Tarantino in "Academy of the Overrated"
10-08-04, 12:11 PM
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Tarantino in "Academy of the Overrated"
This opinion piece was published today in the Toronto National Post as part of a week-long series titled "Academy of the Overrated" covering every one who glories in undeserved fame these days.
The link: http://www.canada.com/national/natio...6-9170dd63b0cb
Royale, extra cheese
Quentin Tarantino's widely imitated hit has pop enthusiasm but lacks soul
Katrina Onstad
National Post
October 8, 2004
Quentin Tarantino, seen here at last month's Venice Film Festival, makes films for film's sake.
When contemplating the numerous possible movie candidates for our Academy of the Overrated (Pacino and Spielberg, count yourselves spared), I suffered through my own Quentin Tarantino-style flashback: I remember standing on an escalator in Vancouver after seeing Pulp Fiction a decade ago. Ahead of me were two sporty-looking white guys in baseball hats, Nikes on their feet.
"Tarantino f---ing rocks!"
"Yeah! Bam bam bam!"
They made gunshot noises and re-enacted gleefully the part when the guy gets his head shot off? And bits of skull splatter all over the car? And John Travolta has to clean it off? Yeah! With a high-five, they vanished into the crowd.
Clearly these gentlemen were not en route to a cafe to deconstruct the film's Godardian influences, so why had they chosen Pulp Fiction over paintball that night? Because Pulp Fiction had gone from being a small, critically adored independent film to being an "event." In the end, the US$8-million movie would earn more than US$100-million, a truckload of international awards and seven Oscar nominations. Director Quentin Tarantino, previously known for just one lauded film, Reservoir Dogs, had gone from video store clerk to the world's first "rock star director," a phrase used to ID him on the talk show circuit. He had become myth, and Pulp Fiction mythic.
Myths require a shared experience of the world and, often, overrated movies are those that generate a similar collective nervous energy, a sense that one must participate or miss the cultural conversation. When Star Wars and The Blair Witch Project were released, their content -- good or bad -- quickly didn't matter, but their momentum did. It's not necessarily superior filmmaking that causes the public to line up for hours; it's fear of being left behind.
Is Pulp Fiction a great film? Sure, in some respects. It's technically amazing, energetic, watchable and in 1994, when Forrest Gump and True Lies were top-grossing hits, it slapped awake an industry that had become fat and formulaic. Hyper-ventilating through the extras on the DVD, Tarantino explains that Pulp Fiction is three stories about the same pulp magazine story: the gangster entertaining the boss's wife; the boxer who doesn't throw the fight; and the heist that goes wrong.
Tarantino intended to take these known quantities and let them play out in unknown ways. Hence, when hoods Vincent (Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) arrive at the apartment door of associates for a showdown, they notice that they're early and walk down the hall, continuing a banal conversation about foot massages. These are working people whose jobs happen to be thieving, drug taking and dealing, and so they undertake the kinds of trivial conversations had by secretaries, waitresses and CEOs. It's now an action movie cliche to delay violence with chatter about nothing (Pulp Fiction came out in the Seinfeld era when nothing was much venerated and nothing much was venerated); watch for it just this week in the dog's breakfast Taxi, starring Jimmy Fallon.
Of course, delaying the violence is a trick familiar to anyone familiar with Hong Kong action movies or Jean-Pierre Melville, and that's the point: Tarantino's films are Where's Waldo? for movie geeks. When Uma Thurman and Travolta dine, they order "Douglas Sirk steak" surrounded by servers decked out as '50s icons.
The game is spot-and-identify Marilyn and Mamie, just as Pulp Fiction invites the audience to name check Deliverance and Jules and Jim. Trickery is a quality shared by other overrated movies, like Memento and The Crying Game, but pop trickery is Pulp Fiction's dubious legacy.
Named after a Burt Reynolds character, Tarantino was practically raised in a pop culture Petri dish. When he talks about his youth in interviews, he will commonly mention the movies that raised him before he mentions the people. A high-school drop-out who spent his truant youth in movie houses and reading magazines, film is Tarantino's only education.
