ideas but he just can't control himself when he's given complete control.

Interesting viewpoint because Pulp Fiction was his zenith, it won awards and from that movie and reservoir dogs how he rose to prominence, it was groundbreaking, the clever conversations, great humour, putting the chapters in different orders, and still very watchable today.  I feel like every other movie since has been in a similar vein but never quite lived up to it and now seems like a tired concept

The thing is though, have other movies not lived up to Pulp Fiction's conversations and pop culture references, or has the concept itself been found out? That's my feeling with Pulp Fiction, that it's always traded on being the first film to really go with that style and it felt fresh and new, which covered for the fact that there's a real dearth of story, quality dialogue in any meaningful sense and any sense that the film has something to say. I don't think any of his subsequent films have been worse in those terms, in fact I think they've all shown massive improvement on the concept as Tarantino has become more experienced, it's just Pulp Fiction will always feel like a genius moment for those who saw something completely new in it when it came out. It's more of a cultural phenomenon than a film at this point.

snowinberlin

Haven't seen it yet, wait for a rainy day.  What also made the earlier films good is choice of actors, and resurrecting the careers of fading actors specially in unfamilar roles like John Travolta, that was a masterstroke but it seems his new films he has to crowbar A listers like Di Caprio in

kentaddick

Garrymanilow said:

snowinberlin said:

Garrymanilow said:

Tarantino is a weird one for me. I almost like what he wants to do a lot. But ultimately he always ruins it for me by doing stuff that I really, really hate. I hate the monologues that are basically just clever conversations he's had with his mates or in his head that he almost breaks the fourth wall to crowbar into scenes of no relevance. Generally I like his films that are least Tarantino-y, like Jackie Brown and Reservoir Dogs. Inglourious Basterds and Django are almost great films that go on for way too long (Django has an entire unnecessary act thrown in) and sort of eat themselves before the end and ruin their momentum. Pulp Fiction is the one I really can't stand though. I will never, ever understand how it's still so well thought of, but I'm also aware that that's not a popular opinion. The stuff I like best from him is stuff that he wrote and then got booted out of the chair before he could suffocate the film in his personality, like Natural Born Killers, True Romance and From Dusk til Dawn. He's brilliant with a camera and he's full of good ideas but he just can't control himself when he's given complete control.

Interesting viewpoint because Pulp Fiction was his zenith, it won awards and from that movie and reservoir dogs how he rose to prominence, it was groundbreaking, the clever conversations, great humour, putting the chapters in different orders, and still very watchable today.  I feel like every other movie since has been in a similar vein but never quite lived up to it and now seems like a tired concept

The thing is though, have other movies not lived up to Pulp Fiction's conversations and pop culture references, or has the concept itself been found out? That's my feeling with Pulp Fiction, that it's always traded on being the first film to really go with that style and it felt fresh and new, which covered for the fact that there's a real dearth of story, quality dialogue in any meaningful sense and any sense that the film has something to say. I don't think any of his subsequent films have been worse in those terms, in fact I think they've all shown massive improvement on the concept as Tarantino has become more experienced, it's just Pulp Fiction will always feel like a genius moment for those who saw something completely new in it when it came out. It's more of a cultural phenomenon than a film at this point.

filmmaking in the 90’s was entering a brand new phase, you had reservoir dogs, el mariachi and clerks all coming out within a few years of one another, all made for relatively peanuts (well, el mariachi and clerks were made from peanuts). His films still have tonnes of references, you just have to be a massive film geek to get them a lot of the time

I think tarantino is suffering from the “Lucas effect”, in that his work has been so successful and he’s such a big name nobody is telling him “no”. In the past that was his frequent collaborator, the late sally Menke who would tell him what he could definitely lose.

I have to say, once upon a time in Hollywood has stuck with me though, definitely feel I need to give it another watch at some point.

Glovepup

Quentin Tarantino: Movies That Made Me

https://bbc.in/2YKyiyB

sillav nitram

SantaClaus said:

Love Jackie Brown. Best Tarantino soundtrack too. 

I’d forgotten about Jackie Brown and agree on the film and soundtrack.

i can’t think of any of his films I haven’t liked.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood felt like a departure but still liked it. Particularly Pitt and Dicaprio’s performances.

Macronate

Haven’t seen Alive and Kicking but love nearly all of his other films.