Quentin Tarantino: The Inglourious Basterd
Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born on March 27th, 1963 in Knoxville, TN to Connie and Tony Tarantino. Quentin’s father, Tony was an actor who abandoned him and his mother before Quentin was born. After finishing college in Tennessee, Connie and Quentin moved to Los Angeles. From there, Connie would get into relationships with various men who had a large influence on Quentin. From a young age, these influences created a vulgar spirit within him – his mouth had at one point been washed with soap by his mother. On many occasions, Tarantino would organize his toys into scenes with each toy playing its own unique and vulgar character (Nathan 10-14).
Tarantino’s childhood was filled with movie inspirations. Starting at a very young age he began writing short stories that paid homage to some of his favorite films. As a child, he wrote a story called Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit which was in direct reference to Bert Reynolds’ Smokey and the Bandit – Connie and Quentin were huge fans of Bert Reynolds movies. Connie took young Quentin to R-rated movies frequently as a child which also contributed to his vulgar, and uncensored taste in movies. Many of his most fond memories were seeing Aliens, Die Hard, The Godfather, and Scarface with his mother and her third husband, Jan Bohusch (Nathan 14).
In Quentin’s early to teenage years he frequented movie theatres day and night. Although he was a very intelligent kid, he found organized school quite boring and imprisoning. He skipped school numerous times in order to catch a movie or watch TV at home. When Quentin was fifteen he was caught stealing a movie which resulted in his mother grounding him for an entire summer – long enough for him to catch up on film reads. Although Quentin was interested in some school subjects, his attention span and desire to follow his own path resulted in him dropping out at sixteen. His mother forced him to get a job so she could prove to him a lack of education would only land him in miserable situations. Tarantino’s first job was at a Porn Theatre in Torrance called the Pussy Cat Theatre. Although he was underaged, he lied to get the job – and found a lot of the on-screen content revolting. During Quentin’s time at the theatre, he’d once again gotten in trouble with the law due to several unpaid parking tickets. He was jailed for ten days. After serving his time he’d realized it was time to take action in his life – he went to join an acting school (Nathan 14-19).
Quentin soon realized that the Pussy Cat Theatre wasn’t his forte and dumped the job pretty quickly, “You know. You get to go to a movie theater all day long, and then you get to see all the movies for free. All right, well, irony of ironies, I end up getting a job at a movie theater that I could care less about the movies and was totally bored by them” (Rose 1994).
So from a young age, Quentin became the vulgar, uncensored rebel we see now. He had many father figures who introduced him to a plethora of different genres – all of which Quentin grew to love. His rebellion started at a young age, where a sixteen years old he dropped out of high school to do what he loved. Although the workforce wasn’t quite where he needed to be, he had eventually joined his first film school founded by an actor he greatly admired. James Best’s acting school solidified Tarantino’s interest in Best’s gritty World War movies which went on to heavily inspire Quentin’s Inglorious Basterds.
Although Quentin went through years of acting school, his career made little progress. Even though he had made a debut on The Golden Girls as an Elvis impersonator, he eventually saw that his only chance to become the main character in a film was to make one himself.
His debut on The Golden Girls would surprisingly come back to help him direct his first released movie later on due to royalties given every time the show aired (Quentin Tarantino Reveals How The Golden Girls Helped Get Reservoir Dogs Made).
Throughout the last few years of his acting career, he was writing a tremendous amount of work. The first film Quentin directed never saw the light of day, in fact, the film’s footage was destroyed. The film was called Love Birds in Bondage, its premise was very Tarantino Esq, it featured a black woman who became institutionalized after suffering from brain damage. Her boyfriend fakes his own mental illness in order to get himself admitted to be with her. A very tragic and most importantly uncensored film likely would’ve been somewhat controversial for the time, and would have no doubt kickstarted Tarantino’s reputation as a vulgar, uncensored filmmaker. (Carr; Nathan 19-25)
Tarantino’s true director debut was My Best Friend’s Birthday in 1987. The film was an action-comedy movie which according to Tarantino himself, was a complete failure. The film took place in Quentin’s home. After purchasing the film from the processing lab he learned that an entire canister of film was damaged and rendered unusable. Between damaged film, a lack of budget, and general inexperience the film turned out to look incredibly amateur and contained numerous plot holes. Although the film was considered a failure, it still had a small cult following. Tarantino saw My Best Friend’s Birthday as a valuable learning experience and went on to write and direct movies that would ascend to massive critical success (Nathan 26).
