Quentin Tarantino: The Films

[James]

[color=#707875]I thought I'd bump up this thread by mentioning that I recently bought both Jackie Brown and Reservoir Dogs on DVD.

I haven't watched all of Reservoir Dogs yet; I'm just over halfway. But I did manage to see all of Jackie Brown (which feels like a surprisingly long movie).

So, I'll wait before I comment on Reservoir Dogs. First, Jackie Brown. I think I'll just put everything in spoilers, just in case.

[spoiler]Okay, if you haven't seen this movie...you are doing yourself a disservice. Although I haven't seen all of Reservoir Dogs, I think I definitely preferred Jackie Brown nonetheless. I would also say that for me, Jackie Brown comes pretty darn close to Pulp Fiction (perhaps even exceeds it in some cases), as being my "second favourite Tarantino film" (behind Kill Bill).

The story itself is relatively basic, at least until the various plots of different characters begin to weave together. One of the cool things about Jackie Brown is that it uses some key "Tarantino techniques" (like split screening and multiple points of view), but it doesn't labor the point. More importantly still, these techniques are used at critical moments, so that very little needs to be explained in words.

I mentioned to Alex that in the case of Jackie Brown, the cinematic techniques are so good that everything feels very polished. I found myself being pleasantly surprised when certain techniques were used, not because of the technique itself, but because it truly did what it intended to do. For example, the split screen that appears when Jackie returns home from prison -- it's very deliberate and it "lets you in on the joke", so to speak, but in a subtle way.

Although there are a billion famous actors in Jackie Brown, I [i]really [/i]enjoyed watching Pam Grier. She played her role perfectly. When "Buck" (I forget his name...but you'll see what I mean when you watch it) is interrogating her, he basically tells her that her career is nothing and that if she gets put away (even for a short time), it'll ruin her life even further...you can't help but feel for her. In fact, throughout the movie, she is in many ways classed as the underdog. As a result, I found myself [i]wanting [/i]her to steal the money and get away from the various interests that surrounded her.[/spoiler]

So, that's my relatively sloppy summary of the movie at the moment...but again, I strongly urge everyone to see this movie. I think it's vastly underrated. To me, it feels more professionally made than either RD or PF -- not to say that it's [i]better -- [/i]just that it's very underrated in general and that it definitely deserves to sit on the shelf with those other films.[/color]

[Zen]

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I don't wanna break up any conversations here, but I just saw [B]Resevoir Dogs [/B]today and I really liked it. It was a great movie, one of those few movies that can keep me watching without explosions and limbs falling on the floor (althought that whole ear cutting off kidna qualifies). It had a cool style and story line. I liked how it revealed all the major robbers in their own cut scenes, namely, I liked Mr. Orange's intro thing. I also thought it was cool where the movie started off after the beggining credits rolled. Already, Mr. Orange is screaming in pain. Tottally skips the initial robbery, throwing alot of people off guard. Only showing the after math in different cuts. I enjoyed alot of the lines in this movie. (Aswell, it has led me to beleive Quentin Tarantino wants to be black.) Like where Mr. Orange was explaining why he had shot Mr. Blonde "... and he was gonna burn him alive." Then Eddie says "What cop? This Cop!?" Blat Blat! Shoots him. Or at the beggining "Ramblers, lets get rambling." Sounds like something in an old spaghetti western.

One more thing. I noticed that in [B]Pulp Fiction, Phil Lamarr[/B] made a slight cameo. He was the guy who got shot in the face by Vincent. The ironic thing is, he later on came to be a cast member of [B]Mad TV[/B], Mad being aPulp Magazine. Kinda funny, huh?[/color][/size]

[BlueYoshi]

[color=teal]After a much deserved wait, I finally got round to watching True Romance. It's not what you'd normally expect for a QT film, considering his reputation and all, and it drastically differs to PF and RD, so one might call it a conversion of his more violent works. It's funny, even if he was credited for it, you'll immediately be able to tell that he wasn't in control, simply because the directorial work wasn't up to his standard, and you'll notice this if you watch any other of his films.

Back to True Romance, a celebration of a film. It wallows in every possible corner of its mixed genre, and ironically, I found it shameless in its exploitation of excessive violence, because believe it or not, none of it is actually meant to be humorous this time round, though I did endeavour the odd chuckle every now and then, heh. QT, as I'm sure everyone knows, wrote the story, but it is the execution where this film really shows off its talent, namely the director, Tony Scott, though with that, I think QT may have done a better job.

I honestly can't complain about the lead actors' roles. Alabama (Patricia Arquette) was stylised very maturely, but at the same time, you feel that she's still a child at heart as a result of her odd behaviour. Slater on the other hand, is a level deeper than Arquette, and contemplating his roles in other films, it really is a change. Also, the amount of cameo roles are unbelievable; Samuel L. Jackson, Val Kilmer, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt, Dennis Hopper, and many more. Some may have longer scenes than others, but seriously, you can hardly recognise them in appearance, especially Kilmer.

One way or another, I'm going to watch Jackie Brown, and when I do, I'll post my thoughts on it, but right now I'm concentrating on seeing films where QT was only credited for the script before anything else, because I want to make a proper, chunky analysis of [i]all[/i] his films.[/color]

[Brasil]

I recently had the distinct pleasure of partaking of Jackie Brown, and I was very impressed. I think Jackie stood out the most. She wasn't going to sit back and let things happen to her. She was Pam Grier's 70s Blaxploitation character, Foxy Brown, and I think that's why Grier looks so damn comfortable as Jackie Brown...the name similarity probably hints at why she's so right for the role. QT knows how to cast people, heh.

