― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 00:31 (twenty-one years ago) link
― ryan, Tuesday, 29 April 2003 00:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― dave k, Tuesday, 29 April 2003 07:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
I'm not a fan, but this is a great point. Jackie Brown is the sort of thing I can imagine an aging alcoholic pulp writer coming up with. I think Tarantino is good at what he does, but his characterizations are so weak (and not helped by "novelty" casting) taht I can't really stomach his films. Definitely a good subject for a "trash-meets-high-art" style discussion though - he "wears all his influences on his sleeve", whether you think that's a good thing or not.
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 11:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
I don't know, life is long, if he doesn't just retire to bathe in his money I think he might have a very interesting late career.
― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 12:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 12:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
Don't know about the alchohol, but Elmore Leonard is no spring chicken and he has written a bazillion books either about cowboys or criminals. Jackie Brown is taken from his book "Rum Punch". I think Tarantino gets some of his dialog style from Elmore Leonard.
Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are both quite a bit more cartoonish than most of Jim Thompson's books. I think those movies are more indebted to Starsky and Hutch or Superfly than most would admit. Mind you, the violence is intense as Thompson's books, but the settings are cop show, which is OK with me.
I'd like to see someone with some vision take a shot at Thompson's "The Killer Inside Me", that book could be the basis for a great movie.
Thompson could write for the movies. Check out Kubrick's "The Killing" and you will see what I mean. I thought "The Grifters" was a good adaption of one of his books.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 29 April 2003 13:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
I do enjoy his dialogue, though I think it's funny that after the release of Reservoir Dogs, critics said that his characters talked like some imaginary "everyman". Now, I'm from a white suburban middle-class English family - there's no way I ever speak like a Tarantino character!
Earlnash-you're right about Rum Punch. I totally forgot! :]
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 13:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
I wonder John, what do you mean by this?
― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 13:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 15:51 (twenty-one years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 16:07 (twenty-one years ago) link
― slutsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 16:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 16:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― slutsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 16:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
― slutsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 16:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 16:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
There are probably dozens of these I'll remember after I post this.
― slutsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 16:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
What about XXX or The Matrix: Reloaded?
― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 17:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
It's funny, before Jackie Brown I always thought that QT was doing George V. Higgins dialogue rather than Elmore Leonard, but I guess he's just read a ton of crime fic and a lot of it rubs off. I saw Jackie Brown again recently, and am more convinced than ever that it's his best film - a great romantic comedy, almost.
The director he most reminds me of is Kubrick - the early crime based thrillers, the increasing gap between making films, the problem w/ comedy and overripe performance, the formal symmetry of their shot-making. It's not a perfect match, of course - QT is much more of a humanist, and Tarantino's snobbery is expressed in ubergeek oneupmanship rather than Kubrick's intellectual contempt.
― Andrew L (Andrew L), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 17:51 (twenty-one years ago) link
― slutsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 18:47 (twenty-one years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 18:49 (twenty-one years ago) link
I'd like to think so. Otherwise I'm kind of in trouble.
― slutsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 18:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jones (actual), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 19:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
I couldn't stomach the violence in Reservoir Dogs. I still haven't made it through the whole picture.
― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 19:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
i'm not so sure qt's bio is mapped out start-to-finish (tho he is making two things back-to-back right now hmmm) - i think Jackie Brown was as much as anything a "but i can also do THIS" pre-emptive (and smart) response to the backlash that was bound to spring up from all the Boy Wonder hype post-Pulp Fiction. Over the long-term i expect his success/failure will depend almost entirely on this ability to keep ahead of the curve rep-wise, and that having to live down a few of the tricks that made him famous to begin with - the ones his legion of imitators can most easily pick up and possibly outrun him with - will be key. The same could be said of almost anyone obv but i think his particular predicament remains fairly unique right now, hiatus and all.
(i mention this partly cuz i predict the Kill Bill backlash will be enormous. the script is ok but it's an exploitation hommage played pretty by-the-numbers - possibly too nudgenudge genre-conscious for the NoMoPoMo crowd [if this "crowd" isn't just a phantom strawmob i've begun to channel thru ilx] on the one hand, and on the other hand slightly behind-the-times and dull as far as recent genre-commentary goes. Also if the teaser trailers are anything to go by it LOOKS dated - not in a kewl throwback way but in a Charlie's Angels three-years-ago way - the curse of the imitators again maybe)
(then again yes this could all be part of some masterplan designed to divert attention away from the coup de grace of the followup picture, who knows)
J0hn - Jackie Brown is worth renting, esp.if you're interested enough to have bought RD. I totally disagree with the "novelty casting" charge. This has probably been mentioned often enough to have become part of the official hype-parade by now but here goes anyway: the lead casting in JB sez loads more about tarantino's relationship with film than any of his whizkid camera-moves or script-mashups do. Giving enough of a damn abt the wasted potential/overlooked performances/??? of eg.Pam Grier and Robert Forster to write sharp, nuanced parts for them is exactly the kind of thing most of the nu-school film-on-film types can't pull off (well ok haha hello pt anderson i'll be with you shortly) - i mean even the Travolta/PF thing was like that at the time - i.e. totally NOT a "let's dress him up in disco clothes and point and laugh" move - and it's not QT's fault he turned back into a mockery of himself the first chance he got.