Of course, diplomas, or lack thereof, don't determine a director's excellence, but his timing was fortuitous: In 1994, emerging from the cautious era of political correctness, relativism was the new standard for aesthetic judgement. High and low culture had the same currency. It would have been snobby to say that endless talk about fast food and kung fu movies gets boring after a while (Pulp Fiction is more than two and a half hours long). But it seems equally snobby for Tarantino to depict "low-lifes," criminals and others who dwell on society's margins as emotionless caricatures. While he's praised for introducing veracity and real life talk into genre pictures, these people don't actually sound real (what could Tarantino know about real life?); they sound like low-lifes from the movies. There is something desperate and sycophantic about all this referencing, as if he's a kid seeking the approval of his parents, the movies. Tarantino clearly aspires to be a star, dating loudly and casting himself in his films. He's trying to turn himself into celluloid.
Movies need enthusiasm, but the best ones also have soulfulness and reflection (how uncool). Interestingly, Jackie Brown is the only Tarantino movie in which the characters don't seem like puppets in a life-long homage to his cinematic heroes. The film is pastiche, as always, but it also features a genuine love affair between two middle-aged people that rings true. For the first time, Tarantino seems to like his characters instead of being in awe of them. A relative flop, Jackie Brown is also one for the Academy of the Underrated; perhaps it requires more to get invested than to get thrilled.
In the final scenes of Pulp Fiction, Jackson, a career criminal on the cusp of leaving it all behind, makes a compelling speech about redemption to Tim Roth, a robber: "But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd." Wait -- Ringo? He loses you for a beat as you get the joke: Roth is British, or go a little deeper and read the line as a reference to the 1987 Hong Kong action film City on Fire, directed by Ringo Lam. Either way, this throwaway smart-ass moniker makes it impossible to get lost in the moment. The pop detritus takes an audience out of the film while we high five each other for "getting it."
Tarantino's influence is already apparent in the next generation of filmmakers, directors who are growing up even further from non-filmic influences (like, say, books and art), grooming their interests in Tarantino chat rooms. A film like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a breathtaking ode to comic books, couldn't exist without Tarantino. That movie was shot entirely on blue screens; at last, humans have been excised from the filmmaking process almost altogether. The result is amazing and soulless, much like Pulp Fiction.
Walter Pater wrote that art has no obligation other than to reflect the intensity of passing moments. The rush of experience is what Tarantino gives us, and in 1994 it excited the world and the guys on the escalator. Pater believed we could never ask for anything deeper than intense feeling; art is for art's sake, and nothing more. It's a depressing concept, and Tarantino is its newest incarnation, drifting toward nihilism. He makes films for film's sake, refusing to go deeper because he loves the surface so much.
© National Post 2004
The link: http://www.canada.com/national/natio...6-9170dd63b0cb
Royale, extra cheese
Quentin Tarantino's widely imitated hit has pop enthusiasm but lacks soul
Katrina Onstad
National Post
October 8, 2004
Quentin Tarantino, seen here at last month's Venice Film Festival, makes films for film's sake.
When contemplating the numerous possible movie candidates for our Academy of the Overrated (Pacino and Spielberg, count yourselves spared), I suffered through my own Quentin Tarantino-style flashback: I remember standing on an escalator in Vancouver after seeing Pulp Fiction a decade ago. Ahead of me were two sporty-looking white guys in baseball hats, Nikes on their feet.
"Tarantino f---ing rocks!"
"Yeah! Bam bam bam!"
They made gunshot noises and re-enacted gleefully the part when the guy gets his head shot off? And bits of skull splatter all over the car? And John Travolta has to clean it off? Yeah! With a high-five, they vanished into the crowd.
Clearly these gentlemen were not en route to a cafe to deconstruct the film's Godardian influences, so why had they chosen Pulp Fiction over paintball that night? Because Pulp Fiction had gone from being a small, critically adored independent film to being an "event." In the end, the US$8-million movie would earn more than US$100-million, a truckload of international awards and seven Oscar nominations. Director Quentin Tarantino, previously known for just one lauded film, Reservoir Dogs, had gone from video store clerk to the world's first "rock star director," a phrase used to ID him on the talk show circuit. He had become myth, and Pulp Fiction mythic.
Myths require a shared experience of the world and, often, overrated movies are those that generate a similar collective nervous energy, a sense that one must participate or miss the cultural conversation. When Star Wars and The Blair Witch Project were released, their content -- good or bad -- quickly didn't matter, but their momentum did. It's not necessarily superior filmmaking that causes the public to line up for hours; it's fear of being left behind.