Reservoir Dogs (1992) is considered one of Tarantino’s best films – it was also his first official release. The story of Tarantino and Reservoir Dogs can only be described as a movie all on its own. The movie’s story began at a friend’s party where Tarantino was introduced to Lawrence Bender – the producer for one of Tarantino’s favorite movies, Intruder (1989)(Nathan 28-29).
Both Bender and Intruder’s Director, Scott Spiegel were familiar with some of Tarantino’s early works. Bender had read the script to True Romance and was introduced to Natural Born Killers by Spiegel. Knowing Tarantino hadn’t released a film, they were surprised to hear he had yet another script in the works. Tarantino eagerly pitched it to Bender as a low-budget film. Bender was intrigued and offered to help him produce it. Eventually, Monte Hellman showed interest in directing the film, but Bender insisted Tarantino direct the film (Nathan 30).
As mentioned earlier, Tarantino’s debut in The Golden Girls dramatically helped Tarantino kickstart Reservoir Dogs, “So I did this Golden Girls, and it’s like Sophia’s wedding is what it was. And like the thing is, we have a chorus at the end. It became a two-part Golden Girls. So I got paid residuals for both parts. And it was so popular, they put it on a Best of the Golden Girls and I got residuals everytime that showed. So I got paid maybe – I don’t know – $650 for that episode – but by the time the residuals were over, three years later, I made like $3000. And that kept me going during our pre production time trying to get Reservoir Dogs going” (Quentin Tarantino Reveals How The Golden Girls Helped Get Reservoir Dogs Made).
Later, Quentin had reflected, “One of the things that I was the proudest of was the fact that this film on mine that got produced was one that I directed. So I felt real great about that because I was so scared that if something of mine got produced that I didn’t direct, it would take me forever to become a director, cause I would just be, oh, a writer trying to be a director” (Bernard 131.).
But Tarantino’s dream team wasn’t finished yet, Bender had a friend who knew Harvey Keitel – who happened to be another idol of Tarantino’s of whom he desperately saw fitting for the role of ‘Mr. White’. Bender’s friend passed the script down which ended up in Keitel’s hands. Keitel loved the script and gave Bender a call, offering himself as an actor in the film. Reservoir Dogs not only displayed Tarantino’s ability to write and direct a film; it showed everyone that he could build a solid cast too (Nathan 32-33).
Tarantino landed New York actor Steve Buchemi as ‘Mr. Pink’, Michael Madsen as the eccentric ‘Mr. Blonde’, and British actor Tim Roth as ‘Mr. Orange’ – to the surprise of Tarantino, Roth picked the hardest role out of them all. But Roth was interested in the idea of playing an actor within an actor for the movie. For those who don’t know, ‘Mr.Orange’ was an undercover cop in the film and everyone around him was trying to figure out who the rat was in the failed heist. So ‘Mr. Orange’ had to really sell the part – and sell it Roth did (Nathan 34).
Although Reservoir Dogs released with high critical acclaim, it wasn’t without its controversy. Many viewers believe the more violent scenes like the one with ‘Mr. Blonde’ cutting off a cop’s ear was too much and glorified violence. In classic Tarantino fashion, he brushed them off and essentially told them to stop with the “moral quandary” (Nathan 40-41).
“The film got a lot of remarks because of the violence in it. And in a way I would kinda take it as a big compliment because I know the film isn’t that violent.” Tarantino said. “So why is that a compliment?” His interviewer, Charlie Rose asked in response. “Because I did it well… They thought it was far more violent than it was… When you do violence, you actually get penalized for doing it well. Hacks don’t get penalized for showing anything because it doesn’t mean anything. So in a way, they’re saying good filmmaking” (Rose, 1994).
Others however understood what Tarantino was trying to achieve in that scene; the music, the dancing, the psychotic Mr. Blonde – it was all a kind of “dance” within the scene. Tarantino wasn’t creating violence for the sake of violence, he was putting the viewer on edge by putting something in front of them that was so real and so jaw-dropping that it had them closely waiting for each moment to pass. Reservoir Dogs was very much the beginning of the Quentin Tarantino we know and love today – and although Reservoir Dogs had initially just broken even in finances, Tarantino would go on to direct nine more massively successful movies.