(also some of JB's growing-old-in-style theme [which is fun to watch auteur-champs grapple with as QT was positively bushy-tailed by hollywood standards at the time] [yet still managed to turn in a picture that got this element across without being TOTALLY ponderous about it (although hmm yes it sort of was)] can be read as a great big ILM metaphor if you get bored!!)
(ok that last part may not be true but there's a great minor "shopping for new music" scene that sez a hilarious eerie lot to me about my life)
― jones (actual), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 19:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 20:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
― slutsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 20:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
haha in fact let me come at this another way: tarantino sux
― jones (actual), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 21:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― PVC (peeveecee), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 23:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
this just occured to me: when he allows himself to come across like a COMPLETE filmgeek he lets in better surprises than when he concentrates on being a COOL filmgeek (if there is such a thing)
― jones (actual), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 00:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jones (actual), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 00:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
― jones (actual), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 01:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 07:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Wednesday, 30 April 2003 10:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― ron (ron), Thursday, 1 May 2003 03:37 (twenty-one years ago) link
Plus From Dusk To Dawn IS THE GREATEST FILM EVER MADE.
― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 1 May 2003 15:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Thursday, 11 September 2003 17:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Saturday, 13 September 2003 15:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
I missed (Tarantino's) boast about being the owner of the only repertory house in Los Angeles (i.e., the New Beverly) and how he'll "burn the place down" before he shows anything there with digital projection.
YAY, Tarantino = OLDS, you monkeys!
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2010/02/gift_of_gab.php
― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 February 2010 14:32 (fourteen years ago) link
whos tarantino talking about in the beginning of that clip?
― max, Monday, 8 February 2010 14:51 (fourteen years ago) link
ah pta apparently
― max, Monday, 8 February 2010 14:55 (fourteen years ago) link
I dunno max, can't watch here
― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 February 2010 15:02 (fourteen years ago) link
he was talking about his 'rivalry' with pta i guess--and told a story about depalma finishing blow-up and feeling like he had really made a masterpiece, and then going to see raging bull
― max, Monday, 8 February 2010 15:06 (fourteen years ago) link
Brett Ratner felt the same way after finishing Rush Hour 2 and then going to see The Fast and the Furious
― bee hand luke (latebloomer), Monday, 8 February 2010 21:30 (fourteen years ago) link
the programming at the New Bev is kinda weak
― velko, Monday, 8 February 2010 21:33 (fourteen years ago) link
I wonder why!
― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 February 2010 21:41 (fourteen years ago) link
obama probably
― aarrissi-a-roni, Monday, 8 February 2010 21:46 (fourteen years ago) link
haaaaa
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 8 February 2010 21:47 (fourteen years ago) link
i love how amateurist refers to a movie as a "picture." how many people still do that?
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 12 February 2010 03:26 (fourteen years ago) link
my dad
― Michael B, Friday, 12 February 2010 10:19 (fourteen years ago) link
MARTIN SCORSESE
(in the credits and posters of all his pictures)
― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Friday, 12 February 2010 20:02 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm done w/ IB thread, but
"Here's my problem with this whole influence thing," he told me. "Instead of critics reviewing my movies, now what they're really doing is trying to match wits with me...."
It's NO CONTEST, ASSHOLE
― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 February 2010 02:22 (fourteen years ago) link
you should go to revival movie screenings in los angeles, morbs, tarantino can be seen hanging near the back at half of 'em just watching some old movies. you guys could bro down!
― ('_') (omar little), Wednesday, 17 February 2010 02:28 (fourteen years ago) link
I've seen Tarantino twice, randomly, in the past 3 years in NYC.
BUT I LIKE GOOD MOVIES
― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 February 2010 02:29 (fourteen years ago) link
You both can discuss Rio Bravo, Weekend, and Angie Dickison's tittays put your nads in a twister.
― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 17 February 2010 02:31 (fourteen years ago) link
*how
“As far as I’m concerned, digital projection and DCPs is the death of cinema as I know it. It’s not even about shooting your film on film or shooting your film on digital. The fact that most films now are not presented in 35 millimeter means that the war is lost. And digital projections, that’s just television in public. And apparently the whole world is okay with television in public, but what I knew as cinema is dead.”
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 May 2014 03:39 (ten years ago) link
so finally you agree about something? idgi
― gbx, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 03:45 (ten years ago) link
he & i agree on a TON of shit (Leone, Budd Boetticher, Eric Rohmer), just not on grindhouse garbage and the worthlessness of his own career in the last dozen years. I just thought it was notable that an ILX god could express such caveman OTM sentiments.
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 June 2014 18:24 (ten years ago) link
Don't think I'd read a word about this till I bought it on impulse today:
https://uncrate.com/assets_c/2022/06/cinema-speculation-tarantino-1-thumb-960xauto-147692.jpg
Suspect I'll end up disagreeing with every third sentence--it's on '70s films (heavily tilted towards American films, I assume, but I'm not sure)--but it should be entertaining.
― clemenza, Friday, 18 November 2022 17:58 (one year ago) link
(ILF...the wilderzone.)
― clemenza, Friday, 18 November 2022 18:09 (one year ago) link
He was on Stern today; haven't listened yet
― ex-McKinsey wonk who looks like a human version of a rat (Eric H.), Friday, 18 November 2022 18:13 (one year ago) link