Flick Picks 20: Tarantino, A Retrospective

Yes, I even sit in blood. What of it?

SPOILERS, btw, people, if you've never seen the movies I'm about to discuss. And if that's true, as soon as you finish reading this, go buy one of them and watch it.
Hello, again, Streakers! Boog here, with the the twentieth Flick Pick review. I wanted some kind of special here, but was unsure what to do. I had a few ideas, some of which I may still use for future milestones, but this time, I thought it would be appropriate to introduce what will become a series of retrospectives, a look into the careers and influences of actors and filmmakers that have influenced my love of cinema in all it's forms. The first, as evidenced by the bloody poster beside me, is Actor, Writer, Director, and Producer, Quentin Tarantino. This man made some of the first films I ever fell in love with, watched multiple times, and generally remains my personal all-time favorite filmmaker, for, except for one glaring error, that I will get into, ha has not been involved with a film that I didn't enjoy. So, first, what draws me to Tarantino films? Well, the first I ever watched was 1994's Pulp Fiction. At the time, I was going through my young man Action Hero Worship phase, and I was currently latched on to watching anything and everything Bruce Willis was ever in. So when I find this film with Uma Thurman on the cover, it's got Bruce Willis's name on it, so in to goes, not knowing a damn thing about what I was to be watching. So at first, I was greatly confused. Where is Bruce? Why are we following these somewhat ugly people? What the hell is this segment with John Travolta and Samueal L. Jackson talking about foot massages doing here? The structure of the story was so alien, to a young film watcher like myself, (the most unorthodox plot structure I had seen up to this point was a Bond movie), that I was forced to fully devote every faculty to the action onscreen, in hopes that what I was watched would be explained or connected to a later bit of the movie. Thankfully, it was, but when it was over, I was definitely a changed man.

Freaking great, near perfect cast.

I had watched a film that, for better or worse, would forever alter my perceptions on what a good film could be. Samuel L. Jackson was added to my Hero Worship phase, katanas were given a special place in my heart, and I learned a lot about human depravity. And foot fetishes. It was also the first I got truly interested in the name behind the actors, and that started two traditions I still follow to this day: I will watch any director's first three films, if he gets that many, to get the best feel for his style that I possibly can. And second, I will continue to follow a director until the films he has made that I hate, outnumber the films that I like. So, I was following my own rules by watching Shamalyan's Last Airbender, but that was the last M. Night film I will probably ever see. So, now with my newfound director obsession in tow, I started hunting down Tarantino films. His producer credits got me to see Desperado, which led to Robert Rodiguez obsession, but that's another story. After that, I saw From Dusk Till Dawn(96), then Natural Born Killers(93), then Reservoir Dogs(92), Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003), Jackie Brown(97), Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004), Sin City(05), Hostel(05), True Romance(93), Grindhouse(07), and Inglorious Basterds(09). According to his producer credits, I still have 12 films to go.

I WANT YOU, to watch my movies. Or Else.

Basically, it comes down to characters. His storylines and plot always seem to have a huge amount of layers and more wrinkles that whole pack of Shar-Peis at a nursing home, but they always take a back seat to the characters themselves, their lives, their personal moments, their development. Whatever the character, the story just seems to fit them. One rather good example of this, for me anyway, is From Dusk Till Dawn. At first glance, the premise seems pretty bare, the ever treaded 'bunch of strangers get attacked by monsters' crap that has been done a few times before. But take a second look, and the main character of Seth Gecko, played by George Clooney, could be the heart and soul of any heist film. He's a criminal, running with his most recent ill-gotten loot, having to deal with a dipshit of a brother, a newfound moral dilemma over keeping the money thanks to a preacher and his two charges, and with all of that going on, he STILL has to deal with vampires. Now, Tarantino only wrote the script, and played the aforementioned dipshit brother, but Seth Gecko was an awesome character, and it was Tarantino's script that made it so. Same with True Romance, and Natural Born Killers. Tarntino wrote the first major drafts, and in True Romance's case, remained on board for most of the following drafts. Killers, of course, gets a lot of style points thanks to director Oliver Stone, but he didn't need to do a whole lot. But now I rambling, on to the next meaty bit of retrospective: the biography.