In 1994 Tarantino released Pulp Fiction to critical acclaim. The movie set the standards for a Quentin Tarantino film and put him on the radar as an up and coming director. Pulp Fiction featured the likes of John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, and Harvey Kietel. Tarantino stuck with some cast members from Reservoir Dogs and enjoyed Harvey Keitel, Steve Buschemi, and Tim Roth’s company as cameo characters in the film. Samuel L. Jackson, as mentioned earlier, was at the top of Tarantino’s list since he’d first demoed for a cast in Reservoir Dogs. Pulp Fiction offered a nice warm seat for Jackson to take as a co-star. The star of the film, Vincent Vega was originally aimed to be Michael Madsen’s reappearance in the film as a resurrected Vic Vega from Reservoir Dogs, but Madsen already had a gig lined up by the time Tarantino was casting so he turned to a waning star in John Travolta (Nathan 69).
After a couple of talks with Tarantino Travolta accepted the offer to star as Vincent Vega and Tarantino began revising his script to fit Travolta better. Tarantino had added in a dance scene with Uma Thurman to page homage to Travolta’s past movies and talents. Instead of Vic Vega making a reappearance, Travolta instead played Vincent Vega – Vic’s brother. At one point, Tarantino was even toying with the idea of a Vega Brothers movie which never came to fruition. Vincent Vega however was a kind of polarity to Vic Vega’s character, he was a calm and non-impulsive character (Nathan 69-70).
The heart of Pulp Fiction was ambitious, especially for being Tarantino’s second film. “The original concept of Pulp Fiction (1994) was to have three people write three stories; Tarantino would do the first, [Roger] Avary would do the second based on his story “Pandemonium Reigns”, and someone else would come in for the third. In the end, Tarantino took Avary’s material, transformed it into the “Gold Watch” segment, and wrote the third story himself. After forming the production company A Band Apart, Tarantino and Bender struck a deal with Miramax, founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, making Pulp Fiction the first film fully financed by the brothers and establishing a relationship that has lasted to this day” (Carr).
Tarantino’s style of novel-like storytelling really flourished in this film, his ability to omit information to the audience and reveal said information at the time he chose was brilliant in it of itself. The first part of the movie features a broad introduction to what appear as random characters, but as the film progresses their stories unfold and conglomerate into one large portrait. This narrative style mixed with fantastically colorful characters made Pulp Fiction the movie lover’s movie. You felt as though you could personally relate to each character presented on screen, from Jules and Vincent’s random conversations about metaphysics to the intense flashbacks that plague Butch – you always feel like you are watching real stories unfold about real people. Tarantino’s close attention to every detail instills a level of immersion rarely seen in movies.
One of Tarantino’s signature styles is specifically in his characters – they love to talk. The opening scene of Pulp Fiction features the two main characters, Vincent and Jules talking about European hamburgers. Tarantino elaborated, “John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson are playing two hitmen, Jules and Vincent who are on their way to blow away a couple of guys. The thing is they’re just going to work, so they’re like having a carpool conversation that you might have on your way to work. And the thing is Vincent’s just come back after three years in Amsterdam. So he’s just musing on the things he experienced in Europe for the first time” (Rose, 1994).
Tarantino’s dialogue in Pulp fiction leads to another strength (or criticism to those who are offended by it) which is his sense of humor. Tarantino has a broad sense of humor, from debating over the sexuality of a foot massage to accidentally blowing someone’s brains out, his movies go from zero to one-hundred quickly. As Ian Nathan puts it, “Matters of taste are examined by their very absence. From Marvin losing his brains to a careless trigger finger to a katana-sword wielding Butch, the knee-jerk percussion of violence is designed to make us laugh and squirm… Death is a punchline” (Nathan 72).
The release of Pulp Fiction became one of the most successful independent box office movies in history. In the opening weekend alone it made $9.3 million and was the first independent film to break $100 million in the US box office (Nathan 76). Pulp Fiction brought much critical success as well and won Tarantino numerous awards when it was released, most notably winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes in May of 1994 as well as the Oscar for best writing, the Golden Globe for best screenplay, and BAFTA for best screenplay (“Awards”). Pulp Fiction was such a massive success that Miramax dubbed itself, “the house that Quentin built” (Nathan 76).
