Quentin tarantino & Me - A Love Story

My ongoing love-hate relationship with Quentin Tarantino is well documented amongst my friends. You only have to ask the cast of my school production of Once in a Lifetime when I portrayed a mad German film director to know that there was a time when I obsessed about QT. Pulp Fiction still stands the test of time as a terrific film but also holds a special place in my heart because it opened my eyes to films that were all about the dialogue. Way before I got into Elmore Leonard books, a writer who so obviously informed QT’s dialogue style no end, this was the one that made me go WOW. There’s not a massive plot, there’s not much ‘action’ but there is a hell of a lot of talking and damn doesn’t it just sound so cool. I was at school and was getting into writing stage scripts. QT really got me into writing, and mainly trying to get some great dialogue. Not necessarily in the same style but good dialogue, maybe even ‘cool’ dialogue. I devoured Reservoir Dogs when it eventually emerged onto VHS (this was in the day when it was pretty much banned on video), Jackie Brown I really enjoyed but it wasn’t quite as good as Pulp Fiction (though it did have the coolest actor on the planet Samuel L Jackson in it) but then things got tricky when Kill Bill came out. I should be a bit more precise, Kill Bill Volume 1. On paper this sounded like a great idea. Tarantino was going to make a throw back to the exploitation revenge movies that he grew up loving, with Uma Thurman as a kick ass female assassin going after the men who tried to kill her, all leading up to the big man, Bill. This sounded great. Then came the news that the film was soooooooo long they were going to split it into two films. Okay that didn’t sound brilliant. Most exploitation revenge movies were short and sweet, nearer 90 minutes than 240 but hey it’s Tarantino. What could go wrong? Quite a f**king lot in my opinion. Kill Bill was a huge damp squib. Within minutes of the film beginning alarm bells were ringing in my head. Did he really just have a bleep over one of the characters talking? A name bleeped out? That’s a bit pants. As the film went on the idea that this was fast paced action film of the two (as all the pre-publicity kept droning on and on about) became more and more bullsh*t. The film is pedestrian paced, only really coming alive for the final slaughter-a-thon at the end, which admittedly is pretty superb. I left the cinema feeling very let down. Apart from a couple of bits it wasn’t really very good. I bypassed Volume 2 at the cinema and watched it on dvd. It’s better but still beset by problems. The ‘death list 5’ which is so prevalent in the first film isn’t mentioned, the complete change to more of a western style is quite jarring and it’s just overall a bit ‘meeh’. Again there are some great moments. Uma Thurman’s fight with Daryl Hannah is fantastic and the final, downbeat finale with Bill is quite nicely played. It’s just not great. I was distraught, here was my idol who’d made three terrific films and now for his fourth it was, well ordinary. After this I joked that any future film would be his ongoing apology for Kill Bill. Up pops Death Proof. After hunting down the script online (I say hunting down, it was more a case of put it in google search and there it is) I had a read. This was much, much better than Kill Bill but although there was some great dialogue the films plot was a bit weak. The film basically consists of (spoilersspoilerspoilers) a group of girls meet up, go to a bar and talk. A lot. A creepy man sees them there, gets a lap dance off one of them then when the girls leave he crashes his car into them killing them all but survives himself because his car is a stunt car and he was protected by roll cage etc. Another group of girls meet up and talk, a lot. Creepy guy tries to kill them but the tables are turned and the girls chase him and eventually beat him to death. That is pretty much what happens. So no great shakes storywise. I know neither was Pulp Fiction but it had more to it than this. Seeing the film however was completely different. Sure the story is the same but on screen it all works so much better. But it still wasn’t great. QT had gone up a fair few notches but hadn’t yet retained the pedestal I’d put him on in my teens. Which brings me to Inglourious Basterds, QT’s spaghetti western styled World War II movie. Again I hunted down the script online and gave it a read. I was a little disappointed. After being promised a ‘men on a mission’ movie ala The Dirty Dozen this was anything but. The ‘Basterds’ of the title are barely in the movie and the main chunk of the film is about a Jewish girl working in a cinema. There were a couple of great scenes but overall it was a bit of a ‘meh’ script when reading it. All the good work QT had done with Death Proof was about to be crushed. Then I went to the cinema to see it. There are a few differences in the finished movie to the script but it just comes alive on screen, thanks mainly to two actors. Brad Pitt and one Christoph Waltz. Pitt looks like he is having a ball as Aldo Raine the leader of the ‘Basterds’ and as for Waltz, well his Hans Landa is one of the most fantastic creations imaginable. He is truly stunning. The film could do with being trimmed here and there in each scene in my opinion but it is as close to Pulp Fiction as QT has got. A lot of people have even labelled it his masterpiece but I think they were jumping the gun. They haven’t seen Django Unchained yet. To be fair neither have I. It’s not due out in the US until December and unlikely to open in the UK until January 2013. What I have done is read the script. And it is good. It is really, really good. It’s easily his best since Pulp Fiction. He’s created two superb characters in Django, a freed slave and Dr King Schultz, an ex-dentist turned Bounty Hunter and the footage that was screened in Cannes earlier this week has had a glowing reception. If the film is anyway near as good as the written script, and with Waltz taking the role of King Schultz and a certain Mr Leonardo Di Caprio making is QT bow as a villain this surely will be something to behold. Without wanting to jinx it, this could be his masterpiece. So QT you’re back on the pedestal. Maybe I don’t obsess or worship you like I did when I was a teen but you’re back to making some pretty damn good movies. And I’ll salute you for that.