Is Pulp Fiction a great film? Sure, in some respects. It's technically amazing, energetic, watchable and in 1994, when Forrest Gump and True Lies were top-grossing hits, it slapped awake an industry that had become fat and formulaic. Hyper-ventilating through the extras on the DVD, Tarantino explains that Pulp Fiction is three stories about the same pulp magazine story: the gangster entertaining the boss's wife; the boxer who doesn't throw the fight; and the heist that goes wrong.
Tarantino intended to take these known quantities and let them play out in unknown ways. Hence, when hoods Vincent (Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) arrive at the apartment door of associates for a showdown, they notice that they're early and walk down the hall, continuing a banal conversation about foot massages. These are working people whose jobs happen to be thieving, drug taking and dealing, and so they undertake the kinds of trivial conversations had by secretaries, waitresses and CEOs. It's now an action movie cliche to delay violence with chatter about nothing (Pulp Fiction came out in the Seinfeld era when nothing was much venerated and nothing much was venerated); watch for it just this week in the dog's breakfast Taxi, starring Jimmy Fallon.
Of course, delaying the violence is a trick familiar to anyone familiar with Hong Kong action movies or Jean-Pierre Melville, and that's the point: Tarantino's films are Where's Waldo? for movie geeks. When Uma Thurman and Travolta dine, they order "Douglas Sirk steak" surrounded by servers decked out as '50s icons.
The game is spot-and-identify Marilyn and Mamie, just as Pulp Fiction invites the audience to name check Deliverance and Jules and Jim. Trickery is a quality shared by other overrated movies, like Memento and The Crying Game, but pop trickery is Pulp Fiction's dubious legacy.
Named after a Burt Reynolds character, Tarantino was practically raised in a pop culture Petri dish. When he talks about his youth in interviews, he will commonly mention the movies that raised him before he mentions the people. A high-school drop-out who spent his truant youth in movie houses and reading magazines, film is Tarantino's only education.
Of course, diplomas, or lack thereof, don't determine a director's excellence, but his timing was fortuitous: In 1994, emerging from the cautious era of political correctness, relativism was the new standard for aesthetic judgement. High and low culture had the same currency. It would have been snobby to say that endless talk about fast food and kung fu movies gets boring after a while (Pulp Fiction is more than two and a half hours long). But it seems equally snobby for Tarantino to depict "low-lifes," criminals and others who dwell on society's margins as emotionless caricatures. While he's praised for introducing veracity and real life talk into genre pictures, these people don't actually sound real (what could Tarantino know about real life?); they sound like low-lifes from the movies. There is something desperate and sycophantic about all this referencing, as if he's a kid seeking the approval of his parents, the movies. Tarantino clearly aspires to be a star, dating loudly and casting himself in his films. He's trying to turn himself into celluloid.
Movies need enthusiasm, but the best ones also have soulfulness and reflection (how uncool). Interestingly, Jackie Brown is the only Tarantino movie in which the characters don't seem like puppets in a life-long homage to his cinematic heroes. The film is pastiche, as always, but it also features a genuine love affair between two middle-aged people that rings true. For the first time, Tarantino seems to like his characters instead of being in awe of them. A relative flop, Jackie Brown is also one for the Academy of the Underrated; perhaps it requires more to get invested than to get thrilled.
In the final scenes of Pulp Fiction, Jackson, a career criminal on the cusp of leaving it all behind, makes a compelling speech about redemption to Tim Roth, a robber: "But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd." Wait -- Ringo? He loses you for a beat as you get the joke: Roth is British, or go a little deeper and read the line as a reference to the 1987 Hong Kong action film City on Fire, directed by Ringo Lam. Either way, this throwaway smart-ass moniker makes it impossible to get lost in the moment. The pop detritus takes an audience out of the film while we high five each other for "getting it."
Tarantino's influence is already apparent in the next generation of filmmakers, directors who are growing up even further from non-filmic influences (like, say, books and art), grooming their interests in Tarantino chat rooms. A film like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a breathtaking ode to comic books, couldn't exist without Tarantino. That movie was shot entirely on blue screens; at last, humans have been excised from the filmmaking process almost altogether. The result is amazing and soulless, much like Pulp Fiction.