After Pulp Fiction came two more films in Four Rooms (Tarantino only co-directed so we won’t get into detail) and Jackie Brown which hold up on their own, but aren’t on the same level as Pulp Fiction or Inglourious Basterds. Jackie Brown (1997) featured the likes of Pam Grier (Jackie Brown), Samuel L. Jackson (Ordell), Michael Keaton (Ray Nicolette), and Robert De Niro (Louis Gara). The film was yet another installment of Tarantino’s seeming obsession of crime films. The film takes similarities to Reservoir Dogs in the aspect that it was another heist like crime film where each character is hyper-sensitive to getting screwed over by the other (Ebert “Jackie Brown”).
Jackie Brown was actually a film adaptation based on Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch. Tarantino had admitted long before his creation of Jackie Brown that he drew great inspiration from Leonard’s works, so it was no surprise he’d be so eager to make a film adaption to one of his novels.
Although the film has been rated generally lower than Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, or Inglourious Basterds, people have come around to love this film, which in particular highlights Tarantino’s ability to cast the best characters for a role.
“If Tarantino’s strengths are dialogue and plotting, his gift is casting. Pam Grier, the goddess of 1970s tough-girl pictures, here finds just the right note for Jackie Brown; she’s tired and desperate. Robert Forster has the role of a career as the bail bondsman, matter of fact about his job and the law; he’s a plausible professional, not a plot stooge. Jackson, as Ordell, does a harder, colder version of his hit man in “Pulp Fiction,” and once again uses the N-word like an obsession or a mantra (that gets a little old). De Niro, still in a longtime convict’s prison trance, plays Louis as ingratiatingly stupid. Bridget Fonda’s performance is so good, it’s almost invisible; her character’s lassitude and contempt coexist with the need to be high all the time” (Ebert “Jackie Brown”).
Although Jackie Brown wasn’t as earth shattering as Pulp Fiction, it was still a nice in between film for him to gain experience and make money to fund his next ground-breaking movie which was released six years later.
Tarantino’s next major film came in the form of a duology – Kill Bill Volume I and II. Tarantino brought back Uma Thurman and Michael Madsen from his previous films to take part in the two volume series (Madsen was for the most part only in Volume II). As a child, Tarantino enjoyed the classic karate movies and wanted to make one of his own. That came in the form of Kill Bill – a revenge film where Thurman’s character “The Bride” hunts down Bill (played by David Carridine) and all of the people who tried to kill her.
Tarantino’s style of marvelous violence was the main feature of the film and although it was very corny and at times unbelievable, it brought forth an anime kind of action movie that felt unique. One of the most stand-out parts of the film was the animated backstory of O-Ren, which according to Roger Ebert was more of a potential insurance of behalf of Tarantino rather than a stylized choice, “The animated sequence, which gets us to Tokyo and supplies the backstory of O-Ren, is sneaky in the way it allows Tarantino to deal with material that might, in live action, seem too real for his stylized universe. It deals with a Mafia kingpin’s pedophilia. The scene works in animated long shot; in live action closeup, it would get the movie an NC-17” (Ebert “Kill Bill, Volume I”).
Although Kill Bill, Volume I was highly enjoyed by critics like Roger Ebert, Volume II was held at an even higher level. Volume II takes everything I does well and emphasizes it. The Bride continues to go through many trials and tribulations in which are segmented between various cutscenes that fill in the veil of mystery which is her backstory. One of the best parts of Volume II was the Bride learning Kung Fu from a master in an old palace. Like many films by Tarantino, the story unfolds in an unconventional way. Typically, you’d see the character develop their skills at the start of the film, but it isn’t until Volume II that you get to see the Beatrix (the bride’s name) really develop her martial arts under this old master.
Kill Bill Volumes I and II were instant hits. Kill Bill was a nice genre twist between old karate movies, Japanese anime, and classic American action movies – all with the outstanding writing and character development under Quentin Tarantino.
