Thursday, April 16, 2009

Why Tarantino is NOT a Great Director

Metaphorically, one day Quentin, you may have to do this to your violent side...

Ok, let's talk film. I don't think I have said this on this blog before, but I am going to put it out there and probably catch a lot of flack from it from my one reader. Here it is...Quentin Tarantino is not a great director. He is at best an ok storyteller. But he is NOT this great icon that most people think he is. Upon his release of Inglorious Basterd in August, I am here to tell you his luck is growing slim. Even as such, he is not great as some people swear by. The reasons why are very clear to me and I will share them with you.

Number one: He uses too many words in his script. Most writers will write a lot of dialogue and yet narrow it down to a few choice lines to tell the story. Not Tarantino. He will leave in every last line that he writes to tell a story that can have been told in three lines. He may think it's real and interesting. I think it's annoying. Kill Bill series and especially the film Death Proof are testament to heavy, unnecessary dialogue that wastes the audience's time.
I have read in some blogs that Tarantino is recognizable by his heavy dialogue and I have to say that is true. How ever it is too much. In Death Proof, half the film is heavy dialogue among two groups of women. They talk a great deal about everything and nothing. That would not be so bad had the film not be showcased with a "grindhouse" horror umbrella title. The "grindhouse" title promised gore and violence. Planet Terror did well on its promise. Death Proof did not.

Number two: Tarantino glorifies violence and passes it off as art. Xavier Morales said it very eloquently in his review of Kill Bill Vol. 1
Morales argues that "...Tarantino manages to do precisely what Alex de Large was trying to do in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange: he presents violence as a form of expressive art...[in which the]...violence is so physically graceful, visually dazzling and meticulously executed that our instinctual, emotional responses undermine any rational objections we may have. Tarantino is able to transform an object of moral outrage into one of aesthetic beauty...[, in which,]...like all art forms, the violence serves a communicative purpose apart from its aesthetic value." When the female sword-wielding protagonist "...skillfully slices and dices her way through...[the opposing fighters]...we get a sense that she is using them as a kind of canvas for her expression of revenge...[,]...like an artist who expresses herself through brush and paint,...[she]...expresses herself through sword and blood."[5]


Looking at all of Tarantino's films you will see that every single one of his films glorify violence or treat violence as a commonplace entity in everyday life. No where is this more apparent than in "Pulp Fiction" where the characters Jules and Vincent talk in relaxed conversation about an Amsterdam vacation and a violent act regarding their boss. While they discuss this in an everyday manner then commit three acts of Murder. This scene proved highly interesting at first and something we haven't seen before in film, leading to cult status. Yet Tarantino continued his love for heavy violence mixed in with everyday situations in Jackie Brown and Kill Bill. As an audience, we hoped to relive the "Pulp Fiction" experience and many of us just shrugged. As of then, we have seen this before.
As Morales says above, violence is his "canvas". Therefore we can easily say, that violence and heavy dialogue while groundbreaking in "Pulp Fiction" lacks novelty in his latter work.

Tarantino shows us that this is another day at the office...

Number three: He is a direct ripoff of Martin Scorsese. You have to admit that he is a ripoff of Scorsese. He keeps the camera moving as Scorsese does and tells a broad story in non-linear time. This is Martin Scorsese' signature. In "Goodfellas" he starts us off in the middle of the film, then tells the story from the beginning. Scorsese also uses violence as art, though not as stylized. The brutal mob violence in "Goodfellas" is shown as a warning to mob involvement, rather than Tarantino's use as a showpiece.

Violence used brilliantly as graphic storytelling...

So in these three ideas as why Tarantino is not as great as most people think, I am here to predict that his luck will run out. I am pretty sure and convinced that his new film, "Inglorious Basterds" will fail critically. I would think that he will need to reinvent himself in order to be good again, to be real. Academy Award winner of last year, Danny Boyle has not made the same film twice. From "Trainspotting" to "The Beach" to "Slumdog Millionaire" his work is diverse. As that as an example, I foresee Tarantio losing his novelty and interest with the audience with his next film. He will need to re evaluate his direction to make a great film again. Otherwise he will be alone in his violence and gore. As for us the audience, we need a more meaningful, less violent time, for entertainment. Until tomorrow, let's talk film!