Walter Pater wrote that art has no obligation other than to reflect the intensity of passing moments. The rush of experience is what Tarantino gives us, and in 1994 it excited the world and the guys on the escalator. Pater believed we could never ask for anything deeper than intense feeling; art is for art's sake, and nothing more. It's a depressing concept, and Tarantino is its newest incarnation, drifting toward nihilism. He makes films for film's sake, refusing to go deeper because he loves the surface so much.
© National Post 2004
Last edited by baracine; 10-08-04 at 03:51 PM.
10-08-04, 12:46 PM
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It's rapidly becoming the "in thing" for non-mainstream film critics to hate Tarantino. It's really getting old in my opinion.
I don't think Quentin's films are the best ever, but I simply have had a really good time at every one of them. What's wrong with leaving it at that?
I don't think Quentin's films are the best ever, but I simply have had a really good time at every one of them. What's wrong with leaving it at that?
10-08-04, 12:47 PM
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Re: Tarantino in "Academy of the Overrated"
Originally posted by baracine
A film like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a breathtaking ode to comic books, couldn't exist without Tarantino.
A film like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a breathtaking ode to comic books, couldn't exist without Tarantino.
10-08-04, 12:49 PM
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Originally posted by Green Jello
It's rapidly becoming the "in thing" for non-mainstream film critics to hate Tarantino. It's really getting old in my opinion.
I don't think Quentin's films are the best ever, but I simply have had a really good time at every one of them. What's wrong with leaving it at that?
It's rapidly becoming the "in thing" for non-mainstream film critics to hate Tarantino. It's really getting old in my opinion.
I don't think Quentin's films are the best ever, but I simply have had a really good time at every one of them. What's wrong with leaving it at that?
10-08-04, 12:58 PM
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Originally posted by baracine
It can't both be "rapidly becoming the in thing" and "getting old" at the same time. Choose one. Also, what do you mean by "non-mainstream"?
It can't both be "rapidly becoming the in thing" and "getting old" at the same time. Choose one. Also, what do you mean by "non-mainstream"?
And by non-mainstream, I mean critics that don't have big commercial jobs on TV or in the major newspapers.
10-08-04, 01:07 PM
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Originally posted by Green Jello
Blow me.
Blow me.
10-08-04, 01:09 PM
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It's obvious from the article this guy is just pissed off at popularity.. and not just for his sad, pathetic ramblings about Pulp Fiction. He's probably a member here, proclaiming how superior foreign or french movies are, denouncing any movie that breaks $100 million at the office, etc, etc.
10-08-04, 01:14 PM
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Originally posted by PixyJunket
It's obvious from the article this guy is just pissed off at popularity.. and not just for his sad, pathetic ramblings about Pulp Fiction. He's probably a member here, proclaiming how superior foreign or french movies are, denouncing any movie that breaks $100 million at the office, etc, etc.
It's obvious from the article this guy is just pissed off at popularity.. and not just for his sad, pathetic ramblings about Pulp Fiction. He's probably a member here, proclaiming how superior foreign or french movies are, denouncing any movie that breaks $100 million at the office, etc, etc.
Sounds like the stereotypical miserable French Canadian to me.
10-08-04, 01:16 PM
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Originally posted by PixyJunket
It's obvious from the article this guy is just pissed off at popularity.. and not just for his sad, pathetic ramblings about Pulp Fiction. He's probably a member here, proclaiming how superior foreign or french movies are, denouncing any movie that breaks $100 million at the office, etc, etc.
It's obvious from the article this guy is just pissed off at popularity.. and not just for his sad, pathetic ramblings about Pulp Fiction. He's probably a member here, proclaiming how superior foreign or french movies are, denouncing any movie that breaks $100 million at the office, etc, etc.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-945/
10-08-04, 01:21 PM
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Originally posted by Green Jello
Sounds like the stereotypical miserable French Canadian to me.
Sounds like the stereotypical miserable French Canadian to me.
10-08-04, 01:21 PM
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Originally posted by baracine
Katrina Onstad (a woman) is the chief film critic of the Toronto National Post. Here is a sampling of her likes and dislikes:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-945/
Katrina Onstad (a woman) is the chief film critic of the Toronto National Post. Here is a sampling of her likes and dislikes:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-945/
10-08-04, 01:24 PM
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The person starts the article by saying Spielberg isn't overrated, then spends the rest of it bashing Tarantino. That tells me all I need to know.
Also, isn't the "Academy of the Overrated" a reference to Woody Allen?