Although the movie was a huge success and highlights almost everything great about a Tarantino film, there were some issues that occurred during the making of this film. One of which involved actress Uma Thurman getting injured during a driving scene car crash. Unfortunately the situation seriously damaged the relationship between the two and Tarantino has been vocal about his disappointment in allowing the situation to occur in the first place. Other instances involved Thurman’s various encounters with Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein which reflected Tarantino’s close involvement with Weinstein and his company.
The next big movie Tarantino made was in 2009 and was the most successful box-office film Tarantino had made at the time ($120.5 million) (Quentin Tarantino, Rotten Tomatoes). The movie was called Inglourious Basterds.
Inglourious Basterds is a historical spin-off film. The movie takes place during World War II and revolves around a group of Jewish soldiers who fight a guerilla war against the Nazis. The film features Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine, Eli Roth as Sgt. Donny Donowitz, and Diane Kruger as Bridget von Hammersmark. The film also featured a short cameo where Mike Meyers appears as a British officer.
Although Inglourious Basterds has the likes of Pitt and Roth, Christoph Waltz (who plays SS officer Hans Landa) was the true star of the film. From the opening scene to the credits, Waltz puts the viewer on edge as the movie’s antagonist. Hans Landa’s cynical character couldn’t have been executed by anyone else. From his psychotic laugh at the movie theatre, to his edgy investigation in a house of Jewish refugees – Waltz truly puts the viewer on edge throughout the entire film and perfectly portrays a psychotic nazi.
“As ambivalent as the other characters in IB might seem, none emblematizes this as colorfully as Hans Landa. He is called the “Jew Hunter” and is therefore expected to belong to the “villains.” However, the situation and Landa’s motivations prove to be more complex. At first glance, the audience is compelled to infer from his utterances that he is another stereotypical, ideologically driven Nazi: “If one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with a beast, it would be that of the rat.” However, the viewers’ primal verdict has to be revoked to some extent when Landa states that he does not “consider the comparison an insult,” explaining his resentments “pseudo-rationally” (Ornella 230). After the hiding Jews are discovered and killed, he lets Shosanna get away – not out of pity, but to continue playing his games” (Beyvers 21).
Tarantino himself revealed in an interview how he felt about Hans Landa as a character, “When I finished that script, I knew that Colonel Landa was one of the greatest characters I have ever written and one of the greatest characters I will ever write” (Rose 2009).
Although Waltz stole the star seat, Pitt’s performance as Aldo Raine was impressive in its own respect. Aldo “The Apache” Raine is a country boy from Tennessee who has a particular passion for scalping Nazis and encouraging his good friend, Donny to hit a home runs on Nazi skulls.
Like any other Tarantino film, there’s a sick sense of humor that comes with Inglourious Basterds. From Aldo’s hilarious accent to Hans Landa’s strange obsession with toying with his victims before murdering them. The film is able to make the viewer laugh from the uncomfortable nature of the situations Tarantino plays out. Tarantino also loves to toy with the audience in this film, he displays only a select few scenes with direct violence, but as Tarantino stated earlier, he believes a lot a violence in a few scenes is how violence should be done. Tarantino doesn’t implement violence for the sake of violence, he does it because he wants the audience to feel a certain way, whether it be disgusted, sad, or terrified. No other movie implements violence quite like Inglorious Basterds.
“When Donowitz beats Rachtmann to death, the audience is also denied catharsis. In this suspenseful scene, “The Bear Jew” announces himself through the tapping of his bat two minutes before he emerges from a completely dark screen. Aside from the possible disappointment experienced from his normal, not at all golem-like looks, Rachtmann’s demise is not only morally dissatisfying for the audience (the inability to categorize him as yet another horribly evil Hollywood Nazi has already been mentioned), but also visually. As soon as the bat hits Rachtmann’s head, the camera zooms out, revealing the Basterds cheering at this violent act. The viewers are confronted with the parallels to their own expectations of and reactions to a violent film and are again forced to critically reflect on their own bloodlust” (Beyvers 22).
Another Tarantino esq feature in Inglorious Basterds is his self-inserted love of film into the movie. The climax revolves around Hitler’s attendance of a war propaganda film featuring the very war hero the film is based on – Fredrick Zoller. The scene is set perfectly, a beautiful French cinema run by a Jewish woman, Shoshanna. As she is introduced to the Nazis who will be attending the film she has a few conversations with the film’s star, Fredrick about the kind of movies they like.