Speaking of casting the right people, I recently saw Kill Bill Volume 2, and I had never really been a fan of Michael Madsen up until Volume 2. Granted, he was awesome in Reservoir Dogs, and delivered his lines with the necessary camp in Species, but I never really saw him as a "serious" actor, even in terms of QT films.

Volume 2 changed that. Budd really is the most sympathetic character in Kill Bill, I think. He's the only DiVA that shows compassion, it seems. Yes, O-Ren admits she has underestimated The Bride, in a sense, but she doesn't outright, immediately give The Bride the respect she deserves ("Silly Caucasian girl likes to play with Samurai swords?"). Budd, on the other hand, does, I think.

Even when [spoiler]Bill comes to warn him in the opening scenes of Volume 2, Budd understands that they (the DiVAS) all deserve to die, and he accepts that. He doesn't insult The Bride's strength or convictions, like GoGo, O-Ren, or even to a lesser extent, Vernita. While James disagrees with me on this point, his usage of the rock salt shells may mean he wanted to torture her, but it also gave him the option to be kind to her, as well, by giving her the choice.

If it were up to Elle, Budd could have continually beaten Bea, to the point where she was unrecognizable--hell, maybe worse than her wedding rehearsal. He buries her alive, sure, and that's certainly villainous, but he gives her the choice of a flashlight or an entire can of mace in the eyes. I think that is a major redeeming factor for Budd's character.[/spoiler]

Based on this, you could almost say that Budd is the most respectible member of the DiVAS. He's not arrogant like O-Ren. He's not rude like Vernita. He's not an asshole like Elle, lol. He's a regular Joe, more or less, and I think that characterization is found in most of QT's other films (Butch in PF, Mr. Pink in RD, Jackie in JB, for example). Just regular people caught up in this chaos inherent in QT's films.

Maybe I'm reading into something that isn't there, but Budd seems like an okay guy.

Elle, on the other hand, I couldn't imagine anyone else playing her. Daryl Hannah just captures the role perfectly. I'm sure James has some things to say about her, hehe. The [spoiler]trailer scene[/spoiler] in Volume 2 is just [i]priceless[/i].

QT knows how to cast a movie. The guy who played Pai Mei was awesome in it, and Pai Mei seemed like a disturbed and demented Yoda, actually, especially when [spoiler]he was sitting on top of the board that Bea was trying to break with her fist, and as she kept failing, he kept tapping her on the head with his walking stick. I kept thinking, "Dude, that's [i]so[/i] a ******-up Yoda!"[/spoiler]

[James]

[color=#707875][spoiler]Regarding the rock salt thing...I think we have to remember two things. 1) Budd knew that Beatrix was coming. And 2, he had obviously been prepared for that -- presumably he hired the guy who was digging the grave for her. Or at the very least, the guy who dug the grave was a friend or had some interest in doing it.

So, in my view, the use of the rock salt was to ensure that she didn't die immediately. He wanted to stop her, sure; the rock salt definitely did that. But he didn't want to outright kill her. Thus the whole live burial thing.

The only choice he really gave her was the torch versus the mace. Although the torch could be considered an act of mercy, the fact remains that he's still burying her alive.

So I don't believe that the use of the rock salt alone was intended to torture her without killing her. It was used simply to stop her in her tracks, to allow for the burial to take place.[/spoiler]

Regarding Pai Mei...I think he was cool for one major reason; he was the stereotypical tough kung fu instructor. Even his look (which is very 70's) really underlines that. There are quite a few old kung fu films out there, which feature a similar type of character.

I'd heard that Tarantino wanted to play Pai Mei...but I'm glad he didn't, honestly. Gordon Liu was perfect for the role.[/color]

[Brasil]

Taking a short sidetrack from the main discussion points:

I felt this was worth announcing. Bravo movie channel is having a "Tarantino Weekend," probably to commemorate the home release of Kill Bill Volume 2. Right now, Reservoir Dogs is on. Spoiler tags ahead, lol.

[spoiler]The scene I just tuned in to was right after they get to the warehouse after the botched diamond robbery, where Orange is on the ground, bleeding, Pink and White are arguing, then in walks Mr. Blonde.

I had never really thought about this scene before...or maybe I have, and it just didn't hit me, but as we all know, Orange is the rat that Pink's talking about. At this point in the movie, though, we don't know that, and we hate the rat just as much as Pink, White, Blonde.

Blonde is undeniably cool. He's probably one of the best characters in the canon of QT films. His composure struck me as incredible, especially in this scene. With one line, he totally defeats White's ranting, "Are you gonna bark all day, lil doggy, or are you gonna bite?" He seems so rational and smooth, so solid with the situation, that we can't help but trust him. This trust is obviously with a bit of uneasiness, of course, but we still trust him, because as Pink says, "And I sure as hell know he's [Blonde] on the level." (paraphrased the entire bit of dialogue) Why shouldn't we?

True, Blonde "went psycho" in the jewelry shop, blasting all of those people, but we don't see it, so we can't be sure of the severity of it, even though White and Pink talk about it...damn near rant about it, especially White.

And when haven't [i]we[/i] embellished an intense situation, whether consciously or unconsciously? For all we know, while it's doubtful (White seems like a straight shooter), White could have elevated Blonde's actions to more than what they seemed in the film's reality. Based on this, does Blonde seem all that bad?

Yes, lol, but this 'yes' is after "Stuck In The Middle With You," where the now infamous ear-cutting scene takes place.[/spoiler]

Just [spoiler]Blonde[/spoiler] alone is an example of QT's seeming mastery of the twist of perspective, where our entire view and opinion of the character, characters, plot, setting are transformed into something entirely different, and a twist that alters our perception of his films.

QT does it better than most, I think, and M. Night Shymalan is still a novice at it, lol. QT's twists and perspective flips are on par with that of say, The Usual Suspects.

I'm going to enjoy this weekend. :D