10-08-04, 01:33 PM
#16
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Originally posted by baracine
Katrina Onstad (a woman) is the chief film critic of the Toronto National Post. Here is a sampling of her likes and dislikes:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-945/
Katrina Onstad (a woman) is the chief film critic of the Toronto National Post. Here is a sampling of her likes and dislikes:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-945/
10-08-04, 01:36 PM
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Originally posted by PixyJunket
Interesting.. but it doesn't change the fact that she seems to have an inherent problem with plain old popularity. Her comments on the "Nike shoes" and how films become popular not by their quality but because people don't want to be left behind cemented it for me.
Interesting.. but it doesn't change the fact that she seems to have an inherent problem with plain old popularity. Her comments on the "Nike shoes" and how films become popular not by their quality but because people don't want to be left behind cemented it for me.
10-08-04, 01:41 PM
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I can't believe I actually cared about baracine's opinion on Quentin Tarantino until I read some of his favorites in this list:
[img]Re: "100 movies that deserve love"
Those I've seen:
5. In the Mouth of Madness: Excellent suspense scenes. Captures the H.P. Lovecraft spirit and mocks it at the same time. Great acting. Seems to be lacking a third act, unfortunately.
7. The Arrival: Not bad for a film with Whatshisname in it.
9. Brotherhood of the Wolf: Rocks! (Despite the presence of the simpering reigning Whore of Babylon playing herself)
11. Dragonslayer: Saw it. Forgot.
13. Deep Rising: Great moments but forgettable and formulaic.
14. Mouse Hunt: An all-time classic.
15. Space Truckers: Rocks! (But I didn't like the reviewer dissing "The Fifth Element" to make his point, though.)
17. Contact: An all-time classic.
20. Alien 3: They're all great.
21. The Iron Giant: An all-time classic.
24. The Cable Guy: Worthy.
25. The Ref: Very good.
29. Antz : Which one of the two was it? They both had their charm. (The other being "A Bug's Life".)
30. Atlantis: The Lost Empire : Bought it for the DTS sound. Hate it for its over-the-top, inappropriate violence (the body count is in the hundreds of thousands if you count the intro), its glorification of the criminal lifestyle, its cynical, mouthy, clichéed characters, its open racism against the French, its shameless kow-towing to the Tarantino generation and its sexist and colonial attitudes. Great animation though, the dying embers of traditional animation at Disney. I can see why some people like it a lot. Nevertheless, the death of heart and good taste in children's programming.
37. Miami Blues: A lot funnier and believable than Tarantino and didn't cause me to vomit uncontrollably like a QT film, which is always a good sign. "Finely obsoived", as the Mafiosi on "The Simpsons" used to say.
40. Die Hard 2: Die Harder: Formulaic.
41. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Not bad.
48. L.A. Story: Memorable and quotable.
51. Universal Soldier: Great shots of Van Damme's butt. No, seriously!
54. Shadow of the Vampire: Horrible, but not in the way it was intended. Not even respectful of its subject. A total waste of time, especially for film buffs. [Hint: None of the real "Nosferatu"'s scenes were filmed at night.]
56. The Money Pit : All-time classic comedy.
62. Stir of Echoes: Good and satisfying.
64. Hollywood Shuffle: I was impressed and I learned something.
66. Ed Wood: All hype, no substance.
68. Big Night : Nice "little" film.
72. Super Troopers : Truly memorable toilet humour.
80. A Knight's Tale: There's no excuse for this kind of ignorant/hip anachronism. It was worst than "Gladiator" (although a lot less depressing).
82. Testament: Required viewing for anyone who thinks of voting for George II... again.
83. Home for the Holidays: Not bad but can't hold a candle to "Stuart Saves His Family", in the same vein.
84. And The Band Played On: Great TV mini-series.
87. Candyman: Scary.
88. Last Boy Scout: I liked it.
89. Gods and Monsters: An all-time classic.
92. Gremlins 2 : Puhleeeeaasse...
95. The Prophecy: Blah... I even forgot I saw this tripe but I must admit it spurred a truly major trend in pop-cultural Catholic theology, most notably in the excellent - although racist against the French - comic book series "Preacher" (1996-2000), Kevin Smith's "Dogma" (1999), John Carpenter's "Vampires" (1998) and countless lesser horrors, some of which even starred Al Pacino ("The Devil's Advocate") and Arnold ("End of Days").