“All of a sudden [Shoshanna and Fredrick] are talking, and I’m writing the script, again, I don’t know exactly what they are going to say there. I get them talking and they do it. And so all of a sudden, they start having a conversation about Max Linder versus Charlie Chaplin, versus Pabst versus Leni Riefenstahl, and when the whole scene is over and I put the pen down, I’m like, man, I go to do a World War II movie and it ends up being a love letter to cinema. I just cannot not, apparently. But you know, even the whole — I actually was really fascinated once I got up the idea of doing the whole Nazi propaganda film as a premiere, just the whole idea of dealing with German cinema under the Third Reich” (Rose 2009).
Tarantino has also mentioned before that he loves to create ambiguity within his films. From the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, Pretty Riki in Kill Bill, and Aldo’s rope burn – Tarnantino loves the idea of allowing the viewer to dictate the little details through their own interpretation. “I like the idea that you open up the briefcase in “Pulp Fiction” and I don’t tell you what is in there, but it is up to you to figure out what is in there, and now that’s your movie. And you’ll make that decision somewhere down the line. Now if I tell you at this table what it is, then you will throw that away, and I don’t want you to throw away. That’s your movie” (Rose 2009).
Like Tarantino’s previous movies, Inglourious Basterds released to critical acclaim and even won Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards “Best Original Screenplay” in 2010.
During a showing of Inglourious Basterds in Israel, Tarantino met his now wife, Daniella Pick.
After the release of Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino’s western itch had to be scratched, and it came in the form of two movies; Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight.
Django Unchained was what Tarantino coined a “Southern” instead of a “Western,” understandably because the film took place in the south during the times of American slavery. Django is a lot of things; it’s a western inspired film, it’s a commentary on slavery, it’s a revenge film and it’s a love film. Tarantino once again continues his legacy of carrying over actors from other films by casting Hans Landa’s actor, Christoph Waltz as the co-star – German bounty hunter, Dr. King Shultz. The protagonist, Django is played by Jamie Foxx and the antagonist, Calvin Candie is played by none other than Leonardo Dicaprio.
What makes Django Unchained standout from Tarantino’s other films is the change of pace towards a more linear narrative. There are only a few scenes with brief flashbacks. In comparison, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs have a plethora of jump cuts throughout the movie, telling the story in a non-chronological order. Django moves forward throughout the entire film, which is vital in order to develop both Django and his relationship with his partner, Dr. Shultz. You get to see Django go from an illiterate slave who’s never shot a gun in his life to a badass bounty hunter with some whit to him.
Tarantino’s drive for this movie was far different from anything he’d made before, he was driven by the need to display the true nature of what slavery really was. “I wanted to go into the bleakest time in American history. Truly the biggest sin in this country. We haven’t got past the sin. We can’t even deal with it” (Nathan 144).
Django Unchained really does nail the true brutality of slavery. From half-naked, freezing slaves walking barefoot in the winter wrapped in chains, to two slaves fighting to the death only for the winner to be rewarded with a bottle of beer – the film demonstrates that slavery was more than just history. It was one of the worst atrocities committed in human history.
Tarantino made sure to notify the audience that even his most graphic scenes were only the tip of the iceberg in slave history, “We all intellectually know the brutality and inhumanity of slavery… but after you do the research it’s no longer intellectual anymore, no longer just historical record – you feel it in your bones. It makes you angry, and want to do something… I’m here to tell you, that however bad things get in the movie, a lot worse shit actually happened” (Nathan 144).
Another interesting aspect of the film is the way Tarantino uses language throughout the characters. Dr. Shultz is a linguistic genius who is able to speak efficiently in many languages, even able to out-speak the French-fanatic, Calvin Canide. But the most fascinating use of linguistics is in Django’s dialogue.