Yeah, I'm kinda Ugly. I make good movies though.

He was born Quentin Jerome Tarantino on March 27, 1963, in Knoxville Tennessee, to an Italian immigrant musician father and an Irish-Cherokee mother. In quite posiibly the most unironic foreshadowing ever, they named their child after the character of Quint Asper, from TVs Gunsmoke.  The parents split soon after, his mother taking him with her to California at the age of 2. His life was pretty straightforward from there, until dropping out of high school at age 16 to pursue a career in films, starting with classes at the James Best Academy. While taking the classes he worked in a now defunct video store, where he met future friend and business partner Lawrence Bender. Bender, after meeting with him once, convinced a now 19 year old Quentin that if he wanted to make a movie, he should just go out and make a movie. Quentin, taking his advice, wrote a short film in 1987 called My Best Friend's Birthday. Bender, having seen the short before it was destroyed in an accident, used what pull he had at the time to get Tarantino a chance a bigger movie.Quentin shopped around a script, and eventually got funding from Bender, some of Bender's friends, and Harvey Keitel, to make Reservoir Dogs. He debuted it at Sundance, and he exploded from there, going to Cannes two years later with Pulp Fiction, which would also win an Oscar here for Original Screenplay in 1995. Along with that award, Tarantino has garnered another 64 awards and 57 nominations, in a career that spans less than twenty years. In between Dogs and Fiction, he writes two more scripts, True Romance, and Natural Born Killers, of which he had Killers literally bought from him, so after his initial meetings with Stone and other over the script, he had no more contact with them. After Fiction, he meets future collaborator Robert Rodriguez, and works with and two other filmmakers for 1995s Four Rooms, which comes out to little fanfare. 1996 comes around, and Quentin writes From Dusk Till Dawn, and arguably, launched George Clooney's career. Sure, Clooney had been in some stuff before, but it was low-brow horror and TV soap operas (that includes ER) until Tarantino came along. The next year, he options the Elmore Leonard novel, Rum Punch, and adapts it into Jackie Brown. Here we start to see some of Tarantino love of movies come out, as this piece is written as a love letter to the blaxploitation genre of films, and it shows. He continues working hard in the film industry, steadily either producing, writing, or directing at least one film a year on average to date, with two more slated for 2013 and 14, with the upcoming Django Unchained, a 'spahetti western set in the South', and Kill Bill Vol. 3, continuing the saga of the Bride, this time following the child of Vivica Fox's character from the first Kill Bill, as she has somehow gotten all Bill's money, and decides to go after the Bride, somewhat justifiably, over the death of her mother.

Okay, cya later, gotta find a source for the blood in Kill Bill 3.

Where does he go from there? Unknown, but if anything he's done so far is any indication. It'll be fun to watch. Now earlier, I mention that there was one film Tarantino was involved in that I don't like. That one is thanks to Eli Roth. It's Hostel. I can appreciate where the film is coming from, and even what probably drew Tarantino to it in the first place. While the effects are current, the story, and elements of torture and gore, are all throwbacks the gore fueled horror days of the American 60s and 70s, and somewhat the 80s, and the Italian horror genre, especially Giallo films, so named for their notoriously low budgets, Giallo, meaning yellow, being a reference to the yellow covers of cheap paperback novels of the time. Giallo films were known for extensive uses of gore and violence, and therefore used what little budget they had left being rather innovative with camera work, and other special effects. So yeah, as a film buff, I can appreciate where Hostel is coming from. Doesn't mean I like it, doesn't mean it's good.
But, in the end, Quentin Tarantino is a powerhouse of American filmaking, literally changing the face of American cinema, letting the violent get violent, while also telling a great story, with freaking awesome characters. Here's to you, Mr. Brown, and the hope that you continue to thrill us in your unique way for years to come. 12, specifically, as he's 48 now, and 60 is when he's personally quoted as the age of his retirement.