98. The Hudsucker Proxy: Nonsensical, aimless and childish fluff, but pleasant enough to watch to the end.
100. Falling Down: An all-time classic.
__________________
Benoît A. Racine, Toronto[/img]
[img]Re: "100 movies that deserve love"
Those I've seen:
5. In the Mouth of Madness: Excellent suspense scenes. Captures the H.P. Lovecraft spirit and mocks it at the same time. Great acting. Seems to be lacking a third act, unfortunately.
7. The Arrival: Not bad for a film with Whatshisname in it.
9. Brotherhood of the Wolf: Rocks! (Despite the presence of the simpering reigning Whore of Babylon playing herself)
11. Dragonslayer: Saw it. Forgot.
13. Deep Rising: Great moments but forgettable and formulaic.
14. Mouse Hunt: An all-time classic.
15. Space Truckers: Rocks! (But I didn't like the reviewer dissing "The Fifth Element" to make his point, though.)
17. Contact: An all-time classic.
20. Alien 3: They're all great.
21. The Iron Giant: An all-time classic.
24. The Cable Guy: Worthy.
25. The Ref: Very good.
29. Antz : Which one of the two was it? They both had their charm. (The other being "A Bug's Life".)
30. Atlantis: The Lost Empire : Bought it for the DTS sound. Hate it for its over-the-top, inappropriate violence (the body count is in the hundreds of thousands if you count the intro), its glorification of the criminal lifestyle, its cynical, mouthy, clichéed characters, its open racism against the French, its shameless kow-towing to the Tarantino generation and its sexist and colonial attitudes. Great animation though, the dying embers of traditional animation at Disney. I can see why some people like it a lot. Nevertheless, the death of heart and good taste in children's programming.
37. Miami Blues: A lot funnier and believable than Tarantino and didn't cause me to vomit uncontrollably like a QT film, which is always a good sign. "Finely obsoived", as the Mafiosi on "The Simpsons" used to say.
40. Die Hard 2: Die Harder: Formulaic.
41. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Not bad.
48. L.A. Story: Memorable and quotable.
51. Universal Soldier: Great shots of Van Damme's butt. No, seriously!
54. Shadow of the Vampire: Horrible, but not in the way it was intended. Not even respectful of its subject. A total waste of time, especially for film buffs. [Hint: None of the real "Nosferatu"'s scenes were filmed at night.]
56. The Money Pit : All-time classic comedy.
62. Stir of Echoes: Good and satisfying.
64. Hollywood Shuffle: I was impressed and I learned something.
66. Ed Wood: All hype, no substance.
68. Big Night : Nice "little" film.
72. Super Troopers : Truly memorable toilet humour.
80. A Knight's Tale: There's no excuse for this kind of ignorant/hip anachronism. It was worst than "Gladiator" (although a lot less depressing).
82. Testament: Required viewing for anyone who thinks of voting for George II... again.
83. Home for the Holidays: Not bad but can't hold a candle to "Stuart Saves His Family", in the same vein.
84. And The Band Played On: Great TV mini-series.
87. Candyman: Scary.
88. Last Boy Scout: I liked it.
89. Gods and Monsters: An all-time classic.
92. Gremlins 2 : Puhleeeeaasse...
95. The Prophecy: Blah... I even forgot I saw this tripe but I must admit it spurred a truly major trend in pop-cultural Catholic theology, most notably in the excellent - although racist against the French - comic book series "Preacher" (1996-2000), Kevin Smith's "Dogma" (1999), John Carpenter's "Vampires" (1998) and countless lesser horrors, some of which even starred Al Pacino ("The Devil's Advocate") and Arnold ("End of Days").
98. The Hudsucker Proxy: Nonsensical, aimless and childish fluff, but pleasant enough to watch to the end.
100. Falling Down: An all-time classic.
__________________
Benoît A. Racine, Toronto[/img]
10-08-04, 02:13 PM
#20
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Originally posted by Green Jello
I can't believe I actually cared about baracine's opinion on Quentin Tarantino until I read some of his favorites in this list:
Re: "100 movies that deserve love"
I can't believe I actually cared about baracine's opinion on Quentin Tarantino until I read some of his favorites in this list:
Re: "100 movies that deserve love"
P.S.: Tarantino with Lady Coppola:
(He's on the left.)
Last edited by baracine; 10-08-04 at 02:47 PM.