“Django’s version of [African American Vernacular English(AAVE)] is distinctive and accurate for the time period and the region. He uses multiple negations (what linguists refer to as negative concord) for emphasis, such as the quadruple negative in his answer to Schultz’s query about the townspeople’s stares as the pair ride into town: “They ain’t never seen no n***er on no horse before.” He uses verbs with zero person marker, as when he describes Hildi to Schultz—”She speak a little German too”—and tells Bettina, “Yes. I’s free.” He asks questions without subject-auxiliary inversion as in, “What that is?” He uses sentences with zero copula, such as “I’m positive he dead,” and “She pretty. She talk good too.” (In the latter example Django explains why Hildi is a house slave and not a field slave; this is perhaps an interesting meta-commentary on the history of dialect discrimination—even during slavery, mastery of [English of the dominant culture (EDC)] was a ticket to advancement of a sort for Black people.) Each of these features was characteristic of rural southern [African American Vernacular English] in the nineteenth century and can still be found in many regional variants of [African American Vernacular English] today (Wolfram 128). And, significantly, in none of these scenes is Django represented as foolish, silly, or stupid” (Clouse 209) .
Another aspect of Django which was somewhat controversial was Tarantino’s use of the “n-word” in the film. As previously stated, he made the film to accurately portray the true nature of American slavery, and as always he wasn’t afraid to use colorful language to get the job done.
Django Unchained became Tarantino’s most financially successful film at $162.8 million in the box-office (Quentin Tarantino, Rotten Tomatoes). The film was also highly praised, winning four major “Best screenplay” awards.
The Hateful Eight on the other hand, was Tarantino’s true western movie mixed with an element of the classic game Clue. The story revolves around eight characters, all in suspicious places at a suspicious time. Well-renowned bounty hunter John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russel) is escorting a prized criminal named Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) alive to watch her be hung in a nearby town. A massive blizzard results in a pit-stop at a local inn to sit out the blizzard. On his way there, he runs into two people; alleged sheriff Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins) and former Union cavalry soldier Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson). Due to the nature of the bounty he’s escorting, John Ruth is incredibly paranoid about people trying to steal his claim – he’s certain that somebody is trying to free Daisy from his grasp.
The Hateful Eight is a relatively cheap movie due to the fact the majority of it takes place in a single cabin. The film runs around three hours long and contains pretty minimal action, rather relying heavily on Tarantino’s gifted ability to create interesting character interactions. Like many of Tarantino’s previous films, the narrative unfolds in an unorthodox way. Little details are omitted here and there and are explained when Tarantino wants the viewer to know them. For that reason, The Hateful Eight is a very suspenseful story and has many twists and turns along the way. The massive build-up results in a great action-packed ending and Samuel L. Jackson’s performance gives the film the extra horsepower needed to really keep people engaged.
Although The Hateful Eight didn’t set the world on fire, it was a solid and cleverly orchestrated movie. It appeals to a specific audience who enjoy dialogue and character development, rather than action-packed movies – which is a relatively small population. The Hateful Eight was overall a very solid film that just might not have the appeal to a broad audience since it requires three hours of engagement with little action in between.
A few years after the release of The Hateful Eight, Tarantino had married his girlfriend of nearly ten years, Daniella Pick. He held a small celebration with former colleagues like Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, and Uma Thurman in New York. Later, they held their ceremony in Los Angeles.
The latest (and possibly final) Tarantino film was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) which takes place in Hollywood during the 1960s. The film is similar in format to Django Unchained. The story is told strictly in chronological order and features multiple flashbacks and insights into what characters are referring to.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is once again a meta-narrative and love letter to film, specifically Spaghetti Westerns. The film takes a great nod to Sergio Leone and his many great spaghetti westerns. Going by the style of the various films and the timeframe of the movie, Tarantino is specifically referencing throughout his films Leone’s most famous movies like The Good the, bad and the Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars.
The film features Leonardo Dicaprio as Rick Dalton and Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth. Rick Dalton is a film-western actor whose career has faded since his glory days and is attempting to revive it by taking on various roles as antagonists in American westerns and star roles in spaghetti westerns. Although he is still a pretty well-known actor he feels his career fading, people don’t recognize him on the streets anymore and he can only get casted as a co-star villain being shot down by the up and coming young stars.
“A glib formula might describe Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood as combining the middle-ager last-chance gambit of Jackie Brown and the lurid revisionist urge to punch up history in Inglourious Basterds. But it’s something at once mature and madly, deeply, and now less collector-ishly in love with Hollywoodland and, even more, its far-flung margins—and here, in the most artificial of settings, Tarantino achieves something genuine and heartfelt” (Rapold).
