Monday, October 13, 2014

Formal Film Study: Quentin Tarantino

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Quentin Tarantino has a very interesting style of movie directing.  I viewed 3 films from different time periods in his career, and they all have very similar styles.  The movies I watched were Pulp Fiction from the early stages of his career, Kill Bill vol. 1 in the middle of his career, and Inglorious Basterds from his more recent films. I noticed a lot of trends in the way he directs his films. These trends being, he almost always separates his movies into chapters, he usually starts each movie with violence and explains why this is happening later, and mid-career he decided to start using foreign language.

In Pulp Fiction he started the movie with 2 of the characters executing a man for their boss, then he ended that chapter, and created different chapters for the later developments in the story. Pulp Fiction had excellent actors who played their roles perfectly. In addition to that, this movie had excellent editing , which is another one of the many talents Quentin Tarantino has to offer Hollywood.


In Kill Bill, he started the movie with the main character showing up at someone’s house and having her kill the resident, and then ended the chapter. Later, he explained why the main character was knocking on people’s doors and murdering them. Tarantino started using foreign languages in this film. Instead of having characters only speaking English, he had some of his characters speaking Japanese as well. Since this movie had a high frequency of action, the shots used were very short, due to the camera having to change angles every time a character does a ninja flip or falls off a balcony.


In Inglorious Basterds, the movie began with the execution of Jews hiding in the floorboards of a home in France. The chapter then ended, and later in the movie he connected how this event was significant to the plot of the story. Foreign language was a huge theme in this movie. It had characters that spoke French, German, and English. This film had a lot of dialogue leading up to the scenes with the most action. It would really do an excellent job setting the scene, and letting the viewer get a better understanding of the characters before any significant action would occur.



Another popular theme in Tarantino’s movies is revenge fantasies. Tarantino makes films about some of societal’s most infamous events taking place against races or other groups, and he allows these people to be able to see ultimate revenge against their perpetrators. In the movie Kill Bill vol. 1, he allowed the main character to get revenge against the people who killed her unborn child, and tried to kill her. In his film, Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino allowed Jewish people to see revenge against the Nazi’s, by having a group of Jews invade Nazi Germany, and beat, mark, and kill Nazis.

Tarantino has had a great effect on Hollywood with his films. His films use special effects to the best of their abilities with all the violence that takes place in the films. But, knowing how to use special effects is a great talent and it is what separates directors like Tarantino from directors like Michael Bay.

Tarantino has won many awards throughout his long career. He has won 2 Academy Awards, 2 Golden Globes, 2 BAFTA awards, a Palme d’OR, and he has been nominated for an Emmy, and a Grammy. Quentin Tarantino has accrued 608 million throughout his career at the box office, and averages about 70 million per film.





1 comment:

  1. This is a real good start, but there's so much more to say about Tarantino's influence and style. Good choice of films, but include some more details and specifics from the movies that portray this. Showcase the editing; what about his treatment of violence? What criticisms do people have of Tarantino? Keep it going.

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