10-08-04, 02:51 PM
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Originally posted by baracine
Oh! A personal attack and totally unrelated to the subject at hand
Oh! A personal attack and totally unrelated to the subject at hand
You are trying to get people to buy off on your elitist opinions on QT films while you think Space Truckers "Rocks!"
10-08-04, 02:55 PM
#22
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: Tarantino in "Academy of the Overrated"
. . . I remember standing on an escalator in Vancouver after seeing Pulp Fiction a decade ago. Ahead of me were two sporty-looking white guys in baseball hats, Nikes on their feet.
"Tarantino f---ing rocks!"
"Yeah! Bam bam bam!"
They made gunshot noises and re-enacted gleefully the part when the guy gets his head shot off? And bits of skull splatter all over the car? And John Travolta has to clean it off? Yeah! With a high-five, they vanished into the crowd.
Clearly these gentlemen were not en route to a cafe to deconstruct the film's Godardian influences . . .
"Tarantino f---ing rocks!"
"Yeah! Bam bam bam!"
They made gunshot noises and re-enacted gleefully the part when the guy gets his head shot off? And bits of skull splatter all over the car? And John Travolta has to clean it off? Yeah! With a high-five, they vanished into the crowd.
Clearly these gentlemen were not en route to a cafe to deconstruct the film's Godardian influences . . .
. . . But it seems equally snobby for Tarantino to depict "low-lifes," criminals and others who dwell on society's margins as emotionless caricatures. While he's praised for introducing veracity and real life talk into genre pictures, these people don't actually sound real (what could Tarantino know about real life?); they sound like low-lifes from the movies. There is something desperate and sycophantic about all this referencing, as if he's a kid seeking the approval of his parents, the movies. Tarantino clearly aspires to be a star, dating loudly and casting himself in his films. He's trying to turn himself into celluloid.
And Tarantino is filtering his view of movies for the audience. We are looking through his lense, and that's the meat of Pulp Fiction: viewing movies, viewing movies that wallow in genre and type, and relating our own experiences to what is on screen.
. . . The rush of experience is what Tarantino gives us, and in 1994 it excited the world and the guys on the escalator. Pater believed we could never ask for anything deeper than intense feeling; art is for art's sake, and nothing more. It's a depressing concept, and Tarantino is its newest incarnation, drifting toward nihilism. He makes films for film's sake, refusing to go deeper because he loves the surface so much.
Focusing upon its faults by way of Hollywood convention seems silly. And disliking it because of its cultural effects . . . that's an opinion I can't argue with, but I find just as silly.
Now, if we were calling Tarantino overrated because he's the poster child for "independent cinema" I would agree . . .
10-08-04, 03:26 PM
#23
Needs to contact an admin about multiple accounts
i think some of the defenders of Tarantino are missing the point of the article. Its saying Tarantino is overrated because he revels in superficiality, that his films refuse to "go deeper" than the surface levels. i don't FULLY agree with that assessment (reservoir dogs and jackie brown had a few deeper character moments). but try to understand the message in the artilce... its not saying he sucks, its saying that he's been highly praised for his style, despite an overall lack of substance and depth. i think everybody can recognize this is true. we're talking Tarantino here, not Tarkovsky.
10-08-04, 03:37 PM
#24
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Thread Starter
Originally posted by Green Jello
You are trying to get people to buy off on your elitist opinions on QT films while you think Space Truckers "Rocks!"
You are trying to get people to buy off on your elitist opinions on QT films while you think Space Truckers "Rocks!"
For ten years, to be "in", one had to be a thug. And, judging from the posters in this thread, old habits die hard. As far as I'm concerned, this trend has also been part of the general dumbing down and white trashing of America. It has swept everything else of value under the rug. It doesn't behoove you to come crying about elitist snobs now. It's a little late for that, don't you think?
And "Space Truckers" has more genuine human feeling than the whole friggin' Tarantino "oeuvre" (what an abuse of a perfectly good French word that is!). It is also a lot closer to reality.
Last edited by baracine; 10-08-04 at 04:18 PM.
10-08-04, 04:22 PM
#25
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QT films are entertaining to me, i don't care if they are deep or meaningful, they are entertainment and i thought that was the whole point.
some of you should get of your high horse and realize that your opinions don't mean shit to other people
some of you should get of your high horse and realize that your opinions don't mean shit to other people