Rick Dalton’s former career features some nods to Tarantino’s previous films like Inglorious Basterds. One of Rick’s most famous movies featured him using a flamethrower on some Nazis over a balcony (a nice nod to the ending of Inglourious Basterds which features a couple of the bastards gunning down Hitler over a balcony). Most of the movie features Rick in several roles as he struggles to revitalize his career, but it isn’t the only focus of the movie.
Rick’s stunt double, Cliff has a whole side-narrative of his own. He gets briefly involved with the Charles Manson cult which ends violently. Although the viewer may not think much of it when Cliff has his first interaction with them, it comes around to bite in the end – but ultimately is the event that saves Dalton’s career.
The film does a great job at over-emphasizing the 1960s by having hilarious scenes featuring drugs, alcohol, the Manson cult and a plethora of westerns. The tone of the movie is more on the comedic side with Rick Dalton’s struggle being the serious focus of the film.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood being Tarantino’s tenth film, means it’s likely that it is his last. Tarantino is very self-aware that an artist’s touch can eventually fade, and Tarantino doesn’t want to go down like so many do. Along with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood being his alleged final film, his wife recently gave birth to his first child, Leo in 2020. With a new family formed, it’s uncertain what Tarantino’s plans are for the near future, but it’s safe to assume the creative genius won’t be in retirement for good.
Filmography (“Quentin Tarantino” Rotten Tomatoes):
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Four Rooms (Segment “The Man from Hollywood”) (1995)
Jackie Brown (1997)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
Grindhouse (Segment “Death Proof”) (2007)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Django Unchained (2012)
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Awards (“Awards” IMDb):
Academy Awards “Best Original Screenplay” Pulp Fiction (1995)
Academy Awards “Best Original Screenplay” Django Unchained (2013)
Golden Globes “Best Screenplay – Motion Picture” Pulp Fiction (1995)
Golden Globes “Best Screenplay – Motion Picture” Django Unchained (2013)
Golden Globes “Best Screenplay – Motion Picture” Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2020)
BAFTA Awards “Best original screenplay” Django Unchained (2013)
BAFTA Awards “Best original screenplay” Pulp Fiction (1995)
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards “Best Original Screenplay” Inglourious Basterds (2010)
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards “Best Original Screenplay” Django Unchained (2013)
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards “Best Original Screenplay” Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2020)
Cannes Film Festival “Palme d’Or” Pulp Fiction (1995)
Works Cited
“Awards.” IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000233/awards
Bernard, Jami. Quentin Tarantino: The Man and His Movies, Harper Collins, 6 December 1995.
Beyvers, Sarah E. “”The Good, the Bad and the Strudel”: How Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009) Manipulates Its Audience with Violence.”” Film Matters, vo. 7 no. 3, winter 2016, pp. 17-23. https://resources.kirkwood.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f3h&AN=122176585&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Carr, Jeremy. “Tarantino, Quentin.” Sense of Cinema, December 2015. http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2015/great-directors/quentin-tarantino/
Clouse, Lindsey. “Django Unbleached: The Languages of Power and Authenticity in Mainstream Film.” Journal of Popular Film & Television, vol. 47 no. 4, October-December 2019, pp. 207-214. https://resources.kirkwood.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f3h&AN=139742314&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Ebert, Roger. “Jackie Brown.” Chicago Sun-Times, December 1997.https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jackie-brown-1997
Ebert, Roger. “Kill Bill, Volume I.” Chicago Sun-Times, October 2003. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/kill-bill-volume-1-2003
Nathan, Ian. Quentin Tarantino: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work, White Lion Publishing, 1 October 2019.
“Quentin Tarantino” Rotten Tomatoes, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/quentin_tarantino. Accessed 20 February 2021.
Rapold, Nicolas. “Lonesome Trails.” Film Comment, vo. 55 no. 4, July/August 2019, pp. 26-29. https://resources.kirkwood.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=137174412&site=ehost-live&scope=site
“Quentin Tarantino Reveals How The Golden Girls Helped Get Reservoir Dogs Made.” The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jan 2020. https://youtu.be/UqR7iDUU1lk
Rose, Charlie. “Quentin Tarantino.” Charlie Rose, October 1994. https://charlierose.com/videos/368Rose, Charlie. “Quentin Tarantino.” Charlie Rose, August 2009. https://charlierose.com/videos/26959
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