Tarantino

I read Bob's post on Tarantino and thought I'd write about him too seeing as he's also one of my favourite directors. The first Tarantino movie I saw was Pulp Fiction. When it ended I thought I'd never see something so brilliant again for the rest of my life. Never before had I seen a movie so exciting, so full of surprises and so utterly unconventional. It certainly piqued my initial interest in film.

I can't really remember in which order I watched Tarantino's other films so I'll just guess.

Inglourious Basterds was the only one of his films I saw in a theatre. To be honest, I didn't like it that much when I watched it. The dialogue didn't seem as brilliant as the dialogue in Pulp Fiction and I couldn't help but compare the two movies and feel that Basterds was a letdown. I also didn't understand why people thought the Christophe Waltz character was so amazing. Anyway, this can likely be explained by the fact I saw this movie over two years ago. My tastes have changes a lot since then so I intend to see this movie again soon.

I think the next one I saw was Jackie Brown, which is probably lesser-known among his films. I didn't get this one either. People say that this was his 'mature film' where he developed strong, full-bodied characters. But I just found it really boring. I guess that I could blame this again on how I was two years younger when I saw this and couldn't understand a lot of stuff I can understand now. But my feeling is that I wouldn't like this movie that much even if I saw it again now.

Sometime after I saw Reservoir Dogs, which I more or less enjoyed. The story on this one is a bit harder to grapple on first viewing because the narrative keeps switching to different characters and to flashbacks. I'm really bad at watching gangster or crime films, especially when the plot gets really complicated and I can't tell what's happening and why. I really think though, that when this happens it's the filmmaker's fault that they let their movie get tied down in exposition.

The last set of Tarantino movies I saw was the Kill Bill series, which I loved. I think these are the first movies where Tarantino got to employ lots of great cinematography and create great images. Certainly, they are the most visual of all his films. The first film is a bit of an all-out action film that pays homage to a lot of old Asian movies full of martial arts and stuff. You're presented with this mysterious 'Bride' who is out to seek revenge on 'Bill' and his team of assassins. Not much explanation is given to anything, really. The second movie is a lot more calm and develops the story a lot. I can't entirely understand why Tarantino directed the movies to be so different but they still work together to form a satisfying whole.

So these have been my experiences watching Quentin Tarantino films. As of now I've seen all his films except for 'Deathproof' which I've been avoiding because of the bad reviews. I always like to advocate forming your own opinion instead of checking RT or something but I guess sometimes you just can't be bothered.

If there's anything you take from reading this, let it be to watch Pulp Fiction if you haven't already done so. It really is even better than